Wonder Weekend For Dolphins Swimmers

Swimmers from Flitwick Dolphins were in action at both ends of the Country during the first weekend of March – at the Bedfordshire County Championships in Biggleswade and the DSE/Nationwide Junior National Championships in Sheffield – and both competitions ended with major success for the local swimming club.

Building on a rousing performance in the opening session, the club performed strongly at the first full weekend of this year’s Bedfordshire ASA County Championships at the Saxon Pool in Biggleswade, propelling the Club to third place in the County medals table. This year’s Championships haul now stands at 15 Gold, 18 Silver and 9 Bronze medals, plus 19 Regional Qualifying Times, 21 Club Records and 98 Personal Best times.

Simon Weighell (14) displayed speed and stamina in equal measure to win the inaugural male junior SKINS knockout event, with Tom Winder (13) sixth. Breaststroke sprint specialists Tom and Simon also picked up second and third places in the Leighton Buzzard Cup, and Simon was second in the Florance Hill Cup.

In the BAGCAT events, Isabelle Martin (11) took Gold in the 100m and 800m freestyle events but had to settle for Silver in the 50m and 100m breaststroke and 200m backstroke despite breaking Club Records in all three events. This sustained performance leaves Isabelle in a strong second position in the BAGCAT table.

Georgina Halford (12), who takes part in a relay cross-channel swim this August in aid of Diabetes UK, showed a talent for long-distance events by winning both the 800m freestyle and 200m butterfly. Good results in other events pushed Georgina into fourth place in the BAGCAT table.

Aran Chamberlain-Clark (13) and Tom Winder (13) dominated their age-group events. Tom struck Gold in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, 50m butterfly, 200m freestyle and 200m medley events, taking Silver in the 100m freestyle and 200m backstroke. Aran fought back with victories in the 200m backstroke and 200m butterfly and Silver for the 200m freestyle and 50m butterfly. A close contest is in prospect over the final Championships weekend with Tom currently first and Aran third in the Boys 13 years BAGCAT table.

Simon Weighell (14) also swam strongly, with Gold in 50m and 100m breaststroke and Silver in 100m and 800m freestyle, and holds second place overall in the Boys 14 years BAGCAT table. Aran, Simon and Tom were joined in the boys 11-14 years medley relay team by Toby Willson but were just pushed into second place despite Aran setting the early pace with a new 50m backstroke Club Record over the first leg.

Close competition between David Allen and Colin Weighell saw them end the weekend in fourth and fifth places in the Boys 12 years table. David recorded seven Personal Bests in eight races including two medals and three Regional qualifying times. Colin achieved three Regional times, with eight PBs and one medal.

Simon Liddle (16) achieved five Personal Bests and was rewarded with a Silver medal for the 200m backstroke. Rhianydd Jones (15) and Carl Halford (15) both swam Regional qualifying times and set new Club Records for 800m freestyle. Rhianydd picked up a Bronze medal but Carl just missed out in fourth place.

Further personal best times were recorded by Loren Chamberlain-Clark (16), Jamie Engineer (12), Amy Foley (11), Kieran Hagger (10), Clara Neary (10), Kayleigh Russell (11), Louise Simmons (15), Megan Underwood (10), Toby Willson (14), James Winder (11) and Amber Woods (9).

Head coach Diane Brinkler was delighted by competitive performances achieved by the entire squad. The club looks forward to further success over the final Championships weekend.

Meanwhile, the club’s swimmers with a disability Sam Tilbury (16), Claire Warne (15) and Sean McGeever (12), got their competition season off to a flying start at the DSE/Nationwide Junior National Swimming Championships in Sheffield over the same weekend. Competing as part of the Eastern Region team they brought home 16 medals between them, 13 of which were Gold. The event attracted over 200 10-18 year-old disability swimmers from all over Great Britain, including a team from Greece, and with World, European and British Records broken at the competition, shows the top quality Great Britain has in disability swimming.

For Sam and Claire this was their first chance to check their race preparations for the upcoming Beijing Paralympic trials, being held at the end of March and April. Both Sam and Claire are on British Swimming World Class Programmes, with Sam being a member of National Talent Squad and Claire a member of the World Class Pathway (Development) Level.

Claire, who has cerebral palsy, was in fine form, coming home with a clean-sweep of 7 gold medals in her classification and good personal bests in 5 of the 7 events she competed in, including taking over 9 seconds off her existing short-course IPC European Record in the 200m I.M., the event in which she won her bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships. She also took 3 seconds off her short-course British Record in the 50m backstroke and 5 seconds off her 200m freestyle personal best – both of these are events she is targeting at the Paralympic trials. Claire commented: “I was very happy with my results from the weekend because I believe that this is a good platform to build on leading up the trials.”

Visually impaired Sam was fighting a shoulder injury throughout the weekend and unfortunately had to pull out of her events on the second day of the competition, but still managed 5 gold medals on the first day and a personal best in her 50m breaststroke event. She now faces a tough fight to be fit for the first trials at the end of this month, but is determined to be present at the competition.

For 12-year-old Sean, who like Claire has cerebral palsy, this was his first major disability event. Sean has only been swimming for a year and has made major strides forward in his training over the last few months. His results at the competition certainly showed the hard work he has been putting in with outstanding personal best times and medals, including one gold, in all four individual events he took part in. He also helped the team to a bronze medal in the 400m freestyle relay.

Flitwick Dolphins Assistant Coach, Becky Gilbertson, herself an ex-GB international disability swimmer, accompanied the trio to Sheffield and commented: “I was delighted with the performances of the Flitwick swimmers in Sheffield, Claire and Sam continue to impress and Sean competed exceptionally well at his first national competition, and proved he is also one to watch in the future.”

To find out more about Flitwick Dolphins or to arrange a trial, please phone Ann Wren on 01525 872107 after 7pm or visit their website at: www.flitwickdolphins.com.

Beds ASA County Championships Results

10 March 2008