Harry Whitfield from Top Squad has been busy competing in Regional and National Open Water competitions in July.
Harry’s 1500m personal best time and ranking position earnt him an invitation to join an Open Water swimming camp in June. After attending and trying open water swimming for the first time, he entered Regional Championships to race the 2K.
Harry came 1st place in 12/13yrs category in a time of 30 mins 57 secs, receiving a gold medal for the N&D County and the North East Region.
This win gave Harry an automatic entry into the National Championships. He swam another 2K in Rother Valley, Sheffield, on Saturday 29th July and came an amazing 10th place with an improvement of 6 minutes from his Regional time! Well done Harry.
National Open Water ChampionshipsNational Open Water Championships
What a fantastic afternoon at Tynemouth Pool for the Diddy League Final 2023. Everyone swam their hearts out and I am sure there will be a few sore throats from parents, the spectator area was extremely on form with the support today, BRILLIANT. The Darlington Team did amazingly well and finished in 2nd position.
The Final team points were:
Borocuda – 209
Darlington – 191
Gateshead & Whickham – 169
Chester-le-Street – 159
Durham City – 150
As well as receiving the runner up trophy the following medals were awarded to the Darlington Team:
Winners of the Cannon Race – congratulations to Nancy, Joseph, Sasha, Elodie, William, Amelia and Sebastian.
Overall 12 year old Team winners – congratulations to Amelia, Elodie, Jessica, Gracie-Mae, Sebastian, William, Oscar and Mayuh.
Well done to all swimmers who took part in the Sunderland Summer Splash (Long course) at Sunderland Aquatic Centre , July 1st-2nd. This was the last gala of the long course season.
Over the weekend Josie attended The National Junior Para-Swimming Championships held every year at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry. This is an established event within the British swimming pathway for young disabled people. The event operates the following age groups. Josie competed in Group B.
Group A – Aged between 10-13 on the 31st December 2023
Group B – Aged between 14-16 on the 31st December 2023
Group C – Aged between 17-18 on the 31st December 2023
Josie in Lane 2
Josie qualified and swam in the following 5 events; 400m, 100m and 50m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke and 100m Backstroke, achieving big PB’s in all swims and slicing a massive 30 seconds off her 400m time…. Well done Josie!
Well the annual adventure to Scarborough Seaside Splash was a roaring success, excellent swimming, great dancing, some nerve racking skins…. topped off with amazing weather, a game of rounders on the beach and of course the annual DASC dip in the sea.
DASC had 5 young swimmers qualify for the Regional Age Group Championships held in the 50m pool in Sunderland over two weekends in April and May 2023. They competed in a total of 37 events, which included 19 Top Ten finishes with 5 of these being medal winning finishes, and 17 of the times recorded were long course PB swims.
Heats were held in the morning sessions with finals in the afternoon session on the same day. The only events not to have separate finals were 800m and 1500m Freestyle events. Swimming heats and finals of 400m events on the same day requires a good level of fitness. Medals were awarded by agegroups, with 11- & 12-year-olds in one combined agegroup and then 13 years and 14 years separately.
Our outstanding performer of the Championships was Harry Whitfield (13) who finished with 1 Gold (800m Free), 2 Silvers (400m Free and 1500m Free), and 2 Bronzes (50m Free and 100m Free). He just missed out on getting a medal in every Freestyle distance with a 4th place on 200m Free, as well as 4th in 100m Fly and 5th in 50m Fly and 200m IM. Over the course of the two weekends Harry produced 7 PB swims in his 10 events, with several of these being improvements on times set recently within the past few months.
This is the first year that William Oliver (11) has been of Regional age, and he will have another year to go in the 11 & 12 years agegroup. He competed in 10 events and, despite swimming against older swimmers, he made 2 finals finishing 4th on 50m Breast in a really tight race and 8th on 100m Fly. He notched up 5 new long course PBs too.
Sebastien Mason (12) competed in 5 events on sprint Free, Fly and Breast with PB times in each of them. He made three finals and finished 4th in 50m Fly, 5th in 50m Free and 7th in 100m Fly.
This is the first time that Tristan Wheeler (13) has attended the Long Course Regional Championships and he will have gained valuable experience competing at this level on 200m Free, and 50m and 100m Butterfly with some very strong 13-year-old boys within the region to compete against.
In her final year as an agegroup swimmer, Lucy Oliver (14) competed in 9 of the 12 events she had qualified in, whilst also competing in 5 events at the SENE Open Championships too. Lucy made 5 finals placing 6th in 100m Butterfly.
Our age group swimmers represented DASC extremely well over both weekends, clocking up 17 finals between them and numerous PB times
Six DASC swimmers took part in the SENE Regional Championships held over the 3-day Bank Holiday weekend at the start of May at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield. All our swimmers were in the 16&under Youth Age Group, with Lucy Oliver young enough to be swimming in the Age Group Championships as well.
All of the events, except the 800m/1500m and relay events, had heats and finals. DASC swimmers competed under the banner of the Northumberland & Durham Performance Programme Swimming Club (N&D PP SC), with Lucy being selected for the B team in the 14-16 years 400m Freestyle Team Relay and Alex being selected for the B Team in the 14-16 years 400m Medley Team Relay swimming the Butterfly leg. These relays are for qualification into British Summer Championships so we will be waiting to see if either of those B Teams qualified.
In her final Youth year, Niamh Kay (16) swam in all 3 Breaststroke events, coming 2nd in the 50m Junior final and 4thplace in the 100m Junior final, with PBs on 100m and 200m. Lucy Oliver (14) had a busy weekend, competing against older swimmers in 5 events, some events she had swam the previous weekend at Age Groups. Lucy has qualified for British Summer Championships and English Summer Nationals so these were great practice swims for the summer. Emma Carter (15) swam a great 50m Freestyle PB to break the 30 second barrier for the first time long course.
Lewis Kestle (16) competed in 6 events, clocking up 4 long course PBs and a great 9th place finish in the final of the 50m Butterfly. Alex Morton (15) competed in sprint events in all 4 strokes, demonstrating his versatility, as well as his potential as an IM swimmer. Hugo Douglas-Reeves (15) competed in two Breaststroke events and swam so close to his recent Long Course PB times.
Each year, the standard at Open NER’s gets higher, so to have 6 qualifiers from DASC with 24 swims between them was fantastic
Fantastic Championships this year. All swimmers were really supportive of each other and times swam, number of finals and medals all exceeded my expectations!!
Well done to all swimmers who competed in the Division 2 Diddy League Heat 1. Out of the 49 events the team secured 29 top 3 places including 7 first places, with the team finishing 3rd overall. Everyone worked very hard and a big ‘shout-out’ to Autumn Gill and Phoebe Wall, for who it was their first experience of swimming in a gala and only being members of the club for a few weeks!.
Congratulations to the following 1st place swimmers:
10/u Medley relay (girls) – Ella Harcourt, Martha Kirkbride, Emmy Nicholson, Sasha Johnson
9yr 25m Freestyle (boy) – Joseph Knowles
12yr 50m Fly (boy) – Sebastian Mason
9yr 25m Breaststroke (boys) – Joseph Knowles
11yr 50m Fly (boy) – William Oliver
12yr 50m Free (boy) – Sebastian Mason
10yr 50m Fly (boy)- Ben Appleyard
Heat 2 of the Diddy League programme will take place on Sunday 11th June at Morpeth Leisure Centre. Team selection will be notified by email.
Plus a huge thank you to Carol for organising the Diddy League team and event and to the poolside support from Katie Nicholson and Chiara Valgolio.
