Biddulph Open Meet 2018 : Times & Report

Valley Leisure Centre, Biddulph, 14th and 15th July 2018

A group of 30 BASC swimmers went over to the Valley Leisure Centre in search of either a County Qualifying time or a new PB. This meet was the second full club meet after the window opened within which you can swim a time to compete in the 2019 Staffordshire County Swimming Championships. It was great to see a new face at open meets with the Edan Maxwell and Christian Powlson-Walker making a debut at an open meet on day 2 of this meet.

The meet was a bit different for a few reasons:-

– Limited space poolside for spectating – and what there was took you back to sitting on a bench in a school gym– but all parents managed to gain a vantage point to watch and cheer on all our kids
– And the kids not being kept poolside – instead being on a squash court with another club as the space poolside did not allow for the 250 kids competing – that said they all behaved fantastically and actually enjoyed it more as they could relax and enjoy each other’s company more rather than have to keep quiet during races
All swimmers gave a fantastic account of themselves and the club – and by the end of the meet the club had achieved the following from its races swam over the 4 sessions and 2 days

• A huge 70 PB times
• 45 COUNTY QUALIFYING TIMES of which 28 are new times
• 59 medals for a top 3 place

We saw our kids score 408 club points – you got 6 for 1st and 1 for 6th over all events – to come 2nd in the top club league table.

With many more times within 1.5 seconds of a County Time with 6 months left to gain qualification – we are hopeful as a club we can take more swimmers than last year – doing more races than 2018 – despite the huge ask that the Staffordshire QT are compared to neighbouring counties. We now have 67 times already for 2019 – a great advert for the training from the coaches at the club BUT also the hard work the kids are putting in week in week out.

STAR SWIMMER – hard to choose between 5 kids who swam 44 races between them and never came outside the top 6 – taking 34 medals and numerous county qualifying times – so the award is shared by Jack Ward, Tom Mitchell, Matt Gates, Ella Cooper and Sophie Fowkes

STAR RACE – has to be the 400M IM – 4 seniors took up the challenge set by the coaches to do this event for the first time – they all swam a county time by more than 20 seconds – so it is shared between George Greener, Matt Gates, Jack Ward and Sophie Fowkes

Other highlights included :-

– Bella Smith taking the county time in 200m and 50m breast – the 8 length race being a real achievement for one so young
– Georgia Ulyett taking her first medals in an open meet in 100m IM and 50 Fly
– Finley Brown taking county times in all his 200m events – and winning the 200m fly during his open meet
– Dylan Mitchell , George Preston, George Stevens, Rosie Bolton, Harrison Jones, Matthew Appelbee, Lana Clamp, Rachael Greener and Issy Stanley also all taking home medals as 18 different kids gained awards
– Amelie Brown and Issy Mills racing each other in the 100m free
– The 100m IM heat contested by Rosie Bolton, Caitlin Thomas and Emma Brown
– A huge 9 second PB on 200m free for Matthew Appelbee and Issy Stanley on 200m IM
– Racheal Greener winning 200m IM on her debut in the event
– Tom Mitchell smashing his 100m fly PB time by c5 seconds

The league tables for medals after this meet are :-

Boys:-

Girls:-

As always huge thank you to parents for travelling and Ian & Simon for the poolside advice and support, Debbie, Martin & Chris for officiating and Karen, Jane & Suzanne for looking after the kids getting to their heats.