Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club
Affiliated to Swim England East Region
Three BSSC Masters swimmers have been named in the 2020 FINA World Masters Top 10 Rankings. Despite limited competition opportunities in the UK compared to many other Countries, Elizabeth Bellinger (40-44yrs), Alyson Fordham (60-64yrs) and Sally Winter (60-64yrs) secured multiple top 10 finishes in their age groups.
Lizzie was first in the world long course rankings for 50/100m butterfly, whilst Sally (BSSC Club President) was first in short and long course 200m freestyle.
Five members of BSSC were recently named amongst the fastest in the country in a Swim England virtual competition. Level X was launched in October 2020 to allow swimmers to compete from their own training pools and over 16,200 swimmers from 430 clubs uploaded 94,000 swims to the National Level X database.
Even with only two months of training in late 2020 and just one Level X competition night on 3rd November, Kirsty Neill (13yrs) and Millie Fields (16yrs) secured top 10 finishes in England in their age groups, with Kirsty 4th in 100m Breaststroke and 5th in 50m Breaststroke and Millie 8th in the 100m Freestyle. Top 20 finishes were also achieved by Meisha Trend-Evans (14yrs 50m/100m Freestyle), Jessie Fields (14yrs 100m Butterfly) and Alex Catton (17yrs 100m Backstroke).
With competitions still cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Swim England has invented a new way for swimmers to compete with others across the country from the comfort of their own club training sessions and they call it Level X. Up until Halloween, Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club had planned to launch round one of Level X in November and December and Friday Nights were going to be Race Nights!
Unfortunately, Boris had other ideas, so the Tuesday evening before lockdown 2.0 started, over 100 Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club members attended their final training sessions and got ready to race for one night only. BSSC officials dusted off their whites and added visors to their uniform, whilst swimmers wriggled into race costumes not used since mid-March. It was a fun evening as many of the usual competition rules were relaxed with boys and girls in same race, and breaststrokers and flyers going up against back and freestyle specialists for the battle of the strokes. Some swimmers now have an exciting wait whilst clubs across England upload their results to the National Level X database, as some of the swims put BSSC members first in the East Region and even England based on the current uploaded results! However, with lockdown now firmly in place and pools closed to hirers, the promised Level X Friday Night Race Nights will have to wait till 2021.
A 15-strong team of Bishop’s Stortford swimmers competed for the first time in the Frank Rider charity event hosted by Erith & District Swimming Club on Sunday 15th March. Other teams competing were Saxon Crown SC, Kent Weald SC and two teams from Erith SC.
Many swimmers from BSSC were competing for the first time in 20+ years and for a couple it was their first taste of competitive swimming. We were also delighted to have a few of our senior (18-25yr) swimmers join us in their first taste of Masters swimming. Nerves ran high and during the warm up, the younger swimmers were helping others with race starts and relay take overs.
The event consisted of mainly relay events, including a Butterfly 4 x 50m race and a Backstroke 4 x 50m relay. All were mixed age group so we had 18 year olds swimming with 60 year olds and a 25m race for every age group on all strokes except front crawl. We had 3 joker rounds but sadly only one 1st place – the Mens 18+ (50m) and 60+ (25m) combined backstroke event swam by Callum Davis and Peter Kelleway.
BSSC finished 3rd with 117, 2 points behind Saxon Crown 115 and Erith A just won with 111. (Lowest score wins, with Saxon Crown having a 40 point handicapped head start).
A great evening was had by young and old and all agreed we would be back next year. A total of £289 was raised for Breast Cancer charity.
Early March, more than 50 members of Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club headed to the Regional Qualifier Gala hosted by Thurrock Swimming Club. For the younger swimmers it was a chance to beat their best times and maybe collect some bling, whilst the older swimmers were also chasing times for the Swim England East Region Championships.
The whole squad had a very successful meet, with swimmers medalling in every event and winning 22 Gold, 20 Silver and 21 Bronze medals.
The nine year old Boys squad of Arthur Longman, Caulder Paxton, Elliot Hall and Samuel Bird performed brilliantly, showing great promise for the future with at least one of them medalling in every event they had entered.
The 12/13 year old girls were particularly dominant, especially in 200m Breast and 200m Free where they took all three medals, and in the 50m Fly where cousins Jessie and Emma Fields took Gold and Silver.
Many of the swimmers obtained East Region qualifying times, though they unfortunately won’t get a chance to show their skills on that bigger stage just yet, as those events are now postponed. As with many sports, there have been some big disappointments with recent cancellations, and the pool closures mean they are now fish on dry land trying to keep swim fit as best they can whilst waiting for the season to restart.
Congratulations to all BSSC swimmers on their achievements in the 2019/20 season!
09 Yrs Age Group
• Arthur Longman: Silver 100m Breast; Bronze 50m/200m Breast
• Elliot Hall: Silver 50m Breast, 50m Fly; Bronze 50m Free
• Samuel Bird: Silver 100m Free
10/11 Yrs Age Group
• Beau Reilly: Gold 200m Back; Silver 400m Free; Bronze 100m Back
• Catherine Clune: Gold 50m/100m Breast; Bronze 100m Free
• Eliza Andrews: Gold 50m/100m/200m Back; Bronze 400m Free
• Hannah Robinson: Bronze 50m Breast
• Leo Suo-Saunders: Gold 50m Breast; Silver 50m Free, 100m/200m Breast; Bronze 100m Free
• Zoe Opiyo: Silver 200m Breast
12/13 Yrs Age Group
• Alice Longman: Gold 100m Free
• Callum Cox: Gold 100m Fly; Silver 50m Back, 50m Fly, 100m Free; Bronze 50m Breast, 200m Fly, 200m IM
• Emma Fields: Silver 50m Fly
• Grace Mason: Bronze 400m IM
• Jago Derrington: Gold 200m/400m Free, 100m Back; Silver 200m Back; Bronze 50m Back
• Jessie Fields: Gold 50m/100m Fly; Silver 200m Free
• Kirsty Neill: Gold 50m/200m Breast, 200m/400m IM; Bronze 200m/400m Free
• Lauren Gore: Gold 100m Breast; Silver 50m/200m Breast
• Meisha Trend-Evans: Gold 50m/200m Free; Silver 100m/400m Free; Bronze 100m Back
• Miriam Moukdad: Bronze 200m Breast
14 Yrs/Over
• David Badcock: Bronze 200m Breast
• Hannah Morgan: Bronze 50m Breast
• Lilian Opiyo: Gold 50m Free; Silver 50m Breast; Bronze 100m/200m Breast
