Youngsters Make a splash as they qualify for British Championships

A busy period of competition for swimmers at Skipton Swimming Club started last weekend. The younger and less experienced swimmers of the club travelled to Harrogate to race for Yorkshire Qualifying Times, whilst Alex Belk, Julia Scrivin and Hannah Robertshaw flew the flag for Skipton at Ponds Forge competing in The Burns Open Meet.

The Burns Meet is the penultimate meet to gain qualification for British Championships, which is held at the end of March at the Aquatics Centre in Manchester. The British Championships are the highest level domestic meet in the UK and gaining the entry time is a huge achievement.

Hannah was the first to step up and qualify. Having achieved her National time in December in her main event of 200 backstroke she needed to swim nearly 3 seconds faster to achieve her first ever British Championship time. Her swim was well paced and finishing in a time of 2.28.06, was 1.8 seconds inside the qualifying standard. Her second qualifying time was made in the 100 backstroke. Having missed her National time in the regional championships back in November, she set herself a challenge to achieve both her National (1.11.49) and British Championship time (1.10.49) in one go. She committed strongly in the first 25m and turned in 34.33 at the half - way mark. It was all down to a fast final 50 metres. It was a heart in the mouth moment as she pushed hard all the way to the touchpad finishing in a time of 1.10.45 just four hundredths of a second inside the time. Hannah also achieved two personal best in both the 400 & 200 Medley's throughout a solid weekend of swimming.

Julia Scrivin continued her progress upwards and onwards, her first race was 200 backstroke, having already achieved her National time in November was looking to reduce this further, still struggling to recover from a cold she was determined to achieve the Champ time of 2.24.92. Her opening 100 was a fast 1.10, but she slowed on the 3rd 50 and finished with a time 2.25.95. only 0.90 seconds outside the limit. Still frustrated at herself for missing the 200 time she swam the 50m back event wit additional determination and with all 50m times for British Champs having an Open age time limit there is no dispensation for age. Needing to achieve a time of 32.00 seconds she had a slow start but swam through the last 25m quickly to finish in a time of 31.61, which not only put her well inside the time, earned her a bronze medal. Encouraged by this performance Julia returned the following day and also achieved her 100 backstroke qualifying time, finishing almost a full second inside the qualifying time in 1.07.80 and pushing the National Champion to within three hundredths of a second.

After competing at Stafford only 8 weeks ago, Alex Belk was all set to try to gain his British Championship times as well. He had to settle for an improved National qualifying time in the 100 Butterfly, narrowly missing his first ever sub minute swim in 1.00.70. He also swam to two lifetime best performances in the 200m Individual Medley and 100m breaststroke, this being within 0.1 seconds of a national qualifying time and a further 1.4 seconds from the British Championship time.

Both Alex and Julia will have one last chance to qualify at next week's Senior/Junior Yorkshire's Championships in Leeds.

Meanwhile at Harrogate the younger Skipton swimmers showed that they too are fast improving, some of which were taking their first steps on the competitive ladder by qualifying for the Yorkshire Championships. Reaching the qualifying standard whilst competing in her first open meet was Lucia Gardner, swimming her favoured breaststroke events she qualified in both the 200m and 50m events. Lucia also earned herself a creditable 7th place in the 200 and 4th in the 50m event. Kieran Belk with little more competitive experience and continuing to develop his racing skills also swam some fine personal best times. He is now beginning to build a portfolio of qualifying times at 200m in both freestyle and breaststroke and also the shorter distance of 50m in both these strokes. Also competing at this level for the first time was William Madrell, who, showing superior technique in the butterfly event reached the required qualifying standard; he also qualified for the 50m breaststroke event. Megan Horbury showed a turn of speed in qualifying for the 50m freestyle, whilst Ally Gannon, starting steadily swam through the lat 25m quickly to complete the 50m breaststroke just inside the qualifying standard.
Max Barker will ensure another year at the championships with a solid 200m freestyle along with Kelly Bucke who also produced personal best 50m freestyle, and reached the North Eastern championship time in the 200m freestyle. Sophie O'Hara was again competing in her favoured Breaststroke events and also qualified at 50m and 200m events. With improved qualifying times which were gained late last year, and personal bests were Annie Riley in the 200 freestyle and Sam Westcott in the 100 freestyle. Edward Haigh also edges closer his North Eastern qualifying times with improved personal bests in the 200 freestyle and backstroke events. Narrowly missing the tough 11 years qualifying times but achieving personal best swims were, Adam Sayedi in the 200 backstroke and Chris Brier in the 200 breaststroke. Alice Riley achieved a personal best in the in the 50m breaststroke but also just missed the qualifying time. The young age group swimmers now have just four weeks to prepare for the first of the distance events at Yorkshire Championships these will be held at the Leeds International Pool in late February.

Report By Coz Tantrum, Head Coach