Meet Records and National Qualifying Times in Swansea

A small team of Southampton swimmers made the journey to Swansea over the weekend of 11-13 May for Swansea's annual Long Course Open Meet.

Head Coach Comments
WELL DONE! What a great set of results from just 13 CSSC swimmers that travelled to Swansea, to achieve 3rd overall Top Visiting Club from such a small number of swimmers is in anyone’s view outstanding. To achieve 10 Meet Records and record 8 National Qualifying Swims and 64 SE Region Qualifying Swims and countless Personal Best Times is fantastic – and before the ‘Doubting Thomas’ Start’ this was a quality meet with 4 x 2012 GB Olympians competing over the weekend!

Not to be out done by the swimmers the CSSC parents also over achieved with 4 x Officials on Pool Deck, Club Photographer Steve Burt snapping away and even Mrs Chrissie Clampett (physio) called upon! The team atmosphere on pool deck was ‘1st Class’ with every swimmer supporting and urging on every swimmer – this is great to see!

So where to start? Congratulations to:
13 year old Freddy Clampett, who continues to learn and progress, Freddy achieved National Qualifying Times in both the 200m & 400m Individual Medley and is very capable of achieving more in the future, providing he logically applies himself. Freddy also broke the 200m Ind Medley Meet Record – and he was in the lower half of the 13-14yrs age group!

13 year old Lizzie Hopkins, who also went inside the National Qualifying Time on 4 occasions (100m & 200m Breaststroke, 200m & 400m Ind Medley) and was narrowly outside the 800m Free and 200m Backstroke National QT by 0.38, an event to work on! Lizzie achieved 10 x 1st Positions and 3 Meet Records.
15yrs Tom Diaper-Fox recorded a return back to form with a quality 1,500m Free going 8.11 seconds inside the National Qualifying Time and achieving a Meet Record. Tom also hit personal best times in 100m, 200m & 400m Freestyle.

13yrs Jessica Bishop broke the 100m Butterfly Meet Record in both the heat and final and was just 0.55secs outside the National Qualifying Time with this Gold Medal personal best swim.

Jon Jones (13yrs) in his first competitive 1,500m Free broke the Meet Record and recorded a time just 10 seconds off the National Qualifying Time. Jon was one of those swimmers that closely observed the Olympians warm-up and swim down protocols, Georgia Davis was consistently swimming down 1,200m after each and every race.

14 year old Ben Stevens also narrowly missed his National Qualifying Time in the 100m Butterfly when he swam 1:03.02 in the heats. Ben has done brilliantly this year knocking off more than 2 seconds on his 100m Butterfly, 1:03.02 is a time that in previous years would have easily been inside the National Qualifying Time.

The very quiet 14 year old Aislinn Murphy, who has worked so hard in training, was not to be outdone by the more established swimmers when she broke the Meet Record in the 50m Freestyle in 29.04 secs. Smashing her heat from Lane 1! I am hoping Aislinn can convert this speed and confidence to the 100m and 200m Free – soon. Interestingly 14 year old Aislinn spent the majority of her time between races revising for her GCSE Science Exams this week, Aislinn is taking these exams a year early and is living proof that you can Train, Compete and sit exams without compromise.

It was really pleasing to see both Jack Lebbern and Grace Rowe travel with the team, I have no doubt that they really enjoyed the experience of swimming outside the county and watching Olympians swim. Both swimmers swam really well recording numerous personal best times. Grace previously had only swam 1:13.72 short course for 100m Free, to see her swim 1:09.58 long course this weekend bodes well for both her and the other swimmers that have just moved up!

As mentioned previously I was really pleased with Team Southampton’s attitude and atmosphere, which is something I am keen to promote. Overall it was an excellent weekend, which I hasten to add could have only been made better if more CSSC swimmers committed to – 2013 Swansea Open Meet (usually 2nd weekend in May) – place this one in your diary’s early.

Full results are available to view on Swim Swansea's website.

The next big competition for our Age Group swimmers will be the SE Region Championships and for those Youth swimmers that have qualified for Nationals – Sheffield calls! For those swimmers who have not quite made this cut we are now in training for the ‘Fareham End of Season Open Meet’ held here at the Quays (entry forms to be returned to Michelle Rowe by Tuesday 15th May 2012).

As I have reiterated many times previously the difference and progress all our swimmers will make between now and the end of the season will be the swimmers Attitude , Attendance and Application in Training.

David Terry
Head Coach