Events

Minimes swimmer Miriam Moukdad flew to Casablanca early August to compete at the Moroccan National Championships for the first time. She got to the open finals in 200m IM, 50m & 100m Breaststroke and came joint third in the open final of the 200m Breaststroke. She also was successful in
relay races: Silver in 4x200m Girls Free Open final and Bronze in 4x100m Girls Free Open final, and in Age Group competitions a Silver in 4x100m Mixed IM and 4x100m Girls IM.

Former club member Sami Zemzami was also competing and took Gold in 200m Fly, Bronze in 100m Fly and various relay medals.

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 5-9^th 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 8^th in a personal best time in the final of the 16 years 100m Breaststroke.

Laura Burgess (N&D PP SC) came 4^th 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:

• Ella Greatbatch: Gold 200m Breaststroke; Bronze 100m Breaststroke
• Callum Cox: Gold 50m Butterfly
• Lauren Gore: 8th 100m Breaststroke
• Emma Fields: 12th 50m Butterfly
• Jago Derrington: 13th 400m Freestyle; 16th 100m Backstroke
• Laura Burgess (N&D PP SC): 4th 100m Freestyle