Events

The BSSC Arena League team are still on track for promotion after a resounding win in round 2!  Back at the Hertfordshire Sports Village for a rematch against Hertford and Hoddesdon along with new clubs Broomfield Park, Verulam and Ware, the BSSC team won their round 2 gala with 212 gala points (5 short of their round 1 total) and were 54 points ahead of Broomfield Park in second place.  They had top 3 finishes in 28 of the 34 individual events (15 victories!) and five 1^st and three 2^nd placed relay teams. 

The 15 swimmers getting to the top of the podium were:

• 10/11 Yrs: Lois Fields 50m Butterfly
• 13/Under: Molly Greatbatch 100m Breaststroke
• 15/Under: Alice Longman 100m Freestyle, Ella Greatbatch 100m Breaststroke, Jacob Hayes 100m Backstroke, Kirsty Neill 100m Butterfly
• 16/Over: Callum Cox 100m Freestyle, Callum Davis 100m Butterfly, Emma Fields 100m Butterfly, Jago Derrington 100m Backstroke, Jake Lloyd 200m IM, Laura Burgess 100m Freestyle, Lauren Gore 100m Breaststroke, Niamh James 200m IM & 100m Backstroke

The third and final round happens early December with the top six teams in the division competing for promotion and BSSC racing head to head for the first time with Enfield, who have also won their first two galas.  The clubs have joint first position in Division 2 based on league points, but Enfield have the edge after two rounds with 464 overall gala points compared to Stortford’s 429.  Joint third are Saxon Crown and Broomfield Park (352 and 304), fifth Hoddesdon and sixth Harpenden swimming club.  A top two finish in the round 3 gala will guarantee promotion, a third place would require a count back on points across all rounds, so it’s all to swim for!

Thanks to all who supported the team on the night, in particular coaches Benoit Grattepanche, Laure Grattepanche & Joe Collins, Team Managers Sarah Neill & Kat Gore and officials Claire Fields & Steve Burgess.

Full squad:

9-11 Yrs: Adeline Chan, Millie Cass, Lois Fields, Guy Spearman-Baines, Noah Conroy, Zackary Haslett Fossey

13/Under: Felice Chan, Molly Greatbatch, Zoe Opiyo, Dylan Davenport, Elliot Hall

15/Under: Alice Longman, Ella Greatbatch, Imogen Tang, Kirsty Neill, George Grimwood, George Taylor, Jacob Hayes, Robert Gor

16/Over: Emma Fields, Laura Burgess, Lauren Gore, Niamh James, Callum Cox, Callum Davis, Jago Derrington, Jake Lloyd

Outstanding performances during the first half of 2022, have resulted in Kirsty Neill, Ella Greatbatch, Molly Greatbatch and Elliot Hall being selected onto the 2022/23 Swim England Talent Pathway. 

The Swim England Talent team have developed a pathway to help identify, support and enhance the development of athletes for the Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games of the future.  The first step of the Swim England Talent Pathway is the County Development Programme (CPD), where County Talent teams work with 11 year olds demonstrating early talent in all strokes through their performance in the 200m Individual Medley (200m IM) in either long course (50m, priority) or short course (25m) events. 

Fantastic long course 200m IM performances in the first half of 2022 ensured twelve year olds Molly Greatbatch and Elliot Hall were selected to attend step two of the pathway, the Regional Development Programme (RPD).  Throughout the 2022/23 season they will join the top swimmers in the East Region (24 male and 24 female) and attend a series of workshops focused on improving their skills in and out of the water.

Step three, the Swim England National Age Group Development Programme (NAGDP), is aimed at athletes aged 13-14 years and is the first part of the pathway delivered by the England Talent Team.  By this age, up to 288 swimmers are selected across England (48 swimmers from each of six zones) based on their rankings and FINA points for an event and superb long course breaststroke performances secured 14 year old Ella Greatbatch her place for a second year.  Each world record for an event (e.g. Female Long Course 100m Breaststroke) is given FINA points of 1000 and every swimmer’s time is converted into a fraction of that time.  Ella needed at least one time with more than 525 FINA points to be considered for selection, and her current best time is for 200m Breaststroke converts into 634 FINA points.  She is currently ranked 7^th in Britain for her age group in the long course 200m Breaststroke, 8^th in 100m Breaststroke and 19^th in 50m Breaststroke.  As well as continuing to improve abilities across all strokes, the NAGDP additionally focuses on tactical awareness, race process goals, self-awareness and self-reflection. 

Kirsty Neill continues to deliver excellent performances and move through the stages of the pathway and for 2022/23 she moves into step four, the Swim England National Youth Development Programme (NYDP).  The NYDP is for the top 120 ranked 15-16 year olds in England meeting the required FINA points (>600 female and >550 male 15 year old).  Like Ella, 15 year old Kirsty also dominates in breaststroke and is currently 2^nd in Britain  in the long course 200m Breaststroke, 8^th in 100m Breaststroke and 13^th in 50m Breaststroke.  The NYDP builds on all aspects of the previous parts of the pathway, in particular technical and tactical racing skills and the understanding of how training processes in the pool and on land underpin race day performance. 

The next focus for Kirsty will be attaining selection to the fifth step, the Swim England Youth Performance Squad (YPS), which prepares swimmers for international competitions, in particular the European Junior Championships.

Congratulations to all four swimmers for their hard work and successes so far.

Superb performances during the first part of 2022 resulted in five Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club members being selected to join a team of swimmers representing Hertfordshire at the Swim England National County Team Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.  The 28-strong team of swimmers chosen from nine Hertfordshire swimming clubs would normally only compete against each other, but they came together as team mates in Sheffield to compete against 32 Counties of England and four regional teams from Scotland and Wales. 

Emma Fields, Kirsty Neill & Lauren Gore had previously competed at National events at Ponds Forge, the home of British Swimming, but none of the BSSC swimmers had been part of the unique thrill that is the National County Team Championships.  In this fun and colourful event, the 37 teams are split into two Divisions and both compete at once in different halves of the 50m pool.  Based on 2019 results, Hertfordshire were in Division 2 with the races starting from the diving pool end whilst Division 1 were racing simultaneously from the scoreboard end.  

After a 6.15am start at the Hertfordshire Sports Village, the Herts team arrived in Sheffield, donned their war (face!) paint and joined more than 900 swimmers ready to do their County proud.  The noise in the venue was deafening, but the atmosphere was electric resulting in some great performances from the whole County team with many personal best times and fantastic relay splits.  The BSSC swimmers swam excellent races with Lauren Gore coming 4^th in the individual 16/17 Yrs 100m Breaststroke (1:13.74 PB) and Kirsty Neill 6^th in the individual 14/15 Yrs 100m Breaststroke (1:15.84).  The 14/15 Yrs 200m Medley Relay Team with Kirsty on the Breaststroke leg were 5^th; the 16/17 Yrs 200m Medley Relay Team with Lauren Gore on Breaststroke, Emma Fields on Butterfly and Meisha Trend-Evans on Freestyle came 9^th; and the Mixed Open 300m Freestyle Relay Team with Alice Longman and Emma Fields on legs 3 & 5 came 13^th. 

By the end of the competition Division One winners were Kent, Division Two winners were Derbyshire and Hertfordshire had secured a very respectable mid-table 11^th place in Division Two.  No promotion this year, but all the swimmers had an amazing experience and hope for a good 2022-23 season so they can be selected again next year.

BSSC swimmers:

• 14/15 Yrs: Kirsty Neill (100m Breaststroke, Medley Relay), Alice Longman (Freestyle Relay)
• 16/17 Yrs: Emma Fields (Medley & Freestyle Relays), Meisha Trend-Evans (Medley Relay), Lauren Gore (100m Breaststroke, Medley Relay)

Hertfordshire Clubs represented (number of swimmers): Bishops Stortford (5), Bushey (1), City of St Albans (6), Harpenden (1), Hatfield (9), Hoddesdon (2), Potters Bar (1), Stevenage (1) and Watford (2).