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Tom Rootsey's Channel swim - 20th July Open Water Events - 18th July Essex Mini League Round 5 at Halstead - 10th July The Great East Swim at Alton Water - 19th June Essex Mini League Round 4 at Witham - 12th June East Region BAGCAT Swimming Championships at UEA - 5th/6th & 12th/13th June |
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Tom Rootsey's Channel swim - 20th July Firstly, I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone who has supported me and the CUSWPC team in our Channel Swim attempt. The amount of support and sponsorship we have received has astonished us, and we are extremely grateful to all those who contributed to that. We have now done the swim, and a short report of what happened follows. The team of six arrived in Folkestone on Saturday evening, with the first possible day we could swim being Sunday. It was decided with the pilot that Sunday would not be the best day, so we went for a practise swim in Dover harbour to get used to the sea (if in a sheltered environment). On Sunday evening, we spoke to the pilot and it was decided that we would go the next day. Having readied our things and ourselves, it was a big come down when a forecast changed, and we found out at about 9pm that it wasn't going to be Monday after all and we were to phone to find out more at 7pm the next day. When we did, we were hoping to swim on Tuesday. We weren't disappointed, but when we were told to meet the boat in Dover harbour at 2am the next morning, were slightly shocked!! We turned up in a light drizzle and pitch dark having had less than three hours sleep, to find a working fishing boat just pulling up to the dock - the Viking Princess. After loading all our stuff on board we set off, with the Oxford boat following behind, heading to Shakespeare beach, from where the swim would start. As we got closer, I got myself ready as I was going first. I had glow sticks attached to me, and a flashing light put on the back of my head, to make it easier for the people on the boat to keep sight of me in the pitch dark. When we arrived at the beach, I was told to go, so jumped over the side into the blackness and swam off to the beach, followed by a spotlight from our boat. I had to get completely out of the water before we could start our swim to adhere to the regulations set by the Channel Swimming Association. The Oxford guy joined me after some time (they couldn't find a safety pin!?!), and the horn went. The hour of the swim is now a blur in my memory, just trying to stay in the arc of the boats lights, and to swim the straightest possible course. When eventually I saw Emily getting ready on the steps to get into the water behind me and start her hour, I was aching, tired, and battered by the waves, but quite exhilarated. As I sat watching the sunrise, and trying to warm up despite cold ambient temperatures, I could see we had a good lead after the first leg, and Emily held us in the lead before Andy went in for his hour. As we passed through the different shipping lanes throughout the day, we encountered massive commercial container ships, but thanks to the skills of our pilot managed to avoid them with a minimum of fuss. Kat was next and again, started ahead, carrying on a trend that was not to break all day, with us leading the whole way across. Kat was also the first to start encountering jellyfish. Mike was in next, and for the last 20 minutes of his swim, the jellyfish numbers were really building, with Josie having to get in the middle of the biggest swarm yet. Despite this Josie coped well with the jellyfish, extending the lead that had been fluctuating throughout the morning. Thankfully my second stint came with a massive lessening of jellyfish numbers, and I could get on with the business in hand. Our lead stretched out again, and during the second half of the hour, the waves were becoming choppier and quite unpleasant to swim in, and this continued through most of Emily's second hour in the water making it a tough one. Andy got in for his final swim with the knowledge that France was within reach. For a long time it didn't seem to be coming closer, so much so that Kat started getting ready, and even got in the tender ready to go alongside Andy and take over if necessary near the shore where the main boat could not go. Eventually, after 51 minutes in the water, Andy clambered out onto France to great celebration on the boat. The final Oxford swimmer came in 11 minutes behind, meaning that Cambridge lift the trophy for the third time, evening the score with Oxford, at three wins each and 1 draw. Despite aching for days afterwards, and severely lacking sleep, the CUSWPC team are still elated and really pleased to have finished in a good time of 8 hours and 51 minutes, just two minutes outside the fastest Cambridge team ever, despite a very strong tide pushing us miles south to land a long way outside the normal area.
Open Water Events - 18th July Three swimmers from Colchester Swimming Club took part in two different events on Sunday, all with great success. Jarrod Bradfield took part in and won the Clacton Annual Round the Pier Swim. This organised event is a 1200m (1312yd) tide-assisted swim from the east side of Clacton pier to the west side. There were 61 entries and Bradfield performed strongly to finish 30 seconds ahead of the 2nd place competitor despite fast running tides and a jellyfish sting. His finishing time was 16mins 52secs. Sonny and Dolly Trigg competed in the East Region Open Water Championships at Whitlingham Outdoor Education Centre in Norwich. Sonny (14) took part in the 5km event clocking a time of 1hr 9mins and 4 secs, taking a silver in the region and a gold in the county both in the 13-16 age category. His sister Dolly (12), the youngest competitor by 1 year, swam in the 1500m event clocking a time of 22mins 22secs placing her 7th in the region and receiving a bronze medal in the county both in the age category of 12-16. The medals were presented by Sheila Mackenzie (ASA East Region President) and Paul Hayes (ASA Essex President).
Essex Mini League Round 5 at Halstead - 10th July Colchester swimming club made it through the Essex Mini League season with an impressive unbeaten record, they now have to wait until October to find out if they have retained their title. The team went to Halstead Leisure Centre on Saturday evening with a positive attitude, the swimmers were aware that the main objective was to accumulate as many points possible, this was to be against some good competition. The other clubs represented were Braintree, Rochford, Witham and Halstead. The evening got off to a winning start with Charlotte McDonnell swimming a Personal Best of 41:99 in the 11yr 50metre backstroke, and then Megan Adamson who has just moved up into 10yr age group swam a PB of 44:59 in the same event. Sarah Bird had a tough race in the 13 yr 100metre freestyle to hold onto second place. Chloe Vincett-Miller had a good win in open 50metre butterfly. Helena Wright swam to victory with a PB of 38.3 in the open 50metre backstroke. Tim Kwok gained a PB swimming up an age group in the 13yr boys 50metre breaststroke to win in a time of 45:22. There were some good PB's turned in by the Colchester swimmers and another one with a first place came from Jack Gallagher in the 13yr 50metre backstroke with a time of 39:32. Another PB, came from Joy Huggins in the 13yr 50metre backstroke, with a time of 40:92 to gain second place. The ever improving Ben Bouckley came second with a time of 39:23 in the 10yr 50metre freestyle, which was also a good PB. Alex Cole swam a great PB of 38:27 in the 11yr 50metre freestyle for another second place, Hannah Vickers also gained a second place in 10yr 50metre butterfly. Lydia Pearmain swam a controlled 50metre butterfly to win the 13yr race. Colchester performed excellently in the relay events, this has been consistent throughout the campaign, and the 9yr girls won the 4 x 25metre breaststroke with a storming leg from Jordan Glynos-Fernie, with Sophie Lo, Rhianna Preece and Ellie Duley making up the rest of the quartet. The boy's team of Kirin Yeung, Joe Gallagher, Sam Mackinder, Sam Watkins, Joe Mackinder and Dan Few swam strongly in the 6 x 25metre butterfly. Joe and Dan swam great legs all evening in the relays to bring the victory's home for the team, with the addition of Chris Kwok and Guy Harrison the four won the open 4 x 2 x 1 freestyle relay and the girls team of Chloe Vincett-Miller, Danielle Hall, Lauren Richardson and Helena Wright won the same event. There were also fine victories for both the boys and girls relay teams in the 13yr 4 x 25metre freestyle, Sarah Bird, Joy Huggins, Charlotte Holt and Lydia Pearmain for the girls and Sam Watkins, Taylor Young, Jack Gallagher and Tim Kwok for the boys with strong first legs coming from Sarah Bird and Sam Watkins. Victories came from both teams in the 6 x 25metre breaststroke, Sophie Lo, Sophie Marven, Charlotte McDonnell, Helena Wright, Lauren Richardson and Danielle Hall for the girls and Rory Bennett, David Turner, Tom Lo, Tim Kwok, Guy Harrison and Dan Few for the boys. Colchester's swimmers have produced some excellent results over this season and are now top of the league. Colchester can only be overtaken by Romford swimming club, who are currently lying in second place with two fixtures remaining, the final one being in October. Round 5 Results: 1 Colchester 167 points, 2 Rochford 145 points, 3 Braintree 139 points, 4 Witham 138 points, 5 Halstead 104 points
The Great East Swim at Alton Water - 19th June ,2014 swimmers turned up at Alton Water, Ipswich for The Great East Swim, this is an imperial mile swim in the lake. This year saw a turn in the weather and only the first two heats swam that distance. The next two heats swam 1500m and all the afternoon swimmers swam 1100m, this is reflected in the unusually fast times on the website. Colchester Swimming Club had three swimmers there, two of which were in the mauve wave for under 25minutes; they were Tom Rootsey (19) and Sonny Trigg (14). Dolly Trigg (12) was also there swimming in the newly introduced 500m swim for the younger swimmers. The 3 representatives of the club swam impressively on the day, even in the tough conditions, it even hailed at the start of Tom and Sonny's race. Tom was first out of the water in their wave and fastest in the 1500m groups in a time of 19:18, winning by a clear margin of 34secs. Sonny was 8th out of the water in the same heat in a time of 20.53. As for Dolly in the 500m race, she swam against eighteen other swimmers of all ages, she was 2nd out of the water in an excellent time of 7mins 57secs, not bad for her first open water race.
Essex Mini League Round 4 at Witham - 12th June Colchester Swimming Club maintained their great form to produce a string of magnificent results in round four of The Essex Mini League at Witham on Saturday 12th June. Considering it was England's first game in the World Cup, there was still a good turn out of swimmers and supporters. Over the evenings forty eight races Colchester finished outside the top three on only seven occasions this was to be an impressive haul of points to add to the previous three rounds scores. This puts Colchester in a commanding position, with one just round remaining for the club, to retain their title. The area that the swimmers excelled was in the relay events, of the sixteen relay events Colchester managed fourteen first places, the girls 9yr team of Sophie Lo, Megan Adamson, Jordan Glynos-Fernie and Ellie Duley achieved firsts in 4 x 25m breaststroke and then in 4 x 25m freestyle, the boys team of Hayden Cowan, Kirin Yeung, Rory Bennett and Jamie Coles duplicated the girls in the same categories with fine victories. More wins came in the girls and boys open 4 x 2 x 25m freestyle relay that has a slightly different format where each swimmer swims two legs, for the girls Chloe Vincett-Miller, Sophie Ramsdale, Lauren Richardson and Helena Wright and for the boys Guy Harrison, Chris Kwok, Joe Mackinder and Alex Carter, Chris also performed impressively in the boys open 100m freestyle with a great time of 1:06:95. The girls 6 x 25m butterfly team of Ellie Duley, Hannah Vickers, Martha Duley, Lydia Pearmain, Chloe Vincett-Miller and Lauren Richardson came home with a victory, two of the girls went on to win individual races, Hannah 10yr 25m butterfly and Martha 11yr 50m breaststroke. There was a great unity amongst the relay teams and they continued to dominate during the evening, the girls and boys 11yr 4 x 25m relay teams of Gemma Loftus, Martha Duley, Megan Adamson and Charlotte McDonnell and then Alex Cole, Tom Lo, Sam Mackinder and James Buckingham swam to first place. The girls 6 x 25 breaststroke teams of Sophie Lo, Elsie Phelan, Charlotte McDonnell, Helena Wright, Lauren Richardson and Sophie Ramsdale came home in first place as did the boys team of Jamie Coles, Sam Reeves, Tom Lo, Jack Urwin, Chris Kwok and Guy Harrison. A couple of the boys in the team also triumphed in their individual events, Sam in 10yr 50m backstroke and Jack in 13yr 50m breaststroke. The girl's 13yr team of Sarah Bird, Joy Huggins, Helena Wright and Lydia Pearmain swam an excellent 1:02:31 in the 4 x 25 freestyle relay, the same event, the boys Ruari Phelen, Alex Cole, Jack Gallagher and Jack Urwin also romped to victory with an impressive time of 59:95,. Jack Gallagher swam to victory in 13yr 50m butterfly. Sam Reeves, David Turner, Ben Bouckley and Jamie Coles came first in their 4 x 25 freestyle relay. The excellent relay results were backed up with a great scoop of nine second places, among them was Chloe Vincett-Miller, who swam a great 36:20 in her open 50m backstroke. There were also twelve third places. Colchester have their remaining fixture at Halstead in July but will have to wait until the final round of fixtures are completed in October to find out if they have done enough to retain their title. Round 4 Final Placings: 1st Colchester 178 points, 2nd Witham 144 points, 3rd Maldon 132 points, 4th Hornchurch 110 points, 5th Clacton 103 points.
East Region BAGCAT Swimming Championships at UEA - 5th/6th & 12th/13th June Colchester had great success at the 2010 regional championships swum over the first two weekends of June in Norwich. These events are for competitors aged under 14yrs who have gained very tough qualifying times and race against swimmers from a large area. To swim at these championships is a major accomplishment and to reach a final is a real triumph. The club are celebrating 2 regional champions; Ellie Tripp swam superbly to take the title in the 200m Breast with her national qualifying time, she also won silver in the 100m Breast and reached the finals of the 200m Individual Medley & 100m Free coming 7th in both. Philippa Davenall swam brilliantly to win the final and take her title in the 100m Breast as well as reaching the final of the 200m Breast. Silver and bronze medallists were: Regional finalists were: Spencer Prior, Charlie O'Connor and Harrison Sadler represented Colchester by qualifying and swimming at these Championships. Sadler was competing for the first time in a 50m pool and started extremely well by swimming in the ever exciting relay events. He swam in the Boys 4 x 200m Free Relay team who finished in a brilliant 5th place; teammates were Jim Vickers, Jarrod Bradfield and Sonny Trigg. O'Connor swam with the latter 3 boys to make up an awesome team in the 4 x 100m Free Relay who finished in a magnificent 3rd place. Matthew Lemnell joined the same 3 boys to swim in the 4 x 100m Medley Relay taking a superb 5th position.
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