Harpenden SC Meet Report – Swim England East Region Winter Championships
Winter Regions is the short course Regional Championships. It’s a key target in this block for our senior swimmers, although it does fall quite early in the season! This event is an open championships, meaning there is one qualifying time for swimmers of all ages.
Coaching Team: Amy Thompson, Annie Thompson
Meet Stats:
| Number of swimmers entered:5 | ||
| Number of swimmers accepted: | 5 | 100% |
| Number of swimmers who raced: | 5 | 100% |
| Number of swims entered: | 27 | |
| Number of swims accepted: | 27 | 100% |
| Number of withdrawals: | 0 | |
| Number of finals reached: | 0 | |
| Number of finals swum: | 0 | |
| Number of swims completed: | 27 | 100% |
| Number of new times: | 0 | |
| Number of PBs: | 5 | |
| Total Improvements: | 5 | 19% |
| Number of DQs: | 3 | 11% |
| Number of records set: | 9 | 33% |
Whilst the PB rate looks low on this one, it definitely doesn’t tell the full story of the meet. Another 10 of the swims were within a second of the swimmer’s PB, and there were a lot of season-best swims in there. Making no excuses – everyone always wants to swim fast all the time – but the timing of this event isn’t greatly conducive to PB swimming as an older swimmer as it falls so early in the season and hard on the heels of half term! We were really pleased with the results we saw at this meet.
The PBs that did tumble went to Izzy C in 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke, whilst Ella dropped her 100m breaststroke time and Larissa grabbed a 50m butterfly PB.
Records fell to: Izzy C in the Club 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke and the 15 year old 50m butterfly, 50m breaststroke and 100m IM, Ella M in the 16 year old 50m and 100m breaststroke and Angus H in the 17 year old 50m and 200m butterfly.
We also had some relays on the go. For this first time this year the Region ran their relays and 4 x 50m events, and introduced mixed relays. Harpenden ran with a mixed free and medley team and a girls free and medley team.
In the relatively new mixed format we shot off with two girls leading on the 4 x 50m freestyle, which turned out to be a bit of an error as Ella and Aggie were battling the waves from the boys either side of them. Learning curve for all, including coaches! Freddie and Angus tried valiantly to pull it back, and they came 22nd, just 0.89 outside the club record. In the medley format you have much less decision making to do, because you simply need the strongest quartet you can make. Aggie led off, followed in by Izzy. Freddie swam the fly and handed over to James, our youngest competitor of the weekend, to anchor it down on the freestyle. The team finished in 23rd, within 2s of the club record.
The girls relays were highly anticipated affairs, in part due to the fact that they had to sit out the whole of the relay session before they could race!
Up first was the medley, which is a very interchangeable affair with the quartet of Ella, Aggie, Larissa and Izzy. After some consultation in the afternoon, Aggie was nominated as “best anchor” so Larissa led the race out. Izzy swam the breaststroke, Ella the butterfly and then the girls handed over to Aggie. As always, Aggie fought all the way to the wall and the girls placed 15th, a fantastic effort! They do however continue on their mission to crack the 9 year old club record…
On the second day it was the freestyle relay. In this one Ella is designated leader as she has the acknowledged best standing start, and Aggie anchors. The girls swam fantastically, going 28/27/28/28 to claim 10th spot and take 0.42 out of the Open and Club record that they set at Counties!
We do enjoy our trips to Winter Regions, and we’re really pleased with the effort that went in this year. There was some great racing and the swimmers looked good on their turns and underwaters. Onwards and upwards!
Amy