Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club

Affiliated to Swim England East Region

Competition reports

BSSC Masters Shine at Frank Rider Masters Charity Gala

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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.

BSSC Youngsters Shine at Thurrock

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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

Golden Time at Swim Wales

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BSSC Masters competition regular, Elizabeth Bellinger, pulled out of the Febrary Sudbury Masters event with an injury, but although still in recovery, she managed to compete in the Swim Wales Masters Long Course Championships in Swansea over the St David’s Day weekend.

Lizzie took Gold in all four events she entered, bettering her entry times on three events and improving two of the East Region records she already held. Congratulations!

Gold 200m IM (2:39.04)
Gold 50m Fly (PB, 30.17)
Gold 100m Free (PB, 1:04.50)
Gold 100m Fly (PB, 1:07.15)

Record Breaking Gold Rush for BSSC Masters at Sudbury

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On 16th Feb, four fabulous BSSC Masters headed to Sudbury for the 25th Valentines Open Meet. David Kelleway (25-29Yrs), Peter Kelleway (60-64Yrs), Helen Shingler (50-54Yrs) and Sally Winter (60-64Yrs) were all in stunning form, taking gold medals in every event they entered and also getting lots of personal best times. Having recently achieved some European Long Course records in her new age group, Sally Winter bagged a short course European Record at Sudbury, taking nearly 3 seconds off the old 200m Free record!! Congratulations to them all.

Results are below:

David Kelleway (25-29Yrs)
Gold in all 5 events
53.50 100m Free
25.25 50m Free
1:02.64 100m Fly
26.74 50m Fly
2:07.35 200m Free

Pete Kelleway (60-64Yrs)
Gold in all 5 events
33.75 50m Back
1:05.63 100m Free
2:46.13 200m IM
1:15.42 100m Back
1:15.26 100m IM

Helen Shingler (50-54Yrs)
Gold 3:04.81 200m IM

Sally Winter (60-64Yrs)
Gold (European Record!) 2:25.83 200m Free

BSSC Swimmers Fly High at Hertfordshire County Championships

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With older swimmers and top BSSC Gold medallist after weekends 1&2 Kaia Phillips away at a meet in Sheffield, the responsibility was left with the younger BSSC swimmers for the final weekend of the Hertfordshire County Championships.  All swimmers stepped up and performed admirably, securing eight more medals and ensuring that BSSC finished fourth in the individual medals table behind the large clubs of Hatfield, Watford and City of St Albans (third if we could have counted new recruit Callum’s medals as ours!).

On Saturday the 14 year olds dominated the Butterfly events, with Gold for Jessie Fields in 50m, and Golds for Grace Mason and Callum Cox in the 200m, whilst Jago snatch Gold in the 200m Back.  Kirsty Neill (13 Years) added to her medal collection with her fourth Gold of the Championship (400m IM).

The final day of Counties wrapped up with the fast and furious freestyle and medley relays.  Twenty one BSSC swimmers were in action but it was the 14/15 year old girls who were on superb form, with both the Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle relay team (Issy Good, Meisha Trend-Evans, Jessie Fields, Lilian Opiyo) and the Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley relay team (Freya Reilly, Lauren Gore, Jessie Fields and Lilian Opiyo) storming past the Watford teams on their way to Bronze medals.  It was a great way to end a fantastic Championships.

Congratulations to all our competitors for their successes, the way they supported each other and how they represented BSSC.  Thanks to everyone who helped in some way to the running of the sessions – let’s try and get even more of us helping out next year as our attendance continues to grow.  Finally, well done parents – you survived three weeks of bag packing, food provision, snack sourcing and emergency purchases and provided lots of great encouragement and cheering.

The Weekend 3 County finalists (50/100m events), top 8 finishers (200/400/800m events) and medallists were:

  • Womens 50m Fly: Gold Jessie Fields (14 Yrs), Silver Alice Longman (13 Yrs), 4th Issy Good (15 Yrs), 5th Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs)
  • Mens 50m Back: Silver Callum Cox (14 Yrs – Ware), 4th Jago Derrington (14 Yrs), 6th Oliver Gisborne (12 Yrs)
  • Womens 200m Back: 4th Freya Reilly (15 Yrs)
  • Mens 200m Fly: Gold Callum Cox (14 Yrs), 7th George Taylor (13 Yrs)
  • Womens 200 Fly: Gold Grace Mason (14 Yrs), Silver Jess Penkul (16/Over), 8th Ellen Millar-Bond (13 Yrs)
  • Mens 200m Back: Gold Jago Derrington (14 yrs), 7th Beau Reilly (12 Yrs) & Callum Cox (14 Yrs), 8th George Grimwood (13 Yrs)
  • Womens 400m IM: Gold Kirsty Neill (13 Yrs)

The 21 relay swimmers were:

  • 11 Yrs Ethan David-Tostevin, Zoe Opiyo
  • 12 Yrs Eliza Andrews, Leo Suo-Saunders
  • 13 Yrs Ellen Millar-Bond, George Cooper, George Grimwood, George Taylor, Imogen Tang, Kirsty Neill
  • 14 Yrs David Badcock, Fergal Barry, Jago Derrington, Jessie Fields, Lauren Gore, Lilian Opiyo, Meisha Trend-Evans, Sam Carter, Seb Clark
  • 15 Yrs Freya Reilly, Issy Good

Final relay results were:

  • Bronze: Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
  • Bronze: Womens 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley Team
  • 5th place: Mens 10/13 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
  • 5th place: Womens 10/13 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
  • 5th place: Womens 10/13 Yrs 200m Medley Team
  • 6th place: Mixed 10/13 Yrs 200m Medley Team
  • 6th place: Mixed 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team
  • 6th place: Mens 10/13 Yrs 200m Medley Team
  • 7th place: Mixed 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley Team
  • 8th place: Mens 10/15 Yrs 200m Medley Team
  • 9th place: Mens 10/15 Yrs 200m Freestyle Team