Events

The Swim England National Winter Championships is the biggest English swimming meet of the winter months and always promises some exciting racing with the fastest swimmers in England competing across three days of action at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge pool.  Qualification is tough, but outstanding short course (25m) swims during Sept-Nov secured spots for six BSSC members to compete across 14 events.

• Ella Greatbatch (14 years) – 50m/200m Breaststroke
• Kirsty Neill (15 years) – 50m/100m/200m Breaststroke
• Callum Cox (16 years) – 50m/100m Freestyle, 50m/100m Butterfly
• Laura Burgess (16 years) – 50m Freestyle
• Lauren Gore (16 years) – 50m Breaststroke
• Niamh James (18 Over) – 100m/200m Backstroke, 200m IM

All swimmers stepped up to the occasion and swam superbly, but two swimmers deserve particular mention. 

Kirsty Neill was 27^th overall in the 200m Breaststroke (18^th in the 17/Under summary) and her time of 2:36.02 was only 0.04 seconds away from qualifying for the Junior final.  The time also improved both the 14/15 year and Open BSSC short course club records that she has held since summer 2021.  Prior to Kirsty achieving the records the 14/15 year record had been held since 2007 by Bernice Edgeworth (2:44.9) and the Open record since 1993 by Clare Burrows (2:40.0).

Niamh James recorded a new personal best in the 200m IM (2:20.96) coming 30^th overall, which also gave her the BSSC Open club record that had been held since 2015 by Amy Young (2:21.6).  Niamh was also the club’s top performer over the weekend, coming 19^th in the 200m Backstroke (2:14.97) and 36^th in the 100m Backstroke (1:03.55). 

At a thrilling third round Arena League gala, BSSC swimmers went head to head with nearest rivals Enfield Swim Squad in an attempt to win the league and gain promotion.  Every race was hard fought and many came down to fingertip finishes, but they were second on the night with 187 gala points to Enfield’s 212, whilst nearest rivals Saxon Crown and Broomfield Park tied on 124 gala points each.

The BSSC team battled valiantly in all their races and had top 3 finishes in 25 of the 34 individual events (8 victories) and three 1^st, one 2^nd and two 3^rd placed relay teams.  The swimmers getting to the top of the podium were:

• 15/Under: Jacob Hayes 100m Backstroke, Kirsty Neill 100m Butterfly & 100m Breaststroke
• 16/Over: Emma Fields 100m Butterfly, Jago Derrington 100m Backstroke, Lauren Gore 100m Breaststroke, Niamh James 200m IM & 100m Backstroke

Second place in the final round means BSSC finishes a superb second overall in Division 2 of the London league with 50 points, trailing 1^st place Enfield by just two points.  New season club captains Freya Reilly and Jakey Hayes accepted the second place pennant on behalf of the club.  The team now has to wait until the start of next season for final confirmation, but their performances over the three rounds of competition should be enough for promotion to Division 1 in 2023.

Thanks to all swimmers who took part across the three rounds. Thanks also to those who supported the team on the night, in particular coaches Benoit Grattepanche & Joe Collins, Team Managers Sarah Neill & Kat Gore and officials Claire Fields & Steve Burgess.

Round 3 team:

9-11 Yrs:

• Millie Cass, Lois Fields
• Benjamin Palmer, Eddy Cheng, Zackary Haslett Fossey

13/Under:

• Felice Chan, Bobbie Macdonald-Williams
• Dylan Davenport, Elliot Hall, Ethan David-Tostevin

15/Under:

• Imogen Tang, Kirsty Neill
• Brandon Macdonald-Williams, George Taylor, Jacob Hayes

16/Over:

• Emma Fields, Laura Burgess, Lauren Gore, Niamh James
• Callum Cox, Callum Davis, Jago Derrington

Kicking off the 2022/23 short course championship season is the Swim England East Region SC Championships, aka Winter Regionals.  Fifteen BSSC swimmers headed to Luton to compete against the best swimmers that the six Eastern counties of England could offer.  Qualification had been split into three age groups to ensure the most talented younger swimmers could enter, but the event itself was an open race, so young qualifiers like 14 year old Ella Greatbatch battled against seasoned competitors in their twenties.  Reaching a final meant you were in the top eight swimmers in the East Region for that event, irrespective of age.

The first full day of competition kicked off in style with Niamh qualifying for the 50m Backstroke final with a personal best time (PB, 29.76), and finishing 6^th in the final (30.05).  Later that day as returning champion in the 200m Backstroke, she fought off a strong challenge from a Team Ipswich 16 year old to take Gold by 0.23 seconds in 2:14.75.

In the 50m Freestyle, Callum Cox, Callum Davis and Jake Lloyd all swam PBs (23.57, 24.45, 25.96). Sixteen year old Callum Cox’s time secured him a place in the final where he came 4^th (23.82) in an event won by an eighteen year old. 

Emma Fields was on form in the 100m Freestyle with a PB in the heats of 59.17 and she knocked 0.01 seconds off that new PB to come 7^th in the final.

Callum Cox swum a great heat in 50m Butterfly with a PB of 25.40 and was straight into the final, whilst Callum Davis was joint 8^th (25.77) and had to swim off for a final place.  Incredibly, both swimmers achieved identical results for the second time in the swim off, but the officials deemed the other swimmer had broken a technical rule and should be disqualified, moving Callum Davis into the final.  Both performed well in the final, with Callum Davis coming 5^th (25.63), and Callum Cox 7^th (25.99, 1^st under 18 year old).

The excitement continued on the Sunday, with Niamh coming 4^th in the 200m IM final (2:22.21) and 5^th in the 100m Backstroke (1:04.17).

Kirsty Neill and Ella Greatbatch swam strong times to secure places in the 200m Breaststroke final (2:37.08 and 2:39.54 PB), where they came 6^th and 7^th (2:39.71 and 2:40.29) and were the 1^st and 2^nd under 16 year old competitors.

Callum Davis and Callum Cox both qualified for the 100m Butterfly final (57.44 & 57.71 PB), where Callum Davis came 6^th (57.86) and Callum Cox came 8^th (1:01.21), the 2^nd swimmer under 18 in a field dominated by 22 year olds.

Lauren Gore secured her place in the 50m Breaststroke final with a PB (33.43) and came 6^th in the final (33.53), the 2^nd under 18.  Fourteen year old Ella was 12^th in the event with a PB (33.85) and a 14/15 year BSSC Short Course club record.  In July 2021, Kirsty Neill broke the 14/15 year 50m Breaststroke record (35.1) with a time of 34.85, that had stood since 2007 (Bernice Edgeworth). Since then she dropped it multiple times down to 34.37, but 14 year old Ella smashed that record with a 33.85. 

Full list of qualifiers: Ella Greatbatch (14 years); Alice Longman, George Taylor, Jacob Hayes, Kirsty Neill (15 years); Callum Cox, Emma Fields, Grace Mason, Lauren Gore, Meisha Trend-Evans, Miriam Moukdad, (16 years); Bella Parkus (17 years); Callum Davis, Jake Lloyd, Niamh James (18 over).

Qualified but unable to swim: Laura Burgess, Jago Derrington (16 years).