Five Top Squad swimmers competed in 13 events at Scottish National Short Course Championships in Edinburgh 9-10th December.
Emily Burrell qualified in four sprint events. She swam two huge PB’s in 50m Breaststroke and 100 IM, matched her PB in 50m Butterfly and just missed out on a PB in 50m Freestyle by 0.01 seconds!! Great weekend of racing.
Lewis Kestle qualified in three sprint events. He swam a PB in 50m Butterfly whilst his 50m and 100m Backstroke were both within 0.3 seconds of PB’s that he had set only 4 weeks prior at NER Championships.
Alex Morton has continued to drop time in his 200m Butterfly, taking another 2.4 seconds off his PB! He also swam a great 100 IM (with only 10 minutes break) to be just outside of his PB set at NER Championships in Nov.
Niamh Kay swam two solid swims in 50m and 100m Breaststroke, with a season’s best in the 100m!
Harry Whitfield swam in his best event, 1500m Freestyle, in a very respectable 17 mins 25. Although not quite a personal best time, Harry was one of the youngest swimmers at the Open competition at just 13yrs! Amazing achievement to get the Open qualifying time at National level.
What a fantastic weekend of racing Scarlett has had at the British Down Syndrome Championships at K2 in Crawley. Accomplishing the top podium position in the 11-16 year-old category for 200 freestyle, 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke and 50m breaststroke. In addition, her 100m backstroke time also ranked her 3rd over all age groups, gaining her the bronze medal in the open group. What an amazing achievement. Next stop is Turkey for Scarlett after she has been selected to compete at the World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in 2024 in Turkey. Straight back to training Scarlett !
Well done Scarlett!
This short course event was held at K2 Crawley and was open to swimmers with Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21) or Mosaic Down Syndrome. The meet had 4 age categories: Juniors (16/Under), Seniors (17-24), Masters 1 (25-34) and Masters 2 (35/Over).
In each of her races Scarlett achieved a PB, knocking a massive 19.40 seconds off her 100m Backstroke and 13.08 seconds off her 200m Freestyle and a 2.68 seconds off her 50 Freestyle. The below pdf is a snapshot of the combined results for the Age Groups (16/Under) and all other Age groups (Open).
Congratulations to Sebastian (A1 squad) who has been selected for the Northumberland and Durham Development Programme for the 12 year old age group as of December 31 2023. This excellent opportunity starts on 2nd December at Sunderland Aquatics Centre.
The camps are integrated into the Northumberland and Durham Development Programme, offering young swimmers a unique opportunity to enhance their skills and physical literacy. The key objectives include developing fundamental movement skills, honing core aquatic skills, and advancing technical proficiency in all four competitive strokes. Enjoy your experience Seb!
North East 25m Championships at Ponds Forge Sheffield
What a jam-packed weekend of racing at Ponds Forge for Darlington’s NER Qualifiers. A total of 13 swimmers made the journey and swam in a total of 70 events. The venue splits its 50m pool into two 25m pools to allow both competitions to run alongside each other.
Well done to all DASC swimmers who achieved qualifying times. A few of the swimmers who attended did not swim all the events they qualified in and unfortunately there were some rejections which meant some of our Age Group swimmers who did qualify could not compete in their events. Well done to those swimmers and be proud of yourselves for achieving a qualifying time.
Age Group Competition
Four swimmers from Top and A1 squads entered 29 events. All four swimmers swam extremely well and should be very proud of their achievements. Each event operated as heat declared winners and two of our Age group swimmers won Gold winning themselves the accolade of Regional Champion in their respective events, so a massive well done!
Harry Whitfield entered 10 events securing an amazing 5 podium finishes in the 13-year category;
North East Regional Champion – Gold in 800m Freestyle
Silver – 1500m Freestyle
Silver – 400m Freestyle
Silver – 200m Freestyle
Bronze – 100m Freestyle
William Oliver also had an extremely busy weekend entering 11 events and securing 6 podium finishes in the 11-year category;
North East Regional Champion – Gold 50m breaststroke
Nine swimmers from Top Squad entered a total of 41 events. All swimmers swam against some tough competition and should be proud of their achievements.
Lewis Kestle swam an amazing 100m backstroke (1.01.84) which not only won him a position in the final in 9th but secured him his 2nd qualifying time for Scottish Nationals. Backing up his 100m backstroke was an even stronger 50m Backstroke, in a time of 28.38 seconds. This won him a place in the final in 8th place, a 3rd Scottish National qualifying time and a qualifying time for Swim England Winter Nationals which is an amazing achievement.
Alex Morton swam another fabulous 200m Fly knocking more time off his very recent personal best and going under the 2.20.00 barrier. This qualified him for the final in 9th place. He also swam a fantastic 100 IM which secured his 2nd qualifying time for Scottish Nationals.
Niamh Kay made two 16/under finals over the weekend, 100m Breaststroke and 50m Breaststroke. Niamh finished in 2nd place in 50m Breaststroke with a time of 34.98.
