PSC SHINES BRIGHT AT THE SOUTH WEST AGE GROUP CHAMPS

20^th - 21^st April: Bristol

As the sun shone on the first day of the 2024 Swim West Summer Championships our team of young qualifiers made their way up to Hengrove Leisure Centre in Bristol for the start of a busy weekend of racing. Preparations for the first weekend had all gone well and our swimmers were primed and ready to go.

The weekend resulted in and impressive 2 gold medals, 6 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. Gold medal-winning swims came from Daria in the girls 13 years 50m Breaststroke where she led the field from the start to swim a new personal best time. In the boys events, Leo C impressed with his win in the 13 years 400m Individual Medley with an exceptional swim.

Our girls showed strength in depth in the 200m Individual Medley events. Lilly took 2^nd place in the 11/12 years 200 Individual Medley to win her first silver medal of the championships. In the 13 years 200m Individual Medley Poppy and Daria battled it out in a nail biting final as they endeavoured to get the upper hand. Poppy just got the touch on Daria as she finished 2^nd taking the silver medal and Daria finished in 3^rd place to take the bronze medal from an outside lane. Leo produced two further medal winning swims placing 2^nd in both the 13 years 100m and 200m Breaststroke events in exceptionally fast finals. Lilly laid claim to her second medal on Saturday afternoon in the 11/12 years 50m Breaststroke taking the bronze medal with a strong and determined swim.

In the boys 100m Backstroke finals Ollie C paced his race well to finish 3^rd and win bronze in the 11/12 years age category. In the girls 100m Backstroke events our girls performed tremendously well with both Polina (11/12 years) and Daria (13 years) winning silver medals.

The coaches were particularly impressed with the number of finalists we had during the first weekend. Notable final placings came from Jack P who fought off strong opposition to step up to 4^th place in the 14 years age band with a well-paced and resolute swim.  Polina who finished 6^th in the 200m Butterfly; Millie in the girls 13 years 50m Breaststroke (placing 8^th) and Carmen (placing 7^th) in the girls 13 years 50m Freestyle.

Jack F swam well in the boys 11/12 years 50m Butterfly as he narrowly missed out on a medal finishing in 4^th place. The 13-year-old boys’ race was just as exciting with Henry just missing out on a medal as he finished 5^th. Henry also placed 5^th in the 13 years 100m Freestyle final and Alex came 8^th in the 14 years 100m Breaststroke.

It was particularly pleasing to see so many swimmers swimming faster and “stepping up” from heat to final as they thought about the finer points of racing. Swimmers who “stepped up” included: Lilly, Polina, Millie, Daria, Ollie, Jack F, Jack P, Leo, and Henry. It was also pleasing to see the team camaraderie on the poolside where swimmers stayed behind to cheer on their teammates, think through their races, speak with their coaches and gain feedback on their individual swims. This is such an important part of the learning process that we want to instil in our swimmers at a young age.

27^th & 28^th April: Millfield

The venue for the second weekend of the Regional Summer Championships was Millfield School. Having done so well in Bristol our focus was on maintaining the momentum we had set in motion the weekend before. Spurred on by our success the team were up and ready for another weekend of racing. There was so much to look forward to this weekend and we really did finish on a high with so many medals, finalists, and personal best swims.

The weather was bright and breezy and there was lots more to celebrate so, read on…...

Our first gold medal-winning swim came from Jack F on Saturday afternoon in the boys 11/12 years 200m Butterfly. This was a courageous swim from Jack in a tough event as he improved his heat time by over 3 seconds. Jack went on to take his second gold medal in the 11/12 years 100m Butterfly event on Sunday afternoon touching in another personal best time. Our other gold medallist of the weekend was Poppy who won the girls 13 years 200m Freestyle event. Poppy paced her race extremely well and held her stroke rate in the process which was awesome to see. 

Lilly was on amazing form once again as she won two more silver medals in the girls 11/12 years 100m and 200m Breaststroke events. Lilly battled hard with her fellow competitor from Mount Kelly and just missed out on the touch in both races with two excellent swims. Not to be outdone, our boys also gained silver medals. The first came from Leo in the boys 13 years 200m Individual medley. Leo’s time in the final was over 2 seconds quicker than his heat time. Our other silver medallist was Ollie C in the 11/12 years 200m Backstroke. Ollie went out exceptionally fast in the first part of the race but held on well to finish in 2^nd place.

Our only bronze medallist on Saturday was Polina who came 3^rd in the 11/12 years 100m Backstroke.

However, a stream of bronze medal-winning performances followed on Sunday afternoon. Daria started the process off as she came 3^rd in the girls 13 years 200m Breaststroke with a positive swim. Having qualified in 6^th place for the final Daria swam over 4 seconds faster in her final. Daria’s swim must have inspired her teammate Poppy who took the bronze in the 13 years 100m Freestyle with another long course personal best time. Polina showed that she could match the older girls as she too came 3^rd in the 11/12 years category 100m Freestyle. The final medal of the afternoon in the final’s session impressively went to Henry in the boys 13 years 100m Butterfly event. Henry’s time of 1’09.97 saw him dip under the 70 second mark for the first time.

Other noteworthy final swims at Millfield came from:

Macie: 100m Backstroke (4^th place); Poppy: 50m Butterfly (5^th place); Caidee: 200m Breaststroke (8^th place); Harrison: 200m Butterfly (8^th place); Jack P: 50m Breaststroke (8^th place); Oli: 100m Butterfly (8^th place) & 50m Butterfly (5^th place); Daria: 100m Backstroke (5^th place).

In the distance events Poppy was our only medal winner as she finished off a rewarding weekend coming 3^rd and taking the bronze medal in the girls 13 years 800m Freestyle. Further good swims came from distance dynamos Arron, Ollie D, Nathan, Polina and Daria in the last session of the weekend. Understanding how to pace an 800m event isn’t always easy but Poppy, Arron, Ollie and Polina paced their races particularly well.

So, that was it. We’d seen another fantastic weekend of racing and there were so many positives to take away from both weekends.

I have mentioned several swimmers in this report, but I want to highlight that swimming and racing isn’t just about hitting personal best times, making finals, and winning medals. More importantly, it’s about enjoying the journey, learning from our mistakes, improving our skills, and being a team player. In recent months I have had the opportunity to talk to some highly qualified people and the clear message I would like to offer in this report is that what matters most is the importance of developing a sense of purpose and meaning beyond simply coming first or hitting short-term targets. To do that we have to focus on education, learning, progress, and personal growth rather than focussing on outcomes and extrinsic rewards.

In closing, there is much to look forward to and we wish all our youth swimmers well as they head to Plymouth for a weekend of racing over the May Bank Holiday weekend. A final thank you must go to our poolside team: Coach Chris; Coach Jacob and Team Managers Dave, Tracey, Sam, Nicky, Vanessa, Michala. A HUGE thank you too to our amazing volunteer co-ordinators Michala and Tammy, and all the volunteers and officials who give up their time and offer their support. Team co-operation is invaluable to us as we strive to get better and bring these young swimmers on in this awesome sport.

Shine bright team PSC- Well done SWIMMERS, COACHES, VOLUNTEERS AND PARENTS TOO

Jan Hutchings

Senior Coach

Poole Swimming Club

(on behalf of the coaches)