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.
The 2020 British Swimming Championships was one of the big competitive events cancelled last year, but it has been announced that they hope to run it at the London Aquatics Centre at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park 14-18 April 2021. The 2021 British Swimming Championships will form part of the qualification process for the Tokyo Olympic Games and will help select teams for the remaining 2021 summer international meets, both senior and junior.
Despite 2020 training and competition opportunities being limited, four members of Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club have qualified to compete in April if the event goes ahead:
Congratulations to them all for their achievements.
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.
Two members of Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club were recently selected for activities run by the England Swimming Talent team for top young athletes in England.
Kirsty Neill (13yrs) will be part of 430 13-14 year old swimmers attending the Swim England National Development Programme learning and engagement day. The Covid adjusted day will contain a series of online workshops and dry land conditioning sessions, but unfortunately no pool time.
Having previously attended Swim England National Event camps, Millie Fields (16yrs) has been selected for the two year Swim England Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) run in partnership with Loughborough College. This unique government funded level 3 BTEC aims to prepare high potential athletes to develop in their sport at an Elite level. Millie will join an illustrious list of course alumni including Adam Peaty and Rebecca Adlington.
These selections are a high point to a season that ended in disappointment when major championships were cancelled due to the lockdown. Kirsty should have been competing at the Scottish National Age Group Championships and Millie should have been at the British Swimming Championships for the first time in April and they were both also on track for qualification for National Summer meets. Congratulations to them both and we look forward to reporting on their progress when we return to the water.
