Southport Swimming end of season sprints gala
What a fantastic gala, PB’s, medals, spot prizes, but firstly may I congratulate all swimmers for their behaviour and teamwork on poolside. Cheering for each other and doing what is expected of you as well as some of the older swimmers taking responsibility amongst yourselves to help out some of our younger swimmers who may have been a little nervous, it made our jobs as coaches much easier and the younger swimmers were able to learn so much from you lot.
The day started off the way we meant to carry on with the girls 200m freestyle with gold for Mia Greenough in the 200m Freestyle, with a tough race to start off the day. That was closely followed by the Men’s 100m IM, in this event the Gold medals kept coming from Jacob Scott and James Cross both with PB’s to grab the medals.
Then came the 50m Backstrokes for both men and women. In this even we did not only just pick up medals we also saw the start of the meet from Emma Gaskell, this was noted by both coaches and had to be highlighted. We may not have picked up any gold medals in this event however we did get very close multiple times with silver medals from James Leese-Weller and Alfredo Lozano, along with this we had a silver and gold in the same event with Emma Haynes and Faye Bayman picking up 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The 100m Butterfly was up next were the swimmers managed to pick up 7 medals between them with gold’s coming from Rachel Hornby, Emma Haynes and Matthew Gregory. We also picked up 3 silvers from Amelia Picton, Mia Greenough and Samuel Briscoe. The final medal went to Daisy Poole picking up a bronze behind Rachel in the 11 years age group. Well done to everyone in this event. A big shout out should go to Rebecca Booth for taking a massive 5.8 seconds from her best time well done.
The 50m freestyle was the time for our youngest swimmer to take the lime light with Aimee Crompton-Hesford taking our only medal with gold in the 9 years age group. A big mention must go out to those swimmers taking massive chunks off there times in this event, these include Molly Jones, Steven Newton and Chelsea Gore taking a massive 1.5 seconds off her best over 50m.
The Final individual event of the morning was the 100m Breaststroke, this event ended up being our most successful taking 7 medals: 5 of these were gold. Gold medals came from Emma Gaskell, Rachel Hornby, Jennifer Green, Jacob Scott and Samuel Briscoe. We then picked up silver from Faye Bayman in a massive PB and a bronze medal from Aimee Crompton-Hesford.
The session finished with the 4*50 Freestyle relays. The first teams up were the 12yrs+under we were lucky enough to be able to pick 2 teams for this age category. We managed to pick up 1st place and 4th place. The girls all swum out of there skin and managed to swim faster than they had earlier in the individual. The next team up for us was the women’s 13yrs+over this team came in in 5th place with the girls all putting in a fantastic performance. The final relay was the men’s 13yrs+over, a bronze medal was earned by some really fast swimming from all the boys with all 4 of the swimmers going well under 30seconds. Well done guys.
After a lunch break and a well deserved rest the swimmers came back to give it there all again ready to show the other teams who is boss. Our first swimmers to take to the water were in the women’s 100IM. We started the afternoon the same as the morning with our first medals being gold, these came from Rachel Hornby and Jennifer Green winning the 11yrs and 12yrs respectively.
Then it was time for the 50 Breastroke and after wins in the 100 Breastroke Jennifer Green and Emma Gaskell picked up gold again. Silvers came from Jacob Scott and Faye Bayman both with PB swims. Our final medal from this event came from Samuel Briscoe in the colour of bronze with yet another fantastic swim.
It was then time for the 100m Backstroke where we managed to pick up 5 medals 4 of which where gold! These came from Alfredo Lozano, James Leese-Weller, Aimee Crompton-Hesford and Mia Greenough. The final medal in this event was picked up by Lucas Vose with a bronze behind Alfredo in the same age. It was noted how under waters, and turns have improved on our backstrokes, so well done for putting the practice into racing.
The 50m Butterfly was up next and yet again we picked up another 5 medals. Our sole gold medal winner was Jacob Scott in a massive PB taking the gold, then came 3 silvers and a bronze from the girls, Amelia Picton, Rachel Hornby and Faye Bayman with the silvers, then a bronze from Olivia Sheehan.
The final individual event was the 100m freestyle, where we picked up 2 gold’s and 2 silvers. The gold’s came from Mia Greenough and Samuel Briscoe and the silvers were picked up by Daisy Poole and Jake Dawber who had to wait until the last event to pick up his medal.
Then it came to the relays and this time it was time for the 4*50 medley relay. First up were the girls 12yrs and under where yet again we had two teams entered. With one team picking up the gold and the other team narrowly missing the medals in 4th place but great swimming from all of the swimmers. The came the men’s 13yrs and over, and after a great bronze this morning the boys came in and swum excellently to a 5th place finish. The final race of the day was the girls 13yrs and over relay, after a long day and some great swims they put everything in and came out with a great 4th place finish just missing out on the medals.
Overall the club placed a brilliant 3rd in the overall club rankings. This is due too all swimmers putting everything in to all of there races and swimming to personal bests and medals. We must congratulate everyone in the team for not only there fantastic swims. Behaviour, professionalism, teamwork and fun, these are key points that we all excelled in and the club need to take forward from here. So from all the coaches and staff well done for everything.
Chris Suggitt
Assistant Head Coach