Bishop's Stortford Swimming Club
Affiliated to Swim England East Region
Whilst the rest of the club were on a summer break, two of our triathletes were racing in a Sprint distance triathlon as part of the European Multisports Championships in Munich. Grace and Eleanor Mason joined 12 other Team GB athletes in the Under 20 age group to compete in the 750m swim / 20km cycle / 5km run event. Both athletes performed brilliantly with Grace coming 7th in 1:14.30 and Eleanor 9th in 1:16.02.
The Swim England Open Water National Age Group Championships is the premiere competition for young open water swimmers in England and this summer it was held in Thrybergh Country Park, Rotherham. Having taken Silver in the 16 year age group at the Swim England East Region Open Water competition back in July in her first ever 5km open water race, BSSC’s Meisha Trend-Evans gained automatic qualification for the national race. In a 5km event where the finest young open water swimmers in the country and future Olympians hone their skills, she finished 12th in her age group with a personal best time.
Meisha has been selected for the East Region Triathlon academy which is the first stage of the British Triathlon World Class Performance Pathway, and regularly competes in the National Super Series. Her superb National Open Water result and academy performances have qualified her to represent the East Region in the Triathlon events at the School Games National Finals being held at Loughborough University early September.
The National Summer Meet is Swim England’s biggest domestic swimming event of the year and it made a welcome return 5-9th August 2022 after a three year gap. The Summer Meet forms part of a swimming competition structure in Great Britain whereby the top ranked swimmers are first invited to compete at the British Swimming Summer Championships and the next 20 ranked swimmers are invited to compete at the Nationals. The rankings are on swimmers’ performances at level 1 meets between a qualification window, typically between March and May of the same calendar year.
BSSC had five swimmers competing in the 2022 Summer Meet: Ella Greatbatch (14 yrs), Emma Fields (16 yrs), Lauren Gore (16 yrs), Callum Cox (16 yrs) and Jago Derrington (16 yrs). New BSSC member, Laura Burgess (16 yrs) competed for her old club.
All of these swimmers were new to this Summer meet, but all stepped up and gave brilliant performances – Ella, Laura, Lauren & Callum reached finals in their events and Ella & Callum medalled!
Having been inspired by Kirsty Neill’s silver medal winning performance at the recent British Championships, Ella Greatbatch gave us two personal best times and extremely close finishes in the heats and finals of the 14 years 200m Breaststroke, taking Gold by 0.13 seconds! She also won a Bronze medal in the 100m Breaststroke.
Callum Cox swam out of his skin in the 16 years 50m Butterfly, taking a second off his personal best time in the heat and another half a second off that new PB in the final to win the event! In fact, his Gold medal winning time was the fastest in Britain for his age group in the past 12 months, and would have won the British Championship event in the same pool two weeks earlier.
Lauren Gore came 8th in a personal best time in the final of the 16 years 100m Breaststroke.
Laura Burgess (N&D PP SC) came 4th in the final of the 16 years 100m Freestyle, dipping under the one minute barrier for the first time.
Huge congratulations should go to all the swimmers for their performances and also to BSSC head coach Benoit Grattepanche and former BSSC coach Mathieu Leroy for their support and guidance.
We also want to send congratulations to former club member Tain Phillips, who won Gold in the 13/14 yrs 200m Backstroke.
Full results:
After a covid enforced break of three years, the prestigious British Summer Championships returned this August to provide a key end-of-season competition opportunity for home nation athletes. It was held from 22nd-28th July at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, and the top 24 swimmers in Britain in each event and age group were invited to compete.
BSSC had five local swimmers invited for the 2022 Championships: Ella Greatbatch (14 yrs), Kirsty Neill (15 yrs), Lauren Gore (16 yrs), Jago Derrington (16 yrs) and Niamh James (19 yrs/Over). New BSSC member Laura Burgess (16 yrs) represented her old club, whilst two swimmers from Team Bonn in Germany who were born and taught to swim in Bishop’s Stortford, Toby and William Godsell (15 & 17 yrs), swam under the BSSC umbrella.
Competing against the best in Britain was a fantastic as well as nerve racking experience for all the swimmers, with only Niamh James having previously been invited to a summer championships, but they all represented themselves and the club superbly.
Kirsty Neill (BSSC) secured a superb silver medal in the 15 years 200m Breaststroke in a BSSC club record beating time, in a thrilling race that had everyone on the edge of their seats (yet again!). She had qualified for the final in a new personal best time and in the final was stroke for stroke with the swimmer she beat at the Scottish Nationals back in April, until the last wall when she was just out touched for the gold. She also finalled in the 100m Breaststroke, coming 10th.
Niamh James (BSSC), competing in the 19 years and above category, put in a strong personal best performance to come 9th in the 200m Backstroke final.
Toby Godsell (Team Bonn) also had a great championships, taking silver in the 50m/100m Backstroke and 200m IM finals and bronze in the 200m Backstroke final. Will Godsell (Team Bonn) finalled in every event he entered coming 5th in 50m Breaststroke, 6th in 100m Breaststroke, 7th in 200m IM and 8th in 200m Breaststroke.
Huge congratulations should go to all the swimmers for their performances and also to BSSC head coach Benoit Grattepanche and former BSSC coach Mathieu Leroy for their support and guidance.
Full Results:
