BSSC take on the East of England

Twenty five BSSC swimmers recently competed against the top swimmers from the six eastern Counties of England – Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk – at the Swim England East Region Long Course (50m) Championships.  For many of the BSSC swimmers it was their first taste of a regional level competition and they stepped up to the additional challenge, securing many personal bests and breaking club records. 

Four swimmers had outstanding performances and won medals in their age groups:

• 11/12 years: Summer Miller Bronze 200m Butterfly
• 14 years: Molly Greatbatch Silver 100m Breaststroke
• 15 years: Dylan Davenport Bronze 100m Butterfly
• 16 years: Ella Greatbatch Gold 200m Breaststroke

There were an additional twenty-seven additional top eight finishes:

• 11/12 years: Summer Miller (6^th 100m Butterfly, 7^th 50m Butterfly & 400m IM), Noah Conroy (7^th 100m Butterfly)
• 14 years: Molly Greatbatch (7^th 50m Breaststroke)
• 15 years: Dylan Davenport (4^th 50m Freestyle, 8^th 100m Freestyle)
• 16 years: Brandon MacDonald-Williams (6^th 400m/800m/1500m Freestyle, 8^th 400m IM), Volodymyr Ignatiev (5^th 50m Butterfly, 8^th 50m Breaststroke)
• 17+: Niamh James (4^th 50m Backstroke, 7^th 100m Backstroke & 200m IM), Laura Burgess (5^th 50m Freestyle), Emma Fields (6^th 100m Butterfly), Jake Lloyd (6^th 200m Butterfly), Lucy Wheeler (6^th 100m Freestyle)
• Relays: 4^th Female 17 Yrs/Over 400m Free Team (Laura Burgess, Niamh James, Emma Fields, Lucy Wheeler), 5^th Open/Male 17 /Over 400m Free Team (Callum Davies, George Grimwood, Jakey Hayes, Jake Lloyd), 8^th Open/Male 17 /Over 400m Medley Team (Jakey Hayes, Callum Davies, George Grimwood, Jake Lloyd)

There were so many other outstanding performances that it’s hard to just pick a few highlights, but we’ve had an attempt! 

Although eleven year old Noah Conroy did not make the 11/12 year old 50m butterfly final, his heat time of 35.64 broke the BSSC Age 10-11 long course record that had been held by Max McCusker since July 2010.  Brandon MacDonald-Williams improved his own Open age long course 1500m freestyle club record by nearly 6 seconds, swimming 17:40.62 to finish 6^th overall. 

Two BSSC swimmers featured in the Regional Top Swimmer awards.  Molly Greatbatch gained personal best (PB) times in 5 of her 7 swims and was joint 9^th in the Top Female 14 years category whilst Summer Miller, in her first ever Regional level competition, gained PBs in 9 of her 11 swims and was joint 15^th in the Top Female 11/12 years category.

Harrison Dodwell, BSSC’s youngest competitor at just 10 years old on the day of the championships, competed in the 50m breaststroke in the 11/12 year old category (age is defined by 31^st Dec 2024).  He couldn’t better the time he set in the same pool at Easter, but came very close and was the 5^th fastest (nearly) 11 year old, showing great promise for the 11/12 age group next year.  The other swimmers in the 11/12 year age group all achieved personal bests in their events: Elspeth Lowe (38.56 50m Backstroke), Guy Spearman-Baines (43.34 50m Breaststroke, 1:36.02 100m Breaststroke) and Jenson Richards (43.95 50m Breaststroke).

Congratulations to all our Regional swimmers for their outstanding performances.  We look forward to seeing nine of them in action over the summer at the British and English Summer National championships (highlighted in bold below).

Full list of BSSC swimmers:

• 11/12 Yrs: Elspeth Lowe, Guy Spearman-Baines, Harrison Dodwell, Jenson Richards, Noah Conroy, Summer Miller
• 13 Yrs: Benjamin Palmer, Lois Fields
• 14 Yrs: Elliot Hall, Molly Greatbatch
• 15 Yrs: Dylan Davenport, Felice Chan, Volodymyr Ignatiev
• 16 Yrs: Brandon MacDonald-Williams, Ella Greatbatch, Freya Hadnutt
• 17+ Yrs: Callum Davis, Emma Fields, Jake Lloyd, Jakey Hayes, Laura Burgess, Lauren Gore, Lucy Wheeler, Miriam Moukdad, Niamh James