The sun shone on Queen’s Park Sports Centre for the 2014 Chesterfield Summer Splash on 12th and 13th July.
The weather was absolutely beautiful outside. Poolside, it was another story – hot and humid as usual; but we were determined to enjoy this last Open Meet before the summer break.
During the lengthy wait for the first event to have a Portland interest, our swimmers kept themselves entertained. Their odd-looking moves – very animated actions – that parents in the spectator gallery thought might be some new-fangled warm-up routine, turned out to be charades.
It seemed like hours until Isabelle’s 100m breaststroke event … oh yes, it was hours …
When the time came, the rest of the team formed a purple line of support at lane end to cheer her on to a great New Time. Good start!
Technical problems and breakdown of the electronic timing system at the beginning of the first afternoon were to make this Open Meet a very long weekend, but our swimmers weren’t jaded. They set New Times and PBs in half their races across all four strokes and were on pace but just missed out on a PB for many more:
New Times
Isabelle – 100m breaststroke & 100m backstroke
Stan – 100m butterfly
PBs
Isabelle – 50m freestyle
Rebecca – 50m backstroke, 100m freestyle & 50m freestyle
Dahlia – 50m butterfly & 50m freestyle
Stan – 100m backstroke, 200m butterfly & 100m freestyle
Connor – 50m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 50m butterfly, 100m breaststroke, 100m freestyle & 50m breaststroke
Emma – 50m breaststroke
Jaime – 50m butterfly & 100m butterfly
Medals were awarded to the top 3 boys and girls in each event.
Portland medal winners
Emma – Silver in 50m breaststroke, Gold in 100m & 200m breaststroke
Stan – Bronze in 100m freestyle, Silver in 100m & 200m butterfly
Special mentions must go to:
Connor the PB conqueror for 6 new fastest times out of his 7 events!
Stan the stout-hearted for an unwavering, brave 11 second PB 200m butterfly swim and, in his very next race, smashing his 100m freestyle time by 18 seconds!
More Meet memories are Jaime’s boundless energy; remarkably powerful swims from Dahlia and Olivia; wonderful-to-watch swims for smoothness and technique by Rebecca, Isabelle and Emma.
Well done everyone!
Big thanks to Saturday acting coach, Dave (you were a fine stand-in), Dom for coaching across both days and Dan for spending the whole of Sunday poolside – from early morning Chesterfield warm-up onto Club training night at the uni. Your support is invaluable – thank you.
Log in for a few more photos in Swimmers’ Corner.
