Events

Although January & February are long cold months for most people, they are exciting ones for many BSSC swimmers as the Swim England Hertfordshire County Championships take place.  This year, thirty-nine swimmers aged 11-28 qualified for 179 individual events and 18 relays, which will be held in Borehamwood over three weekends. 

The first session of weekend one was kicked off in style by sisters Lois & Emma Fields taking Silver in the 200m Backstroke (12 years) and Bronze in the 100m Butterfly (16+ years).  Other medals soon followed and over the weekend BSSC swimmers won 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 4 Bronze individual age group medals and 37 of the 54 swims resulted in top 8 finishes in the County:

• Gold: Callum Cox (100m Butterfly 16+ years), Ella Greatbatch (200m Breaststroke 15 years), Kirsty Neill (200m Breaststroke 16+ years), Lucy Wheeler (100m Freestyle 16+ years), Meisha Trend-Evans (800m Freestyle 16+ years)
• Silver: Dan Chada (50m Backstroke 16+ years), Dylan Davenport (50m Backstroke 14 years), Lois Fields (200m Backstroke 12 years), Molly Greatbatch (200m Breaststroke 13 years)
• Bronze: Brandon Macdonald-Williams (800m Freestyle 15 years), Callum Cox (50m Backstroke 16+ years), Emma Fields (100m Butterfly 16+ years), Laura Burgess (100m Freestyle 16+ years)
• Top 8 finishes: Beau Reilly, Brandon Macdonald-Williams, Dylan Davenport, Elliot Hall, Emma Fields, Ethan David-Tostevin, Guy Spearman-Baines, Felice Chan, Lauren Gore, Lois Fields, Jago Derrington, Jakey Hayes, Meisha Trend-Evans, Miriam Moukdad, Molly Greatbatch, Robert Gor

Another Bronze medal was secured by the Mens 15/Under 200m Freestyle relay team of Robert Gor, Brandon Macdonald-Williams, Beau Reilly and Dylan Davenport who out-touched City of St Albans Swimming Club by 0.76 seconds, whilst the Mixed Championship 200m Freestyle relay team of Callum Cox, Emma Fields, Laura Burgess and Callum Davis were fourth in their event.

Even though some of them may not have medalled this weekend, our younger swimmers stepped up superbly to this level of competition. Every swimmer in the 11-13 year age groups achieved a personal best time in every event they entered, and all of them got a PB to qualify for a final and then smashed out another one in the final. Congratulations to Guy Spearman-Baines (10/11 years), Lois Fields (12 years) and Elliot Hall & Molly Greatbatch (13 years).

Swimmers additionally competed to be crowned Hertfordshire Junior (15yr and under) and Open Champions (10yr and over) and eight swimmers had great success.  In the Junior Championships, Ella Greatbatch took Gold in the 200m Breaststroke and Brandon Macdonald-Williams got Bronze in the 800m Freestyle. 

In the Open Championships, Callum Cox got the Gold award in 100m Butterfly and Bronze in 50m Backstroke; Lucy Wheeler took Gold in 100m Freestyle; Meisha Trend-Evans Gold in the 800m Freestyle; Dan Chada secured Silver in the 50m Backstroke; and Emma Fields got Bronze in 100m Butterfly; whilst Kirsty Neill got Silver and 15 year old Ella Greatbatch the Bronze in the 200m Breaststroke.

Full list of individual qualifiers by age group:

10/11 years: Adeline (Yin Hei) Chan, Guy Spearman-Baines, Noah Conroy

12 years: Benjamin Palmer, Eddy (Ting Hei) Cheng, Lois Fields

13 years: Elliot Hall, Molly Greatbatch

14 years: Bobbie Macdonald-Williams, Dylan Davenport, Ethan David-Tostevin, Felice (Kwan Yi) Chan, Zoe Opiyo

15 years: Beau Reilly, Brandon Macdonald-Williams, Ella Greatbatch, Freya Hadnutt, Robert Gor

16+ years age group:

• 16 year olds: Alice Longman, George Grimwood, George Taylor, Imogen Tang, Jakey Hayes, Kirsty Neill
• 17 year olds: Callum Cox, Emma Fields, Grace Mason, Jago Derrington, Laura Burgess, Lauren Gore, Lilian Opiyo, Meisha Trend-Evans, Miriam Moukdad
• 18+ year olds: Bella Parkus, Freya Reilly, Daniel Chada, Niamh James, Lucy Wheeler, Jake Lloyd

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