Derby Excel Swimming Club – National Masters Report by Jamie Ellis-Brown
Derby Excel Swimming Club – National Masters Report by Jamie Ellis-Brown
Event: Swim England National Masters 2025
Date: 24/10/2025 – 26/10/2025
Location: Ponds Forge, Sheffield
Overview:
Number of Swimmers: 35
Total Events Entered: 93
Medal Count: 7
Summary:
In late October, Masters swimmers from Derby Excel headed up to Sheffield to compete in the Swim England National Championships. For all, this has been a culmination of hard work in and out of the pool as our Masters swimmers juggle working, studies and family life. For some, seasoned veterans, another chance to race on the national stage against the best in the country and for others the meet was a chance to race on this stage for the very first time. Overall, the club finished 20th in the standings.
Friday
The meet began with the 1500m freestyle, where Val (2nd) and Georgia (3rd) both took medals. This was a particularly big milestone for Val, having spent much of the last 12 months recovering from a shoulder injury. It was great to have her back racing with the squad!
The afternoon continued with some excellent relay swims and strong performances from in the 200 breaststroke, PBs in the 50 fly and a pair of 5th places in the Men’s and Women’s 4 x 100m Medley Teams. The evening session saw the club finish 4th and 5th in the Mixed 4 x 200m freestyle, before some excellent progress in process and times for the 100m freestyle swimmers.
Saturday
Our biggest day in terms of number of swimmers, the relay and individual events came thick and fast on Saturday. What was particularly impressive from swimmers was their ‘meet process’ and the progress that has been made in skills and technique. Swimmers were noticeably improved in their starts, and the biggest improvement has been in the turns and underwater work, which have been a big focus heading into this meet. Especially during short-course season, these made all the difference in swimmers chasing lifetime bests and faster splits!
We had swimmers in almost every event during the day, a big increase from previous years, highlighted by a 3rd place in the Male 4x200m freestyle (Sam H, Sam W, Mike and Amr) and numerous top 15 individual swims. For these events, many of the elite swimmers from around the country are also in attendance, which really highlights the standard of swimmers across the board.
Sunday
The final day of a long weekend began with a bang, as the Mixed 4 x 100m Medley team (Sam, Amr, Aaliyah and Evie) took bronze to start the day. This continued with a Bronze for Rory in the 50 freestyle (swimming for Portsmouth) and a silver for the Women’s 4 x 50m freestyle team of Helen, Claire, Julie and Val.
In the afternoon session things started where they began, as Val took a silver in the 800m freestyle, meaning a total of 3 medals for her and 7 medals for the club over the weekend!
Areas for Development
What is especially exciting for the club is the hunger and desire of the masters squad to continue to improve. Following season’s and even lifetime best swims, athletes would come back from their event, relay their process before dissecting and analysing aspects to continue to work on in the pool. This has given the coaching team important information to take into the next training cycle with a focus bespoke to each swimmer. Swimmers have been warned – watch out for the kick sets over the next cycle!
Upcoming Competitions
Swimmers came straight off this into the Masters Inter-counties competition (9th November) held at Moorways. Derby Excel swimmers helped the county to a strong finish, and great team spirit!
Heading into Christmas, Masters swimmers head to the Etwall Masters meet (with top club firmly in our sights) and the Midland Masters meet (our first long course meet of the year) in December. With new members added and some old faces returning, the squad has gone from strength to strength in the past year and is set up for some really exciting things to come in 2026!
