Winsford Swimming Club

On Sunday 12th September Winsford Swim Team were competing in session 1 of Club Championships 2021. Unfortunately due to the Covid Virus the event was cancelled last year, but we were back for the 2021-2022 season and boy it was good.

The club championships is the event of the year where the whole club comes together to compete over all distances, to see who can be crowned champion of Winsford Swim Team for all the different ages. Even though we are still only 12 days into the new season and fitness levels are still in the build up phase, the results for session 1 were fantastic, with lots of positives taken away from the early evening racing.

In session 1 we were competing over the 100 Butterfly and then the 1500 Free, which is the longest distance in pool swimming. Both events were mixed, so girls and boys all competing in the same heats, all our swimmers were looking to put down early season markers.

The first event was the 100 Butterfly of which we had 6 heats and 32 competitors. Winsford Swim Team in years gone by have had huge success in this stroke, with multiple British and English finalists and medalists. The racing this evening was fierce and very competitive with all swimmers ready to attack. The results were nothing short of superb with PBs coming thick and fast, and some very exciting racing had by all.

The second event was the 1500 Free, of which we had 5 heats and 29 swimmers competing. Now those numbers in itself are fantastic, to have nearly 30 swimmers competing in the 1500 free is incredible. It just shows again that our swimmers are keen to challenge themselves over the distance events, and take on the swim. We have always had a large crop of swimmers who like their distance swimming and this pattern is not going to change with Winsford Swim Team massively involved in the 800 and 1500 Free at all meets we take part in. I have said it in the past, but all our swimmers who have gone onto real long term success have been regular racers over the 400, 800, 1500 free, plus the 200 and 400 IM, from a young age, it is these events which make us well rounded swimmers into the future.

Onto the action for today the results in the 1500 free were amazing, especially considering we have not raced too often in the 1500 Free over the past 18 months due to the lockdowns restricting competition. On top of this we have only been back training for 2 weeks, so fitness levels are not there yet. In training we have been working hard on pacing, and how to race the 1500 free and this preparation has shown in our swimmers performances, with very nature and controlled racing. We had swimmers right across the ages competing which was very pleasing to see, making the heats very exciting to watch. There was so many superb races, with everyone going at it, length after length. It was very pleasing to see everyone getting stuck in, and wonderful to see everyone on poolside and on the balcony cheering on all our swimmers right o the end.

Swimmer of the day, yes you guessed it, swimmer of the day was EVERYONE! All our swimmers were swimmer of the day. However I would like to make a special mention to Ethan Wright for whom this was his last races for us before he goes onto University. Ethan has been an outstanding servant to our club and it was lovely to see him swimming today. It is great to see many of our swimmers going onto swim at University, this sport is the best, so my advice is to keep swimming, and always remember once a Winsford swimmer always a Winsford swimmer, so all swimmers are welcome back anytime.

Well done to all who participated in the first session of the Winsford Swim Team Club Championships 2021, some fantastic results and racing. It was very pleasing to see everyone having the will to win and do their absolute best, the mentality for the racing was first class. It was also lovely to have spectators back, this undoubtedly raised the atmosphere considerably, helping our swimmers to race even faster.

Also a massive thank you to everyone who gave up their free time to help us run such a fantastic club champs, it is great to have a huge army of volunteers who want to help us move our club forwards, your help is really appreciated.

We now look forward to session 2 & 3 which take place in 2 weeks time, I am sure all our swimmers will be attending as many swim sessions as possible, so we can all swim very fast and target Cheshire County Qualification.

As they say, "the more you practice the luckier you get."

See you at the pool

Dan.