COACHES CORNER

Coaches Report - 20th March 2006

COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Championships finished last Sunday and our swimmers did really well. 

We achieved:

• 3 Midland District Qualifying Times
• 7 Gold Medals
• 8 Silver Medals
• 13 Bronze Medals
• 162 PBs

9 year olds

We had no 9 year old boys swimming and only one 9 year old girl swimming, Annie Mellings, and after a nervous start she did really well with  5 PBs and 5th place in the 200 backstroke.  She was also a valuable member of the girls 9/10 Relay Team.

The 10/U Age Group

In the 10/U Age Group Abi Fawcett and Joshua Edge did extremely well in their 10 year age group. Abi got a silver medal in the 50 backstroke against some extremely strong opposition and Joshua Edge got 4th in the 200 back.  The boys Relay team consisting of Joshua, Thomas Bishop, Thomas Pen and Sam Evans were very strong and came home with a silver and a bronze medal.

The 11/U Age Group

One of our 11/U boys Thomas Draper got a gold medal in the 200 backstroke and a bronze in the 200 breast.  James Portch swam a brilliant race in the 200 fly and was only just beaten into third place on the last few strokes.  All our 11/U girls did very well – Nicki Latham achieved a bronze in the 100 Breaststroke and Bryony Archdeacon won a bronze in the 200 Breast.  They all swam well in the relays and achieved PBs. They were young for age this year with only one of their team – Lucy Lawledge Evans – being 12 so next year when we have more 12 year olds they should be exceptional.

We only had three 12 year old boys competing

Jamie Taylor swam an amazing 1500M race and came home with the gold medal and bronze in the 200 free.  Jo Evans, who has just come back to swimming after injury won a silver medal in the 50 free and several certificates.  It was Ben Williams’ first County Championships and he swam really well gaining PBs In all his events.

Lucy Lawledge Evans, only 12 year old girl

Lucy Lawledge Evans was our only 12 year old girl and she got PBs in everything.  On poolside we were particularly impressed with her 200 fly, she gave it everything.

Our 13 year old girls were exceptional

There was very tough opposition in their age group from two national swimmers.  Charlotte Evans was ill for the first weekend and would definitely have won a medal then.  Both Charlotte Evans and Charlotte Archdeacon gained MDQTs and Charlotte Archdeacon won 2 Gold and a Bronze.  They both won certificates in everything they competed in. In the relay team with Hannah Gilbert and Charlotte Taylor they won a silver medal in the medley  being beaten on the touch by Shrewsbury and a bronze in the freestyle.  Our girls are young for age this year, with only Charlotte Taylor being 14 so they did very well to get the silver medal.

Our older boys

Phillip Austin 14, Dominic Horbury 16, Robert Flack 17, and James Park 17 – swam some very competitive races.  Robert and James had to compete against 17 and over boys so to come home with medals was fantastic.  Robert got 2 gold and 1 silver medal and a MDQT and James bronze in the 100 Fly. Robert got through to the skins in the IM and both he and Phillip got through in the freestyle.  It was exciting to watch and they gave it their all being completely exhausted afterwards.  Phillip also won  2 silver and  3 bronze medals. Dominic won a Gold in the 200 free and a bronze in the 100 free.  

Along with Mat Everett they won in the 16/17  relays but could not be awarded medals because we swam an under age swimmer. 

Our older girls

Charlotte Taylor, Laura Austin and Stephnie Gittins had strong competition and did well to achieve medals and certificates.  Charlotte swam to a silver medal in the 1500M and won bronze in the 200 back.  Laura won bronze in the 100 IM  and Stephanie bronze in the 200 back. 

SUMMARY

We could not have asked any more of our swimmers they gave everything.  I would like to see more swimmers taking part next year and this will be part of my coaching plan.  It was mentioned to me that we were very weak on butterfly and hardly any of our swimmers had made the times.  I have looked into this briefly and we seem to have about the same amount of entries and most other clubs of our size but we will look to more swimmers achieving fly times next year.  I think we should raise the point with the County organisers about relay teams swimming up.  If they have not competed in any other age group then I cannot see any reason why they cannot swim up legally.

I would like to thank Hilary Flack for all her hard work and time she put into our arrangements for the County Championships.  She did a tremendous job.

TRAINING

As part of my 5 year plan I would like to start log books for swimmers and Lane coaches.  This is on the Agenda to be discussed separately.