WREKIN SWIMMING CLUB
16-17 SEASON
ENGLISH SUMMER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Ponds Forge, Sheffield - 2nd - 6th August
As a coach, each year you always try and aim to repeat, or even improve, on any success of the previous year. At this year’s English Summer National Championships, it turned out to be more successful than the 2016 nationals in every way, we had more swimmers, in more events, making more finals with more Personal Best times and winning more medals. This sort of success is a great advert for Wrekin College SC and inspirational to the younger swimmers of our club.
For Sam Neeld and Aron Preece this year was their first time competing at these championships. Aron qualified for the 400IM in the 18&over age group, he swam well and finished 12th, now he has had a taste of Nationals I’m sure he will be competing in several events next year. Sam started off with a good swim in his 400m IM, after that he was more settled and went on to qualify for three further finals, achieving Long Course Personal Bests in all his races.
Having already swam the previous week at the British Nationals, Zara Leleux, Will Slawson and Ella Thatcher-Plant continued to up their swimming game during the English nationals by winning medals. For Will this was his third time competing at these championships, in previous years Will has just missed out on gaining a podium position, this year he achieved his aim by winning Bronze in the 200m Fly with a great swim and grabbing that third position in the final 25metres. Will also achieved PB’s in all his races. Ella went into the final of the 400m FC seeded fourth but managed to achieve the Silver in a very close finish with the top four girls, as well as improving on her heat time with yet another PB. Zara came away from the competition with two medals. The first was in the 100m Fly where the pressure was on her as she went into the final as favourite, with ten metres to go she fought her way to the front to win Gold. Zara’s last event, the 800m FC was on the last day. After two weeks of competing Zara had to dig deep to swim as well as she could which paid off as she came away with the Silver medal, and yet another LCPB.
As the results show, this year has been a very successful Championships and a great way to finish off the end of a busy swimming year. Hopefully these achievements will inspire the rest of our club's swimmers to work hard and train well when we start back after our much deserved holiday. I'm a very happy coach and very proud of all our swimmer's achievements at this year's Nationals, enjoy your summer break.
David Clarke - Youth Coach
English Summer Nationals 2017
Aron Preece, Will Slawson, David Clarke-coach, Sam Neeld, Ella Thatcher-Plant, Zara Leleux
Ella Thatcher-Plant
15yr age group
Silver - 400FC
Zara Leleux
16yr age group
Gold - 100Fly
Silver - 800FC
Will Slawson
18yr&over
Bronze - 200Fly
OPEN WATER NATIONAL AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Rother Valley - 30th/31st July
Having qualified for this event at the Regional Open Water event, where Holly Townson took the title of West Midlands champ in the 17/18yr age group.
Holly was ready to take on the challenge of this National event competing against the Country's fastest female open water swimmers.
With tough, cold and windy conditions throughout the 5k race, Holly did herself and the club proud finishing a creditable 14th with a time of 01:05:37.97.
BRITISH SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Ponds Forge Sheffield - 25th-30th July
BRITISH SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP 2017 COMPETITORS
Zara Leleux, Will Slawson & Ella Thatcher-Plant
Wrekin had three swimmers competing at this year’s British Championships, held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. Last year we only had Ella Thatcher Plant qualify for this event, this reflects how well the club is doing in producing top level swimmers. The competition consists of the top 24 British swimmers in each age group for each event, which highlights how good the swimmers must be to qualify. So, through their hard work and determination, it was a great achievement for Zara Leleux, Ella Thatcher-Plant and Will Slawson just to be there.
Ella competed in the same event she qualified for at last year’s British Champs, the 800m F/C. However, this year she improved her finishing position from 12th to 4th and swam a 2.5sec PB.
Zara started off with a good first swim in the 400IM but her next event the 200Fly, which is her best event, she swam a 0.1 PB in the heat and scraped into the final in 9th place. However, in the final she swam her best race of the year not only did she swim a 4.5sec PB, she also made PB’s at the 50m and 100m mark and improved her place by finishing 4th overall.
For Will this was his first ever British Champs, and qualified for the 400IM and if he swam his entry time would of made the final but unfortunately he didn’t swim as well as he could on the day but still managed to finish in 13th overall.
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
Zara Leleux 400m IM – 05:16.19 - 16th
400m F/C – 04:34.80 - 16th
200m Fly
Heat – 02:22.12 PB
Final – 02:17.55 PB - 4th
Ella Thatcher-Plant 800m F/C - 09:14.30 PB - 4th
Will Slawson 400m IM – 04:41.30 - 13th
WOLVERHAMPTON OPEN MEET 2017
Wolverhampton - July 15/16th
For most of our swimmers who attended this meet it was their last chance to compete before the summer break, and for our National qualifiers it was a chance to do some race practice before they soon head off to Sheffield.
There were some great Personal Best times set by the team, with some achieving further PB's from their racing just two weeks ago. To top the weekend off many top three places were taken by Wrekin College swimmers, and a huge congratulations goes to Harriet Smith for taking the top girl trophy in the 13 years age group.
For most of our swimmers a well deserved summer break is now definitely needed after a fantastic year of competing. Unfortunately for some of the older members of the team they still have British, English and Open Water Nationals to compete in before they can enjoy their summer break.
Harriet Smith - Top Girl 13yr Age Group
Coaches Rachel and David with their team of young swimmers
Rachel with her Wrekin College Development Squad, many of whom competed at their first major event this weekend.
SHROPSHIRE SUMMER DEVELOPMENT COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Wolverhampton - July 1st & 2nd
Shropshire Summer Development County Championships took place this weekend at Wolverhampton Central baths. Wrekin had 26 young swimmers competing over this weekend of racing. Most of these swimmers joined our new Wrekin College Development squad September 2016 and have been working towards these championships since. Apart from some race practice at club time trials, this meet was their first ever major competition. Our swimmers were very excited at the prospect of their first weekend of racing, whilst some of our parents supporting looked very nervous about it all.
However, it was a great weekend of swimming, with many massive Personal Best times achieved and fifteen of our swimmers came away with many top three placed medals. This year included team relays which just about everyone competed in. This was exciting for both swimmers and parents, with lots of encouragement coming from the spectators stands. Again, most of our relay teams came away with top three placed medals.
There were some disappointing disqualifications, mainly due to turn errors, but this is all a learning curve for a swimmer's development, teaching them how important it is to work on turns in training.
Junior Coach, Rachel Reilly, was very proud of how all her swimmers performed and with a few swimmers already posting County Qualifying times, Rachel is hopeful that many more will go on to qualify for next year's main County Championships in January.
Special mention to the following young swimmers for gaining 2018 County qualifying times:
Jess Hindley - 100 & 200 Breast ** Eva Sambhi - 100 & 200 Breast ** Tiegan Dunne- 100 & 200 Breast ** Amy Pryce - 200 back **
** Will Milne - 100 back ** Seb Ball - 100 FC, 100 & 200 back **
MIDLAND
OPEN WATER CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Bosworth Water - July 2nd
This one day event found Youth member Holly Townson racing at Bosworth Open Water Champs. Competing in open water brings a different challenge to our swimmers with a chilly water temperature of 18.6 degrees recorded by Bosworth staff in preparation for this meet.
Holly took the challenge head on and did herself and the club proud by taking second place in the Midland Women's Open 5k race with a time of 0:50:52.9, gaining the title of West Midlands Champion and qualifying for the National Open Water Championships on July 31st.
Holly Townson
West Midland Open Water Champion 2017 - Women's Open Age Group
Chloe Cowie - Top Girl 15&over Age Group
NORTHGATE SPRING OPEN MEET 2017
Wolverhampton - May 21st
Two weeks after our success at the Midland Championships it was time for the rest of the squad swimmers to compete. We had eleven members competing at the Northgate one day open meet. For three of them this was their first time swimming competitively for Wrekin College Swimming Club, so well done to Macy Males, Jack Males and Lily Thatcher-Plant
on doing the club proud with some great swims. All our swimmers achieved many PB's and six members took home medals.
Jack Males - 2 Gold, 4 Silver
Chloe Cowie - 1 Gold, 2 Silver, 1 Bronze
Hannah Ross - 4 Bronze
Mason Carter - 1 Silver
Abbey Birchall - 1 Bronze
Megan Suffell - 1 Bronze
WEST MIDLANDS CHAMPIONSHIPS 29TH APRIL TO 7TH MAY 2017
SECOND WEEKEND
6/7th May
The second weekend of the West Midlands Championships was a shorter weekend but had some tough events for our swimmers to compete in with the main events being the 200/400IM and 200Fly. With most of our swimmers qualifying for the finals too, shows how tough our team are, and how important regular training is to cope with these events.
Wrekin finished off the second weekend by winning 5 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze medals. Also to finish off the championships there was a top performance girl and boy for each age group. Winning the top 16yrs Girls was ZARA LELEUX
and top 17+ boy was WILL SLAWSON, so well done to them and ALL OUR SWIMMERS
who did Wrekin College proud over the last two weekends. Click here
to see a summary of the best performances.
Zara Leleux
- West Midland Champs Top Girl 16yr age group
Will Slawson
- West Midland Champs Top Boy 17&over age group
FIRST WEEKEND
29th April to 1st May
The first weekend of the West Midlands Championships also included the bank holiday Monday, making the event three full days of racing. This did not stop our swimmers rising to the challenge though, although some were tiring towards the end of the final day, they all had a fantastic weekend of competing and produced some amazing performances.
Wrekin finished the first weekend with a medal haul of eleven Gold, nine Silver and six bronze. With the highlight of the weekend being our senior boys taking Bronze, Silver and Gold in the 400m FC. Click here
to see a summary of our swimmers' best performances.
WREKIN 1 2 3 AT REGIONALS
Wrekin senior boys take top positions in the West Midlands 17&over 400 FC final.
Will Slawson - Gold
Sam Neeld - Silver
Aron Preece - Bronze
DERVENTIO EXCEL MEET
8/9th April 2017 - Ponds Forge, Sheffield
A team of eight Wrekin swimmers travelled to Sheffield to compete long course with the aim of more LC practice and, for some, another chance to improve their rankings for British and English Nationals. Its still early days before the closing dates, so a lot of swimming to go still, but the way the swimmers competed and the times they achieved either improved or set down times that did just that. Down to those great swims some of the team are, as it stands, now in the top 24 of the British Rankings.
As well as having a great weekend of the team gaining PB's Wrekin Swimming Club finished 10th in the top club table out of sixty clubs competing. This is an amazing achievement considering we only had eight swimmers. To finish the weekend on a high,
Will Slawson came away with Top boy and
Sam Neeld with third in the 17&over age group. And
Eve Leleux
came away with Top Girl in the 14yr age group. May the success continue.
Will Slawson - County Champs Top Three 16&over age group
Harriet Smith - County Champs Top Three 13yrs age group
SHROPSHIRE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Coaches David and Rachel were really pleased with all the swimmers who took part in the two full weekends of swimming at the County Champs. There were some fantastic performances with Personal Best times and West Midland qualifying times coming in thick and fast. It was great to see the swimmers raise their game for the Championships and produce some brilliant swims. Especially so from our new swimmers who were competing at their first counties for Wrekin College and they all did the club proud with their performances.
There is still lots of racing to go this season so its straight back into the training pool for everyone. A huge well done to all who took part.
SHROPSHIRE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Wolverhampton - 25/26th February
A huge well done to all our swimmers who competed at the second weekend of this year's County Championships. It was another great weekend of racing. A special well done to Will Slawson and Harriet Smith for finishing in the top three overall winners in their age groups.
120 Personal Best Times achieved
53 West Midlands Qualifying times, achieved by:-
Sam Neeld - 5
Will Slawson - 6
Aron Preece - 6
Holly Townson - 2
Elisa Costache - 1
Tess Sanders - 2
Zara Leleux - 6
Ella Thatcher-Plant - 4
Eve Leleux - 6
Anya Preece - 6
Harriet Smith - 8
Will Timmins - 1
Medals Won
Three Gold
Will Slawson - 1 Eve Leleux - 1
Anya Preece - 1
Thirteen Silver
Harriet Smith - 8 Will Slawson - 1
Leon Steer - 1 Sam Neeld - 1
Will Timmins - 2
Fourteen Bronze
Will Slawson - 1 Eve Leleux - 1
Anya Preece - 3 Aron Preece - 1
Sam Neeld - 3 Leon Steer - 1
Ella Thatcher-Plant - 2
Will Timmins - 2
SHROPSHIRE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS 2017
Wolverhampton - 18/19th February
Well done to all our swimmers who competed at the first weekend of this year's County Championships. As expected, it was a high standard competition but our swimmers did Wrekin Club proud by rising to the challenge, the summary of the results proves it!
121 Personal Best Times achieved
49 West Midlands Qualifying times, achieved by:-
Sam Neeld - 3
Will Slawson - 8
Aron Preece - 5
Holly Townson - 1
Elisa Costache - 2
Tess Sanders - 2
Zara Leleux - 6
Ella Thatcher-Plant - 4
Eve Leleux - 7
Anya Preece - 5
Harriet Smith - 6
MEDALS WON
Six Gold
Harriet Smith - 4 Will Slawson - 2
Nine Silver
Harriet Smith - 5 Will Slawson - 1
Leon Steer - 1 Sam Neeld - 1
Ella Thatcher-Plant - 1
Ten Bronze
Will Slawson - 3 Eve Leleux - 3
Zara Leleux- 1 Will Timmins- 1
Harry Sanders - 1
Ella Thatcher-Plant - 1
BURNS OPEN MEET
Sheffield - 28/29th January 2017
Having had half the squad compete at Coventry two weeks ago, it was time for the rest of the team to start their long course season off by travelling to Sheffield to compete at the Burns Level One Open meet.
There was a lot of tough competition here, especially in the older age groups, with swimmers from over 35 clubs across the country competing, and some exceptionally strong teams from Wales. Over the full weekend we had some great swims from the team, achieving 45 Long Course personal bests between them, and several very close to their PB's.
Anya Preece, Eve Leleux
and Will Slawson
came away with medals.
Adding more West Midland qualifying times to their list were:
Anya Preece - 400FC
Eve Leleux - 400FC
Ella Townson - 100FC
Ella Thatcher-Plant - 100FC & 200FC
Sam Neeld - 50 Fly
CITY OF COVENTRY OPEN MEET
Coventry - January 14th 2017
Kicking off the Long Course swimming season Wrekin had twelve swimmers competing at the City of Coventry's one day open meet. This gave the chance to compete before February's County Championships and gain some long course race experience. More club swimmers will be doing the same at the end of January by competing at the Burns LC meet in Sheffield.
Even though Coventry was a very long day with three sessions, the team swam well, achieving a massive 71 personal best times between them. Ten out of the twelve swimmers came away with medals by finishing in the top three. Winning golds were, Abby Birchall, Harriet Smith, Will Timmins, Megan Suffell and
Jack Manning. And a huge well done to both
Harriet and
Will who came away with top boy/girl trophies in the 12 year old age group.
See Results for full details.
Harriet Smith - Top Girl 12yr Age Group
Will Timmins - Top Boy 12yr Age Group
Northgate PB Buster
Eve Leleux - Top Girl 12/13 age group
Mason Carter - Top Boy 10 year age group
NORTHGATE PB BUSTER 2016
Wolverhampton - November 26th & 26th
Once again a huge well done to all our swimmers who competed this weekend at Northgate PB Buster, for most it was only their second competition of the swimming year. Last month at the Shrewsbury Open Meet we saw some great times and PB's being achieved by all our swimmers, this weekend those same swimmers achieved even faster times in the same events. An achievement which makes all the training and hard work everyone puts in worth while.
This weekend Wrekin swimmers achieved 129 Personal Best times out of 187 swims, a magnificent effort by all who attended.
With only a small squad of twenty swimmers competing we still managed to make third place in the Top visiting club rankings, behind clubs who had many more swimmers than us. This again shows the quality of the swimming from our competitors ensuring plenty of points were scored from top eight positions.
To add to the great weekend of results, a special mention needs to be made to a few of the team who excelled. Congratulations to Mason Carter
on winning Top Boy in the 10 year old Age Group and Eve Leleux
for winning Top Girl in the 12/13 year old Age Group. Jack Manning
also finished with equal Top points in the 16&over Age Group, but lost out on the trophy to the count back of 1st places.
Huge well done to Megan Suffell, Eleanor France
and Mason Carter
also, after some great PB's over the last two swim meets have gained their first ever County times for the 2017 Championships.
See Results for full details.
MIDLAND SHORT COURSE CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016
Nottingham - November 5th & 6th
Wrekin College had a record number of eight swimmers who qualified and competed at the Midland Short Course Champs held at Harvey Hadden Sports Village, Nottingham. Will Slawson, Sam Neeld, Aron Preece, Holly Townson, Tess Sanders, Zara Leleux, Ella Thatcher-Plant and Eve Leleux.
This competition has only two age groups 15&under and 16&over, so its a tough competition to take part in. However this did not phase our swimmers in the slightest, as they rose to the challenge of the competition by achieving 33 Personal Best times out of 42 events entered.
Will Slawson qualified for the 400IM final and finished 4th. Zara Leleux swam a great 200 Free, earning herself the bronze medal in the 15&under age group.
To add to the excellent swimming over the weekend from all our swimmers, Ella Thatcher-Plant and Zara Leleux achieved their first ever National Short Course qualifying times. Zara qualifying in the 200m Free and Ella gaining qualifying times in both the 400m and 800m Free. Will Slawson had already qualified in the 200m Fly in October's meet, but he also achieved the 100IM NQT this weekend.
Will, Zara and Ella will be competing at the National Short Course Championships at Sheffield at the end of December.
14TH -16TH OCTOBER 2016
The first competitive race weekend of the season saw all our swimmers participating in gala's across the country. Three meets were attended over the weekend with our swimmers gaining many PB's and medals for what is considered to simply be a weekend of preparation race work.
Shrewsbury Open Meet
Zara Leleux - Top Girl 14/15 age group
Aron Preece - Top Boy 16/over age group
Shrewsbury Open Meet - Wolverhampton
After only a few weeks of training since the summer break everyone was back in action in the first main weekend of racing. The main aim of the weekend was to simply get back into racing mode. However our small squad of twenty five swimmers achieved some amazing results, gaining well over one hundred personal best times between them. Swimmers also came away from the weekend knowing what they need to work on in preparation for the next open meet.
The amount of brilliant results and medals won by our small squad saw the Club achieve third place in the top club rankings behind Ellesmere Titans and Shrewsbury respectively, this really was a massive team effort with some great swims from all.
Huge well done to both Aron Preece
for gaining Top Boy award in the 16/over age group and Zara Leleux
for taking the Top Girl award in the 14/15 age group.
An outstanding achievement to be recognised from the weekend came from Eve Leleux, who not only took a bronze medal in the 200 Backstroke but also gained her first Midland Short course qualifying time, and is still only aged 13. For full details see Results
page.
Nova Centurion Open Meet - Nottingham
As the majority of Wrekin swimmers headed off to Shrewsbury, two of our older boys headed to Nottingham's new Harvey Hadden pool to compete against some of East Midlands finest swimmers.
William Slawson competed in eight events over the weekend, securing five personal best times. Will's determination was rewarded with an amazing swim in the 200 Fly, knocking nearly two seconds off his PB, Will gained his first Short Course National qualifying time of the season.
Samuel Neeld, returning from a broken elbow at the end of last season, also competed in eight events. Sam managed to achieve Personal Best times in all eight of his races. With significant improvements in 50 and 400 Free, and an amazing 200 Free swim taking Sam under the two minute mark for the first time.
Both boys secured places in several finals, with the 100 Free resulting in a very exciting finish with the top four swimmers finishing within half a second of each other, Will taking 3rd and Sam 4th. For full results see
Results page.
Gloucester City Open Meet - Gloucester
This meet saw the Townson girls heading off for an early season long distance preparation race in the 800 Free. With Personal Best times not an expectation at this time of the season, all swimmers go with an open mind of getting themselves back into race mode following the summer break and a chance to see where improvements need to be made.
Holly
took Silver in the 16 and over age group, with a good solid swim to start the season off.
Ella
swam a great race knocking an incredible eleven seconds off her Personal Best, with a time of 09:28.13 and taking Gold in the 14 year old age group.
Great start to the long distance swims from both girls.
For full details see Results
page.
