The Weekend’s Results.
Well what an exciting weekend! I am always amazed at the relative smooth running of managing to get three separate teams of swimmers, three teams of officials and three sets of volunteers to three different swimming pools – all at the right time on the same night! This takes an enormous amount of forward planning, so a big well done to Min, Alison and Chris for pulling this off!
Here is a quick round up of the action:
A Team at Corby (by Alison)
Wow what an evening of fantastic swimming!
The A team competed in the final at Corby against 2 very tough teams in Arnold and Kimberley. The other 4 closely matched teams including ourselves were nip and tuck for the remaining four places.In the end, luck was not on our side this year and we finished 6th on the night and therefore in the league overall.
Final Points: Arnold 227, Kimberley 210 , Melton 155, Swadlincote 146, Corby 145.5, Leicester Neptune 137.5
However this was not an evening to be downhearted and indeed I saw only happy smily faced children all night. They truly swam to the best of their abilities and had lots of fun at the same time!
Overall this year, this A Team has achieved “Best ever” race performance in 17 of the 49 events this season – So we improved on last year (even though we finished 2nd then)! 11 of these ‘Best ever” times were achieved last night – including the cannon where 8 swimmers aged 9-12 swam 200m between them in 2 minutes 12s!
Swimmer of the gala has to go to Hayley Cliffe. Not many will realise that she was determined to swim through the pain caused by a large object falling on her leg earlier in the day. This caused considerable bruising to her leg and foot. The advice from the hospital was to keep it moving – so she did!
Thanks ever so much to the team of volunteers both last night and in previous rounds – Neil, Bina, Wendy, Gina, Stewart, Ruth, Hritik, Sam, Aan, Louise and Mr Crosbie.
B Team at Braunstone (by John)
I found out late that I was to be the B team manager for the first time and the team did not let me down. The children were all fantastic and swam really well and I had great support from Nichola, Becky and Mine thank you. There was one runaway team but at the last points check there were only 2 points between 2nd and 4th. Unfortunately with the lack numbers in the under 9 girls age group and lots of swimmers having to swim up ages we finished 4th. I was extremely proud of the support that the team gave each other. A special mention must go the Alexandra who not only swam very well, but showed great team spirit.
C Team at Loughborough
An all-round brilliant effort by all swimmers, leading to us coming 5th. Swimmers of the match were Arjun M for putting in to practice what he has been practicing in training and winning the 50m Free; and also Isla for her sterling effort on Fly, and not just in her own age group.
1st Leicester Sharks 200, 2nd Shepshed 159, Melton Mowbray B 158, Kettering 137, Leicester Neptune C 108, Daventry B 94.
Open Water
This weekend sees our first open water competition action of the season with the Midland ASA Open Water Championships taking place at Bosworth Water Park. If you aren’t sure what open water competition is all about, then this is a great event to go and watch and I know Kate (representing CoLSC), and Maciej would really appreciate you coming to cheer them on. Their event starts sometime after 10.45am. If you want to find out more about open water swimming, please come and have a chat with me!
Coming Up
Don’t forget that we are in the middle of end of season open meet time too. The following weekend we have swimmers representing Leicester Neptune at the Northampton Open Meet and the weekend after we have a large number competing at the Chesterfield Open Meet. Later in July there is the English National Open Water Championship too. And don’t forget our most important event – our annual end of season outing to Mablethorpe on the 14th of August. Please see Steve B for information and tickets. (Apologies – I got the date wrong in my last post!)
Finally, Id’ just like to wish everyone going on Louise’s hen “do” this weekend a great time!
