Winsford Swimming Club

We arrived at Rother Valley to the sun shining and a tropical 21 degrees water temperature on the lake, conditions were flat, smooth and we knew it was a good day for racing. 

5km

Charlotte and Jess started the day with the 5km race for the best 14-15 year olds in the country. There was a lot of big names on the start list and we knew it was going to be tough. For Charlotte the aim was to come as near to the top 10 as possible and for Jess to try and finish top half. It’s an absolute honour and privilege to get to race with only 4 swimmers from the North West even being eligible to swim but both girls over exceeded expectations. 

Firstly Charlotte who sat in the lead pack for 3/5 laps. She was gutsy, feisty and so determined, she kept a high stroke rate and kick throughout and it wasn’t until lap 4 when a couple of other girls began to make moves that we slightly dropped out of the pack. As the field spread out on the last lap it was just a kick for home for whoever had the most energy left. Charlotte touched at an incredible 4th place breaking the sub 1 hr mark for 5km, meaning Charlotte averaged 1.10 per 100m during this race. Wow!! Absolutely rapid!! As someone who only went into a lake for the first time a few months ago this is a display of achieving something if you really put your mind to it and should be inspirational for the rest of the club.

Charlotte has been in Sale Waterpark religiously for weeks pushing really hard to get that result and it’s absolutely paid off. You’re an absolute credit to the club and yourself & I’m already excited for next year with even more practice. 

Jess also displayed incredible courage, she found a mid pack and raced well with them, she followed her lines and course well and demonstrated brilliant technical elements to open water racing. Jess finished 18th in an amazing time of 1 hr 4 which was 1.17 per 100. Jess has also been working hard over at Manley Mere in her own time and this showed. For Jess as well, Club Champs showed how her open water practice has paid off in the pool by achieving massive standout pbs in the 800 & 1500m Freestyle. Super proud of your performances Jess, aiming for that big 7.5k at Nationals next year now! 

3km

Next up was Hattie in the 13 years. This was Hattie’s first time competing in the Open Water Nationals and she absolutely blew us away. Similarly to Charlotte, Hattie said she’d love to make the top 10 as this is equivalent to making finals in the pool. Hattie held her lines well, and swum a wonderful gutsy race where all girls came in pretty close together over 3km. Hattie finished an incredible 9th place and we are so proud. Hattie was also the first swimmer in the North West to finish after getting narrowly beat in the regional round it was fantastic to see her come out on top this time and show her progress in the last 4 weeks. Similarly to Jess, Hattie demonstrated standout performances in her freestyle at Club Champs reflecting her hard work outside paying off inside as well. I can’t wait to see what she is capable of next year with even more experience under her belt and knowing exactly what to expect at a National level competition next year.

Molly 

And we are also super proud of our coach Molly, achieving gold in the 25-29, 5km masters race. Molly also was part of the relay team that claimed the silver medal.