Kicking off the 2023/24 short course championship season is the Swim England East Region SC Championships, aka Winter Regionals. Twenty-one BSSC swimmers headed to Luton to compete against the best swimmers that the six Eastern counties of England could offer. A single set of qualifying times per gender category, meant only the super speedy youngsters like 14 year old Dylan Davenport feature on the start lists and they would be battling against experienced competitors in their twenties. Reaching a final meant you were in the top eight swimmers in the East Region for that event, irrespective of age.
Up first were the distance specialists competing in the 800m and 1500m freestyle events and Brandon Macdonald-Williams kicked the competition for BSSC off in superb style, coming 10th in the 1500m and breaking a long standing 14-15 year old short course club record by 6 seconds (new time: 17:18.00). The previous record of 17:24.22 had been set by Thomas Green in 2005.
Six BSSC swimmers reached finals in their events and twelve swimmers finished in the top twenty in the East Region in their event, an outstanding achievement. Although Dylan Davenport was 39th overall in the 50m Freestyle, he was the 2nd fastest 14 year old in the field, whilst Jakey Hayes was the 3rd 16 and under swimmer in both the 100m Backstroke (13th overall) and 200m Backstroke (9th overall). Both Dylan and Jakey continued their recent great form by swimming personal best times and qualifying for the Swim England National Winter Championships for the first time. Dylan will compete in the 50m Freestyle and Jakey in the 100m and 200m Backstroke and they are joining Ella Greatbatch (50m/100m/200m Breaststroke), Laura Burgess (50m Freestyle), Lauren Gore (50m Breaststroke) and Niamh James (50m Backstroke, 200m IM).
Top 20 finishes (Individual and Relay):
- Laura Burgess 4th 50m Freestyle (26.55 heat, 26.64 final), 4th 100m Freestyle (58.27 heat, 58.74 final)
- Callum Davis 4th 100m Butterfly (57.68 heat, 57.27 final), 12th 50m Butterfly (26.23)
- Emma Fields 6th 100m Butterfly (1:05.81 heat, 1:05.19 final), 13th 50m Butterfly (29.35)
- Niamh James 7th 200m Backstroke (2:19.99 heat, 2:21.44 final), 8th 200m IM (2:24.52 heat, 2:25.15 final), 15th 50m Backstroke (30.59), 8th 100m Backstroke (1:05.16)
- Ella Greatbatch 7th 100m Breaststroke (1:13.38 heat, 1:13.50 final), 8th 200m Breaststroke (2:40.09), 13th 50m Breaststroke (33.72)
- Jake Lloyd 8th 100m Butterfly (58.78 heat, 59.78 final), 16th 100m Freestyle (53.77), 18th 200m Butterfly (2:19.09)
- Jakey Hayes 9th 200m Backstroke (2:10.73),13th 100m Backstroke (1:00.53)
- Dan Chada 11th 50m Freestyle (24.36)
- Lauren Gore 16th 50m Breaststroke (33.96), 18th 200m Breaststroke (2:44.84)
- Brandon Macdonald-Williams 19th 400m Freestyle (4:23.41)
- Meisha Trend-Evans 20th 800m Freestyle (9:44.53)
- Grace Mason 20th 200m Butterfly (2:40.90)
- Female 200m Freestyle Relay: 5th BSSC
- Female 200m Medley Relay: 6th BSSC
- Mixed 200m Freestyle Relay: 6th BSSC A and 9th BSSC B
- Mixed 200m Medley Relay: 6th BSSC A, 9th BSSC B
- Open/Male 200m Medley Relay: 6th BSSC A, 14th BSSC B
- Open/Male 20m Freestyle Relay: 7th BSSC
Full list of qualifiers: Dylan Davenport (14 years); Beau Reilly, Brandon Macdonald-Wiliams, Ella Greatbatch (15 years); Alice Longman, George Taylor, Imogen Tang, Jacob Hayes, Robert Gor (16 years); David Badcock, Emma Fields, Grace Mason, Laura Burgess, Lauren Gore, Meisha Trend-Evans, Miriam Moukdad (17 years); Callum Davis, Dan Chada, Jake Lloyd, Lucy Wheeler, Niamh James (18 over).