Congratulations and well done to those, who over the Half Term holiday, took and passed their ASA UKCC Level 1 Award – Teaching Aquatics (QCF).Megan Stevenson, Leanne Clover, Malcolm Beresford, Nic Clover, Tony Bindon and Mark Smith are all now qualified Swim Teachers and we welcome them into our excellent team of Swim Teachers and look forward to seeing them in and around the pool. Well done all of you.
Nigel Stevenson
Chair
THE Adwick Leisure Centre was the venue for the recent B Grade Open Meet hosted by Doncaster Dartes where eleven Gainsborough Dolphins swimmers were in competition. Between them they placed in the top six on 13 occasions over their collective 25 events with six top three places. These types of competitions are designed to allow first time entrants and with strict entry rules to avoid the very fast swimmers from competing, allowing success for those that would not normally achieve in other Meets. Taking advantage of the opportunity two of the Dolphin members competed for the first time in the girls 9 years age group. Sian Saunders swam a superb 50m breaststroke in a very creditable time to claim sixth place whilst team mate Lily Talbot finished 10th in this event. Whilst Sian only entered one event Lily combated her nerves to produce three more outstanding performances as she placed 11th in the 50m backstroke, 15th in the 100m Individual Medley (I/M) and 17th in the 50m freestyle. Held over two sessions the morning one definitely suited 11 year old Tom Humphries who impressed with four sensational life time best swims. An accumulative of over 25 seconds was taken off his previous personal best times as he placed fourth in the 50m backstroke, sixth in the 50m freestyle, 7th in the 50m breaststroke and 8th in the 100m I/M. This resulted in him finishing just outside the top six for his age group with an eight position overall. The most successful swimmer was Emily Wright in the girls 15/O age group as she claimed two victories in the 50m butterfly and 100m breaststroke with a second place in the 100m freestyle. All this culminated in her claiming the runner up spot overall in her age group. Molly Creed also achieved success with two second places in the girls 9 years 50m freestyle and 100m I/M whilst she placed 8th in the 50m breaststroke. Unfortunately she was also denied further glory by receiving a speeding ticket for swimming too fast in a time just outside the permitted cut off for this event. This placed her fourth overall in her age group in front of team mates Katie Bindon (9th) and Harriet Webster (12th). Katie swam a superb 50m backstroke to claim third place with a 9th place in the 50m freestyle and 11th in the 50m breaststroke in times just outside her life time bests. Producing some fantastic swims Harriet did manage to produce personal best times as she claimed fifth in the 50m butterfly, 8th in the 100m I/M and 11th in the 50m freestyle. In a very strong age group 12 year old Aidan Clover gained two personal best times in the 50m freestyle (12th) and 100m I/M (15th) but just missed out on his hat-trick of times with a 13th place in the 50m backstroke. In the most competitive age group 14 year old Tonicha Watson was another swimmer seeing the fruits of her hard work in training pay off as she too recorded new personal best times with sixth place in the 100m breaststroke and backstroke. She just missed out on the top six with a very impressive 100m freestyle to finish eighth whilst her best place came in the 100m I/M with a fourth place giving her 9th overall in her age group. In the same age group and despite struggling with a shoulder injury Lauren Zaitschenko battled through to record some very presentable times in the 50m butterfly (15th), 100m backstroke (17th) and 100m I/M (18th) with two 14th places in the 100m freestyle and backstroke. Amy Evans was too in excellent form producing some life time best times in the girls 14 years as she claimed a hat-trick of ninth place finishes in the 100m freestyle, breaststroke and I/M with tenth in the 50m butterfly and 11th in the 100m backstroke. For more information on the Club please visit www.gainsboroughdolphins.co.uk.
THE month of May was a busy time for Sturton by Stow based brother and sister duo James and Loveday Beresford. The Gainsborough Dolphins swimmers competed at three Open Meets during this period attending events at the Ponds Forge International Pool at Sheffield and the impressive John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds. With Loveday in a last ditch attempt to gain qualifying times for the Midland District Championships she was unlucky just missing out by fractions of a second in the 100m and 200m freestyle. Despite breaking the 70 second barrier for the first time in the 100m she recovered from this disappointment managing to record four personal best times at Leeds in an event where all proceeds went to SportsAid, helping to fund athletes and swimmers from all across the country. This level one meet attracted some very fast swimmers from Wales, Scotland and all over the Yorkshire and Midland counties with Loveday excelling in the 200m freestyle. Against a competitive field she claimed a silver medal in the girls 12 years recording a life time best. Not to be outdone James also recorded four personal best times at this meet, his best coming in the 10 years 200m Individual Medley (I/M) where he reduced his previous mark by an impressive 11 seconds. After experiencing a 50m pool for the first time they returned the following week to Ponds Forge in the Rotherham Metro Level One Long Course meet. Competing in two events at Sheffield, Loveday again swam superbly to reduce both her 200m and 400m freestyle personal best times, finishing 12th in her age group in the former. This was again an impressive effort against swimmers from Plymouth, London, Tyneside, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Entering only one event James did find it tough going over the four lengths in the 200m backstroke as he swam outside his personal best by just over a second. Competing against the same the level of competition Loveday returned to Sheffield a week later to compete in a meet hosted by the City of Sheffield. Unable to reduce her 200m freestyle time for the third consecutive week she placed 16th in her age group as she did in the 100m freestyle, shaving just one tenth off her personal best. These achievements are quite remarkable as both only learnt to swim eighteen months ago and continuous hard work and dedication will endeavour to bring greater reward in the future. Anyone wishing to start swimming or for further information please visit www.gainsboroughdolphins.co.uk.
EMUALTING the achievements this year of the younger Gainsborough Dolphins swimmers the Masters members shone with great success at the recent South Yorkshire Masters Championships at Scarborough. Other commitments to some members meant only a squad of eleven swimmers competing over 42 events in an action packed day with 23 medals gained and a total of 38 top six finishes. With the standard of competition at its highest against swimmers from the North East, North West, the Midlands and Yorkshire at this event for many years this proved to be a phenomenal accomplishment. The first gold of the day was secured by 21 year old Emily Wright in the Ladies 18/24 age group with a personal best time in the 50m breaststroke. Emily later followed up with another victory in the 100m breaststroke whilst she also placed third in the 50m butterfly, fourth and sixth in the 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle respectively. In the Mens 60/64 age group Mike Keeble also tasted double success as he won both the 50m and 100m backstroke whilst he had to settle for silver in the 50m freestyle. Alongside Mike Sloan, Godfrey Green and Jari Goddard Mike achieved further success as this quartet won both their freestyle and individual medley (I/M) relays in the 220+ years combined age group. Dolphins eldest competitor Godfrey (62) won two silver medals in the 50m and 100m breaststroke events in the 60/64 age group whilst he also achieved bronze in the 50m butterfly and 100m I/M. Just missing out on gold was 38 year old Chris Webster in the 35/39 age group as he was beaten by two tenths of a second in a thrilling 50m butterfly. Chris also placed fifth in the 50m breaststroke whilst 37 year old Nic Clover also missed the medals in this event with a fourth place as 38 year old Steve Morris also made it into the top six behind his team mates. Steve was unlucky again later to miss out on the top three in the 100m breaststroke finishing fourth whilst Nic went one better in securing bronze in the 200m freestyle. In the same age group 38 year old Rachel Haldenby swam superbly well to win silver in the 100m breaststroke, bronze in the 50m breaststroke with fourth in the 50m freestyle. The Mens 45/49 age group saw a very competitive category resulting in 46 year old Mark Smith missing out on the podium with fourth place finishes in the 200m I/M and 50m butterfly whilst 47 Jari Goddard placed sixth and tenth in the 50m freestyle and butterfly respectively. A mixed day for 30 year old James Lugg in the Mens 30/34 age group saw him claim bronze in the 200m freestyle and seventh in the 100m freestyle whilst illegal movement on the starting block resulted in him being disqualified in the 50m freestyle after a third place finish. Double silver was recorded in the Mens 50/54 age group as 52 year old Mike Sloan narrowly missed the gold in the 50m butterfly and 100m I/M. Top six finishes were secured by all the relay teams with a controversial disqualification robbing the quartet of Mark, Emily, Chris and Rachel of gold in the 140+ years combined I/M mixed relay. Having won the very close race just before the session interval they returned to collect their medals only to find out that they had been unfortunate. With Mark and Chris having to depart early Mike Sloan and Mike Keeble replaced them in the 140+ mixed freestyle relay to secure an impressive second place. Bronze medals were won by the quartet of Mike Keeble, Steve, Chris and Mark in the 140+ Mens I/M relay with Jari, Mike Sloan, Steve and James gaining the same honour in the freestyle equivalent. The mixed 100+ combined freestyle relay of Jari, Emily, Rachel and James held on to be rewarded with another bronze whilst Nic replaced Jari in the I/M relay as they finished fourth. Also just missing the medals in both their freestyle and I/M relays in the 180+ years combined age group were Mark, Jari, Mike Sloan and Mike Keeble with two fourth place finishes whilst the quartet of Nic, Chris, James and Steve had to settle for fifth place in both their 100+ years relay events. More fantastic news for the Club is the selection of six Gainsborough Dolphin swimmers to represent Lincolnshire this Sunday at Derby in the East Midland Inter-County gala. The Club extend their congratulations to Chris Webster, Nic Clover, Pete Trickett, James Lugg and newly wed Ruth Howitt whilst Mark Smith has had to decline his selection due to being on holiday. The Club are open to new members and any ex-swimmers who wish to improve their fitness and maybe compete are more than welcome. For more information please visit www.gainsboroughdolphins.co.uk.
FOLLOWING their success in the opening round in the Lincolnshire League the swimmers of Gainsborough Dolphins made the journey to the Humber Estuary for the second round of three at the Scartho Pool at Grimsby. They faced tough competition from host club Cleethorpes and Scunthorpe Aquatics (CASA), Louth and the City of Lincoln Pentaqua (CLP) in a gala full of very competitive races. With the competition between the Clubs not only in the pool there was plenty of vocal support from the supporters and swimmers as each victory was greeted with the chants of ‘oggy oggy oggy’. The first of the night came from the Gainsborough voices as it followed the victory in the opening event as James Smith won the Mens Open 100m freestyle as he gained maximum points for Dolphins with an excellent swim. This was quickly followed by a storming swim from Emily Wright as she shaved over two seconds off her life time best in the Ladies Open 100m breaststroke. The girls 10 year squad proved the most successful on the night as the quartet of Shannon Conway, Grace Tooke, Harriet Webster and Molly Creed won their Individual Medley (I/M) relay whilst Shannon swam superbly to win both her 50m butterfly and backstroke events. Molly was just beaten into second place in her 50m freestyle as she lost her goggles following the turn whilst Grace also came second in the 50m breaststroke. Freya Janney replaced Grace in the freestyle relay to record another second place, again just being beat in the closing metres. In the same age group the boys also achieved success as James Beresford and Ben Ambrose won their 50m backstroke and breaststroke races respectively with James securing second with a fine effort in the 50m butterfly. Along with Ben Crookes, who finished third in the 50m freestyle, and Harry Overton this quartet achieved third in the I/M relay. Double victory came from 11 year old Loveday Beresford in the girls 12/U 50m butterfly and freestyle with Dolphins recording two more victories via the Cawte brothers with Henry in the boys 14/U 100m breaststroke and William in the Mens Open 100m backstroke. The former was joined by Jack Boulton, Aarron Smith and Bradley Janney to place second in the boys 14/U I/M relay and third in the freestyle equivalent. In their individual events Aarron came second in the 100m butterfly as did Jack in the 100m freestyle. In the boys 12/U age group Ewan McKay had to settle for second spot in both his 50m butterfly and breaststroke races as did William Walmsley in the 50m backstroke, with William third in the 50m freestyle. Along with Cammron Bower and Matthew Overton they achieved second in the I/M relay whilst a close finish saw them finish third in the freestyle relay as Aidan Clover replaced Cammron. The remaining individual second place came from David Trickett in the Mens Open 100m breaststroke, who also finished third in the Mens Open 100m butterfly, with the girls 14/U team of Georgia McKay, Chloe Gilmour, Amy Evans and Heather Cooke gaining second and third in their I/M and freestyle events. Heather and Amy both swam fine races to finish third in their respective 100m breaststroke and freestyle races as did Megan Stevenson and Robyn Dand in the Ladies Open 100m freestyle and backstroke. Alongside Tonicha Watson and Emily in both their Ladies Open relay events they finished third as did the Mens with William, James, David and Peter Trickett in the freestyle relay with veteran Chris Webster replacing David in the medley relay. Despite two third place finishes in her individual events Charlotte Smith swam fantastically well in the 50m backstroke and breaststroke. Charlotte was teamed up with Loveday, Lydia Waring and Hollie Watkins in the girls 12/U freestyle relay with Aysha Simpson replacing Hollie as they had to settle for the same result in the medley relay. A huge thank you from the Club to all the swimmers for their magnificent efforts and to all the volunteers in their various capacities on the night. Final result: 1st CASA 150 points; 2nd Louth 130; 3rd Gainsborough Dolphins 125; 4th CLP ‘A’ 74.