Here we were once again at Hucknall Leisure Centre for the 5th round of the Sports Centre League.
As it was the first weekend of school half term, numbers of swimmers were limited and club team entries reduced to four ….
Or maybe we had scared off our rivals.
Something had spooked the announcer’s microphone too, as it switched between working and not all night long. The swimmers kept the show on the road …
Head Coach, Dan, praised skills demonstrated during the evening: some `good underwaters’ from most of our swimmers – Emma, Ben and Rebecca notably; Gaby with technically smooth strokes; Stanley had a fab dive in the medley. Gabriel swam strong backstroke lengths (50m & medley leg) and Connor only just missed out on a 100m freestyle PB.
The breaststroke build work from training paid dividends with 100m PBs for Michael P, Rebecca, Sam and Bethan (3s) and obviously Dom has learnt from watching them, because he knocked over 2s off his time and finished 2nd!!
Other sparkling second places were attained by Esther (100m butterfly), Jaime (50m butterfly & 100m IM), Edward (100m backstroke), Gaby (50m backstroke & 50m butterfly), Emma (100m IM & 100m breaststroke), Dan (100m IM), Beatrice (50m breaststroke & 50m freestyle), Sam (100m breaststroke & 100m IM), Dahlia (50m butterfly & 100m backstroke) and Rebecca (100m freestyle).
Max point firsts were won by Michael P and Rebecca in 100m breaststroke and Michael T in 50m butterfly.
Team treasures:
- 11/13 years teams touched in 3rd, exhibiting sharp dives and impressive underwater work: Gabriel, Ben, Stanley and Sam for the Boys and Gaby, Beatrice, Jaime and Bethan for the Girls.
- 15/Open category Boys Michael T, Michael P, Dan and Connor produced powerful swims and Girls, known increasingly on poolside as the Dream Team, Rebecca, Esther, Dahlia and Emma, pulled off another remarkable win by `miles’!
Special individual mentions must go to:
- Michael T for a fabulous 50m butterfly, leading the whole way and winning by a length. Head Coach, Dan, later remarked it was so smooth, it looked effortless; Michael shook his head … it took quite a lot of effort, thank you. His 100m freestyle, which he didn’t really fancy, was also great and got him a 3s PB!
- Sam for continuing his string of PBs (100m IM & 100m breaststroke).
- Dahlia for a 3s IM PB as well as a strong 100m backstroke.
- Michael P for consistently good swims and another 2 PBs (100m breaststroke & 100m backstroke).
- Edward with smashing good turns, helping him to PBs in 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle.
- Angelina for getting jelly legs from kicking on the last length of 100m backstroke, achieving a well-earned 6s PB(!!), and 100m freestyle, setting a New Time.
- Ben for surely the fastest front crawl kick in the pool and for being an important member of the team, taking part even though closest Portland friends weren’t there.
- Esther for an incredible medley breaststroke leg, fluidity and power at its finest!
And finally the Cannon. Although we had no 8 and 9 year old swimmers available and therefore swam for No Points, boy did it feel good to win by such a distance!!!! Stan was even more satisfied – at the Boys’ cries of `Did you get the time?’ – he confirmed his 16 second length had secured him a McDonalds on the way home.
Well done swimmers and thank you for another great evening of swimming. Thanks too to all the helpers.
Log in and go to Swimmers’ Corner Gala News for the results.
