A successful September at Hailsham Swimming Club
Welcome to the first of our new series of newsletters highlighting all the great achievements of Hailsham Swimming Club and its members throughout the month. With the summer holidays ending and competition season beginning again, Hailsham’s swimmers have looked to hit the ground running in September. It’s been a busy but successful month, and we now look forward to October and the commencement of the new Arena League season on October 14th.
A look back at September competitions
September 9th – Club Championships Session 5
The month kicked off with the fifth session of our Club Championships. Hailsham swimmers of all ages had the chance to swim the 400m IM, 50m breaststroke, 100m freestyle, and 50m butterfly events. The afternoon saw some great swimming and plenty of personal best and county qualifying times achieved!
September 10th – Sussex Masters County Championships
No rest for our Masters Swimmers who competed at Club Championships! Sunday 10th saw our Masters team travel to Pavilions in the Park, Horsham, to compete in the Sussex Masters County Championships. An incredible effort from our Masters swimmers saw Team Hailsham bring home 8 gold, 11 silver, and 10 bronze medals across the day.
Fun fact - this is one of the very few open meets that includes 25m swims alongside the standard 50m, 100m, 200m, and 400m events. James Grimmond registered a time of 12.00 seconds for the 25m freestyle! Can any of our swimmers beat that?
September 16th – Ken Deeley Open Meet
Hailsham enjoyed a super Saturday at the Ken Deeley Open Meet at the Prince Regent Swimming Complex in Brighton. A stack of medals, county qualifying times and plenty of personal bests were achieved on the day. Hailsham swimmers continue to demonstrate great improvement – keep up the hard work!
September 30th – Eastbourne Open
The month wrapped up with a great day of swimming for Team Hailsham at the Eastbourne Open at the Sovereign Centre, Eastbourne, with more medals and qualifying times achieved, and a great time had by all.
Personal achievements
Olivia Dolan
Congratulations to Olivia Dolan who has been selected to swim for Sussex County at the National Inter County Championships at Sheffield on Sunday 8th October – an incredible achievement! Olivia joins a long list of other Hailsham swimmers who have represented Sussex at this competition, including Tom Barden, Milly Widdop, Sam Avery, James Grimmond, Victoria Hines, Macey Ring, Harriet Farringdon, Finley Naylor, Tom Exall, Maisie Thornton, Craig Steenhoff, Lindsay Waller, Marcus Tyson, Megan Keen, and Dan Flint. Everyone at Hailsham Swimming Club wishes Olivia the best of luck for her backstroke swims at the Inter County Championships!
Tom Barden
On September 6th Tom Barden flew out to Australia to pursue his swimming career in the Sunshine Coast. We are all excited to follow Tom’s progress and are look forward to seeing him again when he returns to the UK. Enjoy the endless sunshine and have a blast!
Lauren Fenn and Isabella Dulieu
This month saw two of our Youth Squad swimmers, Lauren and Isabella, head off to university. Lauren will be studying International Business at the University of Kent, Canterbury, and Isabella will be studying Business Management at the University of Surrey, Guildford. We wish Lauren and Isabella all the best at university - enjoy the experience, study hard, and we look forward to seeing you both again in the holidays!
