Events

After a gap of two years, the Swim England East Region Long Course Championships returned in 2022, with two full weekends of exhilarating competition!  Twenty nine BSSC swimmers qualified to compete against the top swimmers from the six eastern Counties of England – Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk.

For many of these swimmers, it was their first opportunity to compete at this Regional level and they all dug deep and stepped up to the occasion, ensuring BSSC finished 15^th out of more than 40 clubs and the 2^nd ranked Hertfordshire club.  Individually the swimmers secured many personal bests, had 32 top eight finishes and also brought home eight medals:

• Kirsty Neill (15 Yrs): Gold 50m/100m/200m Breaststroke
• Niamh James (17 Yrs/Over): Gold 200m Backstroke
• Ella Greatbatch (14 Yrs): Silver 50m/100m Breaststroke
• Jago Derrington (16 Yrs): Silver 200m Backstroke
• Lauren Gore (16 Yrs): Bronze 50m Breaststroke
• Top eight finishes: Callum Cox, Callum Davis, Dylan Davenport, Emma Fields, Hollie Heighes, Meisha Trend-Evans, Millie Fields, Sami Zemzami

Congratulations to all our swimmers who took part in these Championships. We look forward to celebrating many more successes resulting from all the hard work you put into training.

Full list of swimmers:

• 11/12 Yrs: Elliot Hall, Maisy Martindale, Molly Greatbatch
• 13 Yrs: Dylan Davenport, Ethan David-Tostevin, Felice Chan, Zoe Opiyo
• 14 Yrs: Brandon MacDonald-Williams, Ella Greatbatch, Hollie Heighes
• 15 Yrs: Alice Longman, George Grimwood, George Taylor, Imogen Tang, Jacob Hayes, Kirsty Neill
• 16 Yrs: Callum Cox, Emma Fields, Grace Mason, Jago Derrington, Jessica Fields, Lauren Gore, Lilian Opiyo, Meisha Trend-Evans, Miriam Moukdad
• 17 Yrs/Over: Callum Davis, Millie Fields, Mohamed Sami Zemzami, Niamh James

Early April 2022, the Swim England East Region organised a new development competition at the UEA pool in Norwich.  It ran with the same age groups as the main East Region championship competition and offered swims to those just shy of the championship qualifying times / entry standards.  Seven Bishop’s Stortford Swimming Club members met the consideration times and joined swimmers from over sixty clubs for two exhilarating days of racing. 

Every swimmer achieved personal best times and Molly, Ella, George and Emma secured six medals (3 Gold, 3 Silver) and multiple top eight finishes.  Congratulations to all swimmers on their achievements, especially Ella, George and Molly who also reached the qualifying standards for the main East Region Championships.

BSSC Swimmers: Lois Fields (11 Yrs); Meha Patel, Molly Greatbatch (12 Yrs); Ella Greatbatch (14 Yrs); George Grimwood (15 Yrs); Emma Fields (16 Yrs).

Five events, five finals, seven PBs and three medals at a National level competition!  BSSC Elites swimmer Kirsty Neill recently headed north of the border to the Scottish National Age Group championships (SNAGS), the largest event in the Scottish National swimming calendar that pre-pandemic attracted over 1000 athletes from across the UK and beyond.  After a three year hiatus, the 2022 competition was held at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow and Kirsty qualified for five events in the 15 year age group: 50/100/200m Breaststroke, 200m Individual Medley and 400m Freestyle. 

Day one of the competition and Kirsty secured a place in the 50m Breaststroke final with a great personal best (PB) time and broke her own PB in the final that evening to get Bronze.

Next up was Kirsty’s favourite race, the 200m Breaststroke.  In qualifying she was narrowly beaten into second place, but after some text conversations with her BSSC coach, Mathieu Leroy, who was watching on the YouTube live stream back in Stortford, she absolutely stormed to Gold and a new PB in the final.  Having been nearly 2.5 seconds behind the leader at the turn for the final length, the commentary on the live feed during her winning comeback was hugely entertaining!

“Well, I did not see that coming at all”

“She should not be able to do that – it should not be possible”

“Came back like a train”

Days three and four there were more two more events, two more finals and four more PBs, resulting in 6th in the 400m Freestyle and 4th in the 200m IM.

The final day of the competition was another breaststroke day, this time the 100m and another rivalry with the swimmer she beat into second in the 200m Breaststroke.  Unfortunately, this time it was Kirsty’s turn to lose out, but she still secured a superb Silver medal.

Congratulations to Kirsty for all her performances (and the family for the great support!), but especially the 200m Breaststroke swim that makes her the fastest 15 year old in Britain.