Events

BSSC swimmers had a great start to the second weekend of the Hertfordshire County Championships, with at least one swimmer qualifying in each of the six male 100m freestyle age group finals and final results for that event including one gold, one silver and one bronze.  There was plenty to cheer about over the whole weekend, with 4 Gold, 5 Silver and 7 Bronze age group medals and 38 top 8 finishes in the County and a championship relay Gold.

The most successful BSSC age group medallist this weekend was Dylan Davenport in the 14 years age group who secured two gold (50m & 100m Freestyle), one silver (50m Butterfly) and one 4^th place (100m IM), but special mention must go to Noah Conroy who swam in the youngest 10/11 years age group in his first County championships and won two Bronze medals (50m Butterfly & 100m Freestyle) and a 9^th place (50m Freestyle). 

The moment that had everyone at the pool screaming and parents watching via YouTube shouting at their screens, was the Female Championship 200m Medley relay.  The final ended up as a head to head battle between the teams from BSSC and Hatfield, with every pair of swimmers having their own individual nail biting races.  BSSC kicked off with Niamh James on backstroke, then Lauren Gore on breaststroke, Emma Fields on butterfly and Laura Burgess on freestyle.  The swimmers from the two clubs were so evenly matched that both freestylers left the blocks at the same time for the fourth and final leg of the relay and it came down to the touch at the end, with Burgess not breathing for the final part of the length and stretching to give Stortford the gold by 0.19 seconds in a time of 2:01.55!

Swimmers additionally competed to be crowned Hertfordshire Junior (15yr and under) and Open Champions (10yr and over) and five swimmers had great success on weekend two.  In the Junior Championships, Ella Greatbatch took Gold in the 100m Breaststroke and Robert Gor got Bronze in the 200m Breaststroke.  In the Open Championships, Callum Cox got the Gold award in 50m Butterfly, Silver in 100m Freestyle and Bronze in the 50m Freestyle; Emma Fields achieved Silver in the 50m Butterfly and Bronze in 50m Freestyle; whilst Lauren Gore took Bronze in the 100m Breaststroke.

Weekend Two Age Group Medals:

• Gold: Dylan Davenport (50m & 100m Freestyle 14 years), Ella Greatbatch (100m Breaststroke 15 years), Callum Cox (50m Butterfly 16+ years)
• Silver: Elliot Hall (50m Butterfly 13 years), Dylan Davenport (50m Butterfly 14 years), Callum Cox (100m Freestyle 16+ years), Emma Fields (50m Freestyle & 50m Butterfly 16+ years)
• Bronze: Noah Conroy (50m Butterfly & 100m Freestyle 10/11 years), Molly Greatbatch (100m Breaststroke 13 years), Robert Gor (200m Breaststroke 15 years), Callum Cox (50m Freestyle 16+ years), Laura Burgess (50m Freestyle 16+ years), Lauren Gore (100m Breaststroke 16+ years)
• Top 8 finishes: Benjamin Palmer, Brandon Macdonald-Williams, Dan Chada, Dylan Davenport, Ella Greatbatch, Elliot Hall, Felice Chan, George Taylor, Grace Mason, Imogen Tang, Jake Lloyd, Kirsty Neill, Lauren Gore, Molly Greatbatch, Niamh James

All relay teams were top 8 finishers:

• Gold Women Championship 200m Medley – Niamh James, Lauren Gore, Emma Fields, Laura Burgess
• 4^th Women 15/Under 200m Medley – Freya Hadnutt, Ella Greatbatch, Zoe Opiyo, Felice Chan
• 5^th Men 13/Under 200m Freestyle – Benjamin Palmer, Noah Conroy, Eddy Cheng, Elliot Hall
• 7^th Mixed 13/Under 200m Freestyle – Adeline Chan, Lois Fields, Benjamin Palmer, Elliot Hall

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).