Good Luck to Harriet who is competing at Manchester International Swim Meet 2021 today and tomorrow (12th&13th Feb). Harriet will be competing in the 50m Free, 100m Free and 50m Fly. You can watch her live by clicking this link.
Darlington Sports Winners Awards are usually made for achievement in sports by competitors, coaches and volunteers. In 2020 they were instead given to people of any age who have gone the extra mile and beyond to ‘help clubs, charities, individuals within a school, home or community setting’.
As an Awards Event was not possible, the award and a letter from The Mayor was presented to Carol on her doorstep. Carol said that it was not something she would have achieved without the support of others.
For those of you who may not be aware of what has gone on behind the scenes at DASC, here is part of the nomination put forward by Dan Oliver:
In June this year after the pandemic started, Carol volunteered to be the club’s Covid Liaison Officer, and has carried out the previously unknown and ever-expanding role thoroughly and calmly, working in trying and changing circumstances and under pressure. This has involved liaising with four different pool providers under varying stages of Covid restrictions, keeping up to date with changing guidance from the Government and Swim England, writing protocols, overseeing Health Screening and Risk Awareness questionnaires, training Covid Officers for each squad, planning new training programmes to cope with the restrictions, consulting with Committee Officers and other coaches, and keeping all club members informed of what is going on.
Without her attention to detail and her passion and energy to see the club’s swimmers and divers given the best possible chance to return to training in a safe and worthwhile way, DASC members would not be in anything like such a good position to be ready when training can get back to normal and competitive swimming can restart, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.
The award was first given in 2019 following the retirement of Fred Kirby from his managerial role within the NDSA Performance Programme. Fred was instrumental in setting up the Performance Programme and developing aquatics within the county. The NDSA Coaches’ Forum decided it would be fitting to name the award after him.
At the end of each swimming season the NDSA Coaches’ Forum discuss nominations received from coaches and agree the recipient according to the following criteria:
The swimmer:
Because of the COVID restrictions, it may be sometime before Harriet can be formally presented with the trophy, but we congratulate her on being very deserving of this recognition from the NDSA Coaches’ Forum.
Jane Teague
Darlington Swimming Club swimmer, Harriet Rogers, has been selected as a member of Swim England’s National Performance Squad, on the basis of her swimming performances in sprint events both before and during the pandemic.
At age 16, Harriet is one of the youngest to achieve this selection, and is also the only selected swimmer currently based in a club in the N&D area.
Along with all the English swimmers currently named on British Swimming’s and British Para-swimming’s World Class programme (which includes such household names as Adam Peaty, Freya Anderson and Maisie Summers-Newton) the National Performance Squad swimmers have been named in the first-ever England Swimming Team ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham.
The full team consists of 85 swimmers and brings together all those currently to be considered for selection for Team England at those Games. Once swimmers are back in the pool, they will have the opportunity to demonstrate their potential. The Team will attend a number of swimming camps and preparation meets. Grant Robins is the team leader for England Swimming at the 2022 home games and is excited to be creating a new identity for the team.
During Lockdown 3 Harriet is currently taking part in some intensive elite training run by Swim England near Northampton, involving 2.5-4.5 hours per day 6 days per week. She has been invited to compete at the invitation only Manchester International Swim Meet to be held on 12-14 February. Ahead lies a lot of hard work, in order to maximise the opportunities that she has been given, especially at this time when many swimmers are not allowed to be in the pool.
Harriet joined DASC at age 7, and since then has made great progress, showing huge determination, which, combined with very hard work and enormous natural talent, has seen her win silver medals for 50m and 100m Freestyle at the British Swimming Championships in August 2019. She currently lies 3rd on the European Rankings for her age for 50m Freestyle.
“I am thrilled by Harriet’s fantastic and well-deserved achievements so far. I anticipate an interesting and demanding 18 months for Harriet in her training for the Commonwealth Games. Harriet’s family have given tremendous commitment and made great sacrifices to support her. I am grateful to all the coaches who have nurtured her talent and helped develop her potential over the years. I hope that with the right support from the area she will go on to become successful, make the Commonwealth Games team, put our club in the spotlight and do herself proud, hopefully with the possibility of a medal.”
Comment, Head Coach, Glen Fenby
“This is a fantastic achievement for a hugely talented swimmer and we are all extremely proud of Harriet. She is an inspiration to many DASC swimmers, showing what hard work and determination can achieve along with the support of the excellent DASC coaching team. The club wish Harriet every success with her future swimming journey.”
Comment, DASC Chair, Dan Oliver
When she isn’t training, Harriet is studying hard for A Levels, and QE VIth Form College in Darlington have been supportive in Harriet’s endeavour to follow her swimming dream while continuing her education. In addition, Harriet is also doing a Diploma in Sporting Excellence through Swim England and Loughborough University.
Article – with thanks to Jane Teague DASC Secretary
Great news that swimming will resume as from Wednesday 2nd December.
As the health and safety of everyone involved remains our priority, restrictions and procedures continue to be in place at all pools. Please remind your swimmer to comply including with the wearing of a face mask to enter and exit the venue – remember HANDS/FACE/SPACE.
If you have yet to complete the online Health Screening Survey please do this before returning to the pool. The survey can be found by logging in to Membership portal.
Most of the swimming times remain the same apart from A1 will now swim at the Dolphin Centre on a Sunday at 5-6pm. A3 will now swim as one group on a Monday and Friday at Longfield 6-7pm. Click the link below to see the updated timetable.
Please remember to use easy fundraising when you do your Christmas shopping this year.
There are over 4,000 shops and sites who will donate to Darlington ASC for FREE when you use easyfundraising to shop with them. This means you can raise donations for us when you buy anything from decorations and festive food shopping to gifts like toys, jewellery, tech, experiences and more!
These donations really help us and all you have to do is use easyfundraising when you’re ordering the things you’ll be buying anyway.
If you haven’t already done so, please sign up to our cause and head over to our easyfundraising page.
You can also find further detail on Easyfundraising by heading to our Fundraising page.
Please click on the venues below to read the guidance & procedures swimmers must follow when attending these premises during this Covid period.
Many congratulations to Harriet Rogers on being selected for a second year to take part in Swim England’s National Event Camp.
Harriet is one of just 90 English swimmers aged 15 or 16 to be selected at this level. All the swimmers were selected based on the Swim England long course rankings in each individual Olympic pool event and only times achieved between 22 March 2019 and 15 March 2020 were considered. The National Event Camps are the second step on the Swim England National Talent Pathway and cover technical and tactical development areas for specific racing events.
Last year Harriet attended a gruelling 4-day national training camp in December held at Millfield School. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 situation, this year the camp will be taking place online via Zoom on two days in November. It is also hoped that a pool activity day will take place in 2021 but this is dependent on the latest Government guidelines.
They are amongst 276 swimmers of age 13/14 from all over the country invited to join a learning and engagement day of online workshops on either 3 or 4 October covering
A dry land conditioning session will also emphasise mobility and stability to enhance the anti-rotational / rotational strokes and streamlining.
All the swimmers were chosen using the new adjusted selection guidelines that have been introduced for the 2020-21 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
What is England Talent Swimming?
The highest level of support you can receive as an English swimmer is with England Talent Swimming. It involves four stages of swimmer development for athletes aged from 11 to 19. The Development Programme is the first of four national stages for English swimmers. Above that there is British Swimming’s World Class Pathway, where you could become a funded athlete.
In non-COVID times, the swimmers would have been invited to take part in 3 separate one day camps in the region between September and December involving a mixture of swimming coaching sessions and education workshops.
