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 27th overall in the 200m Breaststroke (18th 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 30th 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 19th in the 200m Backstroke (2:14.97) and 36th in the 100m Backstroke (1:03.55).
