Winsford Swimming Club

English Nationals Report Days 1-3

No sitting at the back or off to the sides for us. Winsford claimed the prime seats in the middle of the pool and everyone else had to wear orange protective sunglasses!

12yo + 13yo and 14yo + 15yo were grouped into combined age groups, putting the younger swimmers in the age bands at a big disadvantage for making finals. 16yo and 17yo had their own finals with the final category being 18+yo.

It was a great atmosphere at the event and plenty of noise was generated, including some banging tunes being played throughout.

Aquatics GB and Swim England had decided to swim all the National events consecutively, so several swimmers had already competed in the British Nationals the week before, and some in the National Open Water Finals on the Saturday two days before the events started. There were certainly some Coaches feeling it too (but not ours!)

Day 1

Memorable moments/takeaways:

Luke for considering swimming without goggles. A last minute change of mind and a dash and grab for a spare set wasn't ideal preparation but unfazed Luke set a new PB and moved up from 16th to finish 12th. The split information highlighted areas to work on and after that great performance we look forward to next year in the same age group.

Hannah was up next in the 200FR and had been seeded in an end lane, she took it out hard and was first to 50m, hanging on despite the pain to set a new PB of 2:14.39 moving up from 22nd to finish 13th in the 14yo. This impressive swimmer goes from strength to strength and will be competing in the same age band next year. England has been put on notice!

Sophie dropped 2 seconds from her qualifying time and was within 2 seconds of a lifetime PB. She gave it everything she had, swimming far in front of the rest of her heat. Exactly how much she had given became clear in the last 25m as her graceful Freestyle started to incorporate the Funky Chicken Dance.  All too often swimmers finish with more to give, pushing that hard and finding the upper limit takes guts. Especially in a 400IM. Very proud of you Sophie! A big move up in the rankings from 26th to 20th in a large age bracket.

Hen had a chance of making finals but drew an end lane. An adjustment to race strategy proved wise as the adjacent swimmer set out at a blistering pace (qualifying for finals as the fastest 18+yo). Unperturbed, Hen swam within 2 secs of her PB and secured 8th spot in the final.

Hen raced her final in nearly an identical time to her heat finishing 8th, though the final time hid that there was a pure grit fight back through the remaining 300m after seeing her fly split on the screen and realising it was 2 seconds slower than planned. Well done Hen!

Great to see happy swimmers after their races, but special mention here goes to Hen who was so enthused with the experience, and was so happily chatting with anything that moved, that we only just made it out of the building before all the lights went off!

Day 2

Memorable moments/takeaways:

A big PB by Luke in the 200FL, moving up the rankings from 22nd to 10th!  Luke's technique on the first 50 was jaw-droppingly good. A great press and rebound with each stroke.  If Luke continues to develop that 200FL technique to hold it through the distance he'll be a medal contender next year!

Unfortunately this wasn't the swim Lois wanted, especially after dominating the 200BR at Regionals, but we’re sure she will be back stronger.

Emily, back in training fairly recently after an exam break, had an impressive swim within 0.4s of her PB but heartbreakingly missed the final by one place and 0.19s. Finished an impressive 11th in England was a great showing. We're sure she'll be back next year stronger and faster than ever!

Gus had dropped his 1500 FR time by 75s over the last year and another PB was set here. Not quite as much as Gus wanted coming within less than a second of breaking the 18:00 barrier.  How about breaking the 17:00 barrier next year Gus?

Kate only started training for the FL races 5 days earlier due to higher priority stroke commitments at the British Nationals. Kate was ranked fastest entering the 50FL but a future team mate at Repton (and a specialist FL swimmer) had other ideas nudging Kate into 2nd for the final. What a race the final was. After a tiny mistake in the underwater phase it came down to the last stroke and with Kate having spotted the finish perfectly I was already in the air celebrating when “the computer [AOE] said no” by 0.02 (3.5cm) as the Repton swimmer “pulled a Michael Phelps” Watch the replay on YouTube and you'll see what I mean - it looks like Kate won it. So fast were they that both swimmers would have won the British Nationals with their times. Well done Kate. Silver Medalist.

 Day 3

Memorable moments/takeaways:

A disbelieving Hattie set a new PB and qualified for the final in 10th. Despite an unusually slow reaction off the blocks for her, Hattie lowered her PB in the final yet again with her first ever 100FL LC swim under the 1:10 barrier.  Seeing her time prompted the best in the water celebration I think I've ever seen. I wish I had it on camera!  Pure joy!

With a point to prove The Kate set a blistering pace on the first 50m (30.42), faster than anyone but the eventual event winner. Fast right up to 75m where agonizingly the muscles said “no more” after 2 weeks of racing, and it was a struggle getting to the wall. Fly is the most unforgiving of strokes when tiring. There was a lot of learning for both coach and swimmer here in pace setting, and knowing Kate she's already incorporated it and moved on.

Gus brought Psycho Gus with him to swim the 400IM, setting a big 4 second PB, memorably hauling in the other swimmers in on the BR leg after his comparatively weaker BK, and making sure he beat those near to him on the touch. A great swim moving him up from 10th to 6th in the 14yo rankings. Well done Psycho Gus!

Thanks

Andy

And then there was Michael!  After working at Winsford ASC for around 15 years they finally released me into the wild.

Over the final 3 days of English Nationals we had some highs and lows.  I rarely get the opportunity to go to galas and I was blown away by the maturity and passion of all the swimmers I had the pleasure of supporting over my 3 day shift.

Day 4 (look Andy, I can do a table too!)

First we had Gus in the 100 fly.  The target was to go out in under 30 seconds, a solid turn and bring it home with whatever was left in the tank.  And Gus did just that.  He swam the race exactly as planned, got a PB and creeps ever closer to that 1 minute mark.

Gus was closely followed by Luke.  This was very much see above.  Luke hit his target of sub 29 for the first 50 and also beat his PB, finishing as the joint fastest 14 year old.  (Stupid Nationals and their stupid age ranges meant no final as it was full of the 15 years olds!).  Hopefully a podium spot next year.

Finally for the day we had Molly in the 100 Back.  Molly has been working on her stroke rate and that was the plan – to spin those arms and hope the rest of the body would keep up.  In the warm up we were feeling confident that we were hitting the right pace and we hoped it would transfer into the swim......and it did!  Molly cracked the 1.08.00 mark and earned herself a PB.

Day 5

Day 5 kicked off with Hen and me playing an unplanned game of hide and seek.  After finding each other we warmed up, talked race tactics and waited for our heat to start.  With a tactical caffeine shot and energy gel timed to hit for the start of her race Hen was raring to go.  I cannot even begin to describe the 15 minutes I spent with Hen once the caffeine kicked in.  I think at one point my ears started bleeding!  I wasn’t just concerned she would go early in her race, I was concerned she might get overexcited and join in the heat before her own.

But it worked!  A fantastic PB and a place in the final.

Emily turned up just as Hen was about to go up so she joined me in cheering her on.  Once the celebrations were over it was Emily’s turn to warm up and get ready.  We were feeling pretty good in the warm up and then it was time to race.  Emily did a fantastic swim, finishing just off her PB.  After exams, 2 weeks of racing and considering this is Emily’s least favourite distance to swim I thought she did incredible.

An afternoon off and then Hen was back for the final of the 200IM.  After a kerfuffle during the 1500 races everything was delayed by 45 minutes.  Once we got in for the warm up some poor communication meant that everyone got in at the same time.  30 a lane meant that the warm up wasn’t the best but we persevered.

Whilst we waited we talked about where any extra time could be shaved off and we had a plan.  We wanted to be top 3 into the wall after the fly, hang on for the back and breast and then try and put our head down and go for it in the free.  Hen got off to a great start turning in second place and going slightly faster than the earlier heat.  Unfortunately the fatigue kicked in and Hen couldn’t quite find the pace she was hoping for.  She still finished close to her PB which is an incredible achievement following two long weeks of racing.

Day 6

Day 6 started with Luke in the 200 free.  The warm up went well with Luke comfortably swimming at race pace.  Come the race Luke wanted to turn under 29 seconds and he did but then it went wrong.  We’re not sure what happened, whether it was a slip on the wall or a bad push off but Luke stopped dead in the water off the turn.  Determined to catch it back up he pushed the second 50 incredibly hard and managed to stay with the pack.  Unfortunately he’d used so much energy chasing them down that he didn’t have much left for the final 100m.  Considering the error he still managed to finish in a reasonable time but was a little disappointed.  Still a great 2 weeks of racing and a more favourable age range to look forward to for next year.

Now onto my trio of fly swimmers.  Momentarily fearing that I would have to look after 3 whole swimmers by myself I was relieved to see Julie Grindley backing me up.  (Side note for only Julie to read – Thanks for helping out, you know I hate talking to swimmers)

Hattie went in first with the sole aim of making the finals just so she could ruin my evening.  I tried every bit of bad coaching in the book but, despite that, she came in just off her PB and made the final in 8^th place.

Annabelle followed in the next heat.  She got off to a great start with some fantastic underwater work off the dive.  She finished a little off her PB pace but managed to keep the rest of her heat in her sights and pushed through to the end. 

Finally Sophie was up.  Sophie got off to a good start and completed her first 100 with no issues.  Unfortunately during the third 50 fatigue set in and the arms were struggling to get over.  She found a little bit of energy at the start of her last length but her arms betrayed her again and made the last 5m agony for her.  Despite not achieving what she wanted I can honestly say this is one of the best swims I’ve seen in mental resilience   It is awful when your mind is willing and the body lets you down.  I could see how hard it was for Sophie to keep going when her body was screaming at her to stop.  So well done for pushing through the pain to get to the finish.

The last race of the day was Hattie in the 200 fly final.  In the warm up we worked on our underwater skills with the goal of getting off to a faster start.  Come the race Hattie delivered.  A more explosive start kept her with the rest of the pack and she finished a smidgen off her PB time.  A great end to a long two weeks of racing for Hattie.

I’ll finish with a big thank you to everyone involved – far too many to list them all.  Thanks to the swimmers who helped to make the 3 days fly by.

Thanks

Michael