Wow, what another fantastic evening of racing from our swimmers at our Club Gala on Tuesday!
There were five records broken this time! A massive well done to our record breakers:
Lewis Kestle – not one, but two, new club records in 50m Backstroke and 100m Individual Medley
Lucy Oliver and Laura Burgess – new club records for both in the 100m Freestyle
Niamh Kay – new club record in the 200m Breaststroke
Our swimmers in the B Squads should be proud of themselves for attempting 25m Butterfly this time, which for some was a first go at competition racing, as should others in these squads for swimming in all four events available to them.
Parents of newer/younger swimmers who competed in the recent Wear Valley gala and/or Club Gala may be interested in buying sprint award badges if their swimmer achieved any of the times required. Many swimmers have these sewn onto the back of their DASC T-bag T-shirts. See below for Sprint award times. These badges and T-bag shirts may be bought from the Club Swim Shop, which is open most Tuesdays 6-7pm on poolside at the Dolphin Centre, including this Tuesday 31 May.
Thank you to all the volunteers and officials; without their continued support we could not put on these galas.
And as always, we need more people to get involved – YOUR SWIMMING CLUB NEEDS YOU!
If you are interested in training as an official or if you could organise and run a raffle at our next gala please speak to myself, Jane or any of the coaches; we will point you in the right direction.
John Charles Centre for Sport, Leeds, 23&24 April, 7&8 May 2022
The SE North East Region Age Group Championships (Long Course) were held in Leeds over two weekends in April and May. The age groups were 11&12, 13, and 14 years. Heats were held in the morning and finals of all events (except for 800m and 1500m Freestyle) in the afternoon. The standard of competition was very high with big clubs such as Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle bringing many swimmers to the Championships.
DASC was represented at the Championships by 4 girls and 4 boys in a total of 30 events. Between them they clocked up 2 bronze medals, 6 other Top Ten finishes and 14 long course PB swims.
Lucy Oliver (13) competed in 9 of the 12 events she qualified for. With finals in force for most events, it was necessary to make some tough choices. On the first weekend Lucy swam 200m Butterfly for the first time long course and bettered her new PB in the final to win a well-deserved bronze medal. In the last session she improved on her heat position to clinch another bronze medal in 100m Freestyle. She also claimed 4 other Top Ten finishes in 50m Freestyle 6th, 200m Freestyle 7th, 100m Backstroke 8th in a PB, 100m Butterfly 7th.
Harry Whitfield (12) competed in all 6 of the Freestyle and Butterfly events he qualified for. He made finals in 200m Freestyle finishing 4th and 400m Freestyle finishing 6th. In both events he improved his position in the final, swam a PB time in the heat and then went even faster in the final. On 400m Freestyle he lowered his PB by a massive total of 17 seconds on the day.
It was great to see Hugo Douglas-Reeves (14) make a welcome return to form, competing in all 3 Breaststroke events and producing PB swims in all of them. His best performance came in 50m Breaststroke where he knocked 2 seconds off his previous PB set only 2 months previously and qualified for the final in 7thplace.
12-year-olds, Ben Burrell and April Mansfield both produced great PB times on sprint events – 50m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle, with April also swimming 100m and 200m Freestyle.
Alex Morton (14) went under 30 seconds for a PB in 50m Butterfly just missing the final in 11th= place. Emma Carter (14) competed at regional level for the first time, swimming in 800m Freestyle and two Breaststroke events. Chiara Valgolio (also 14) was close to her PB in 800m Freestyle.
DASC Head Coach Lucy Proctor said, “An encouraging set of results with plenty of PB’s and top 10 finishes. Two very deserving medals for Lucy in a really competitive age group. Well done to all swimmers.”
Well done to all our young swimmers who took part in the Diddy League Gala on Sunday. A big thank you too, to all the parents and other family members for getting swimmers to the venue and for cheering so loudly!
We came a respectable 4th out of 6 clubs in Division 2.
We managed four first places in the 49 gala events:
9 year old Girls 25m Freestyle – Emmy Nicholson
9 year old Girls 25m Butterfly – Sasha Johnson
10 year old Boys 50m Breaststroke – Ollie Curran
10 year old Boys 50m Butterfly – Oliver Appleyard
We did have one disqualification unfortunately for an early take-over in the Girls 11/under years 4 x 25m Medley Relay.
Let’s not though lose sight of the fact that this is a team event and all the children should be congratulated for swimming out of their skins, stepping up an age group in some cases, for supporting each other throughout and for their exceptional behaviour.
DASC at SE North East Region Open/Youth Championships 2022 Ponds Forge, Sheffield 30 April & 1 May 2022
The NER Youth and Open Long Course Championships took place at Ponds Forge International Aquatic Centre, Sheffield, on 30 April & 1 May. The Youth events were for 16&Unders and the Open Events for 17&Overs. Heats were held in the morning sessions with separate finals for Youth and Open ages in the afternoon sessions. The qualifying times especially for the Open events were difficult to achieve. DASC was represented by 6 Youth swimmers.
Fresh from her success at the recent Scottish National Age Groups, Laura Burgess (16), again rose to the occasion and secured an excellent bronze medal in the 50m Freestyle and a 5th place in the 100m Freestyle, as well as a PB in 50m Butterfly. Laura has had a heavy competition schedule this year and continues to produce remarkably consistent times on or around her PBs each time she swims.
Niamh Kay (15) competed in all Breaststroke distances and qualified for finals in 50m Breaststroke, where she came 8th, only losing out on a bronze medal by a fraction with 0.16 seconds separating 2nd to 8th places, and 100m Breaststroke to finish 9th.
Emily Burrell (16) competed in 4 sprint events across 3 different strokes and after a string of recent competitions, came so close to PBs in all of them. Lewis Kestle (15) swam a great PB on 50m Butterfly and went close to his very recent 200m Backstroke best. Sam Beukenholdt (16) was swimming for the first time at Regional level and set himself a new PB time on 50m Freestyle. Ruby Diment (15) competed in 100m and 200m Backstroke.
Along with their individual swims, Laura and Niamh were selected to swim in relay teams for the newly formed NDPP (our regional club). Laura swam in the 4 x 100m Free B Team and both Laura and Niamh swam in their favoured strokes for 4 x 100m Medley teams.Along with many others at the Championships several of our swimmers are in their GCSE year and working hard to juggle exam revision with swimming training.
DASC Head Coach, Lucy Proctor, said “I am really happy with everyone’s performances, we have had a busy schedule of competitions recently and they all put in 110%.”
On 5 April 2022 DASC held its annual 400m Club Gala. This year for the first time, as well as there being 400m Freestyle events, there were 400m IM events too.
Few of our swimmers have competed at 400m IM in a licenced gala, so this provided swimmers from Top and A1 squads with the opportunity to attempt it for the first time and in their home pool. It was great to see so many of them have a go at this tough event, and most of them did it after competing in the 400m Freestyle event too.
Standard times were set as baseline times for Club Gala records. On the night Lucy Oliver set a new record of 5:26.23 in the 11&12 years age group.
To mark the introduction of this new event four new trophies were given to the club to award to the winners. Head Coach, Lucy Proctor, awarded two for the Male and Female 12&Under winners, and The Teague Family awarded two trophies for the Male and Female 13&Over winners.
The inaugural winners were:
Male 12& Under Harry Whitfield Female 12&Under Lucy Oliver Male 13&Over Richard Murray Female 13&Over Laura Burgess
Three DASC swimmers, with Head Coach Lucy Proctor, travelled to Glasgow to compete in the Scottish National Age Group Championships (SNAGs for short) taking place over 5 days leading up to Easter at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre. It proved to be a most successful competition for the club.
Lucy Oliver was crowned Champion in the 13 years age group in all 4 of the events she entered: 50m Freestyle producing a PB in the final of 28.71 100m Freestyle in 1.02.40 just outside her PB 400m Freestyle in 4.54.11 100m Butterfly in 1.09.28 Laura Burgess in the 16 years age group produced a super PB of 1.00.41 on 100m Freestyle to win silver, and then just missed out on a medal by 0.1 second to finish 4th in the 50m Freestyle with a swim very close to her PB.
Niamh Kay competed in the 50m Breaststroke in the 15 years age group and finished as first reserve for the final, gaining valuable experience at this new level of competition for her.
Lucy and Laura both continue to demonstrate their competitive spirit and their ability to step up their performances for finals, along with producing consistently good times on or around their Personal Bests over a sustained period of time. Combined with great natural talent, they both work very hard in training to continually improve their technique, fitness and speed.
Head Coach, Lucy Proctor, said, “The girls had a great competition, racing at Tollcross for the first time. It was a huge achievement to qualify and an even bigger achievement to come away with medals! Hopefully, their times put them in a good position for Summer Nationals.”
Non-Scottish swimmers had to achieve qualifying times considerably faster than those for Scottish swimmers. Heats and finals were swum on the same day for most events, except for some longer events which were Heat Declared Winner events. It is 9 years since DASC attended this event. It provided an excellent opportunity for some high-level competition during the qualifying window for the British and Home Nation Summer Meets.
