Swim England Winter National 2021 Report
Swim England Winter Nationals Report 2021
A record number of 12 swimmers qualified for the Swim England Winter Nationals, but with the Head Coach, and two swimmers out of the competition with COVID related issues. It was down to coach Phil to step in with the support of seasoned Team Managers Tracy and Steve.
Furthermore, the coach and team managers step counters were going to be in overdrive as a couple of days before the racing was split across two pools, with Females events in Pool B and Male events in Pool A with warms ups scattered throughout each day.
Most swimmers arrived on Thursday evening, completed a Self-Check, mobility session and then headed into the pool for a quick training session. Everyone checked in to their hotels and headed to Kommune in Sheffield for a carb-rich meal ready for racing the next day.
The atmosphere at the pool was manic and buzzing as people rejoiced in the first winter nationals for two years.
Friday Day 1
First, up racing was Charlie and Robbie in the 200m Back. It was Charlie’s first nationals and he set out with intent, it was a strong and well-executed race. A few heats later Robbie, competing as one of the youngest in his first senior category race, carried out the race plan well, touching on PB pace
200m Back: Charlie was 58th in the Juniors, Robbie 25th in the Senior Category
The first female to start racing was Catherine in 50m Backstroke, racing in her first Senior category. The start and underwater section placed her in the lead at halfway, but with a turn a little far out from the wall, not much purchase was gained with the push, however, quick recovery and a dart down the second length enabled Catherine to touch just outside her personal best.
50m Back: Catherine 58th overall
Tilly M was up next in the 200m Butterfly and working on a lower stroke count, Tilly delivered her race well to earn a season-best time. Staying in the female pool, Ella and Catherine were up in the 100m Freestyle. Ella raced well, stick to her plan and earned a time on her season-best, with Catherine breaking 58 seconds for the first time, earning a new PB.
200m Fly: Tilly 54th Junior
100m Free: Ella 163rd Senior, Catherine 58th Senior
It was then time for Mighty Max’s first event at Nationals in the 100m IM, where he held good race skills throughout, only getting caught a little close to the wall on the crossover turn. The time was smack bang on his entry time.
100m IM: Max: 62nd Junior
Day 1 Finals
For the finals session, Poole Alumni and Loughborough University athlete Emily Clarke was up in a close fought 800m, earning a personal best Emily finished 4th. Jacob led from start to finish in the 100m Fly and touched on 50.20 to record the third-fastest time by any brit, earning a sizeable personal best.
Saturday Day 2
After a long day on the poolside, and a team meal to round off Day 1. The athletes woke up early, walked around Sheffield, before heading to the pool.
The first event would see three Poole Sc girls head down for the 50m Freestyle. Ella was up first and carried out her plan well to finish in a season-best, Sheila was up a couple of heats later and finished slightly disappointed with not being able to get her stroke speed to where she would have liked, finishing just shy of her personal best. Catherine carried out a strong race plan, earning a personal best:
50m Free: Catherine 38th, Sheila 126th, Ella 131st all Senior
Amy G was up in her first Nationals, and although recovering from a cold, still stood up and went out with gusto, for the first 100m, then the effects of the previous week kicked in and Amy came off her pace, to touch outside her personal best. But, she was glad she had tried and Amy can take solace in how good her stroke was at the start of the race.
200m Back: Amy 125th, Senior
The first swimmer in the male pool was Robbie in the 200m IM, touching in third after the fly leg, Robbie came through the field on the Backstroke, held his place on the Breast-stroke and took the heat win and a personal best by 4 seconds.
200m IM: Robbie 34th, Senior
In the female pool, Ella and Catherine were quickly back in action in the 100m fly and both swam well. Ella with improved underwater, earned a season-best, by nearly a second, whilst Catherine swam well and went under her personal best set in October too. Indeed the time finished her in the top rankings of senior swimmers.
100m Fly: Catherine 13th overall, Ella 131st overall
In the male pool, the next event was the 50m Backstroke where Charlie and Robbie both lowered their personal bests. Robbie narrowly missed the Senior final by one spot. Charlie then had the 100m Free where he swam a very strong race touching on his personal best. Following the 100m Back, Jacob Peters in the 200m Fly, lead his heat from start to finish to qualify first for the final in a new personal best.
50m Back: Charlie 49th Junior, Robbie 11th Senior
100m Free Charlie 57th Junior
200m Fly: Jacob 1st Senior
The final event left for the heat session would see Catherine in the 100m IM, where she touched just shy of her personal best and again earned a top 20 spot finishing 16th.
100m IM: Catherine 16th Senior
Day 2 Finals
Jacob Peters mirrored his performance from the evening before, by leading out from start to finish in the 200m Butterfly. His finishing time taking the Gold was the fifth-fastest time by a Brit ever. Emily Clarke took 10th in the 400m Free.
Day 3 Heats
Up first was Aimie Q, in the 400IM, in her first senior category race. Hitting all her target paces, keeping cool; on the fly, Aimie worked herself through the field on the back and breast and finished 4th in her heat, touching the wall in a season-best by 2 seconds. Following Aimie, were Ella and Catherine in the 50m Fly. Ella raced well to touch on season-best, with Catherine powering to a PB, with a time quick enough to earn the 8th position spot for the Senior Final, her first Senior Final!
400m IM: Aimie 74th Senior
50m Fly: Ella 106th , Catherine 8th Senior
In the 50m Fly men’s version Max showed brilliant underwaters and pace with the stroke, repeated by Alex who raced with the intensity required at nationals, Robbie showed a great stroke rate and Jacob led from start to finish. All of the lads earned personal best times.
50m FLy: Max 43rd and Alex 40th Junior/ Robbie 32nd and Jacob 1st Senior
Charlie and Robbie would finish the heats for Poole Swimming Club with the 100m Back, Charlie worked his underwater section and stroke speed and sneaked in another PB. Robbie gave the 100m his all and was quick enough to qualify for his first senior final in 9th position, lowering the club record to below 54 seconds.
Day 3 Finals
With excitement for finishing the meet in style Catherine was up in the 50m Fly, Jacob 50m Fly and Robbie 100m Backstroke.
Catherine was up first and put everything into the race, with underwater kicks that placed her in the top positions after the start, Catherine then hit a high stroke rate, but was slipping water at the catch from trying so hard, breath-holding brilliantly, the overall the time was similar to the heat and 9th position earned. Jacob powered away with unmatchable underwater fly kicks turned first and made use of 15m underwater on the second length to make it three in a row taking the 50m Fly, earning the third-fastest time by a Brit.
Robbie was up next for the senior final in 100m Back. He started well, his split was faster at the 25m points and he carried speed throughout the race, slightly tightening up on the last 15m to touch where he had qualified in 9th position, just outside the heat time. But pleased with his performance.
All from Poole Swimming Club congratulate the swimmers on their achievements and performances and say a huge well done to coach Phil, its not easy being thrown in at the deep end (if you excuse the pun) for nationals, let alone nationals spread across two pools with eight warms ups a day. The calm and unphased character of Phil mixed with his experience of working with the swimmers over the past three years put the swimmers at ease and they performed very well. A big thank you too to Team Managers Steve and Tracy for managing the swimmers well during a manic meet.
