First into the pool for Braintree was Amy Lazell in the 11 and under 50M Backstroke, although she finished in first place Amy was to fast and was time faulted, but she did mange to get a Personal best (PB) out of the swim, Daniel Mclagan the swam in the boys 11/U backstroke and finished in third place but was also to fast and was time faulted.

Next up was the 9 and under 4X 1 length Breaststroke relay for the girls Rebecca Kitching, Katie Bullied Chloe Moloney and Georgia Harrod. For the boys Konrad Gubinski, Simon Smith, Owen Miller and Charlie Boden, both teams finishing in second place.

Rebecca Moloney was next in the pool in the 10/U 50M Backstroke finishing in third place. Next into the pool some older swimmers Abby Halfacre for the girls and Ben Shambrook for the boys, swimming the 100M 13/U 100M Freestyle Abby finishing 4th Ben finishing 2nd. Tom Mclagan took to the pool next in the Open age group 50M butterfly race and finished first with a PB but was time faulted.

Next four races 50M breaststroke races, Lennie Overbury and Mathew Thomas in the 10/U Lennie finishing 5th with a PB Mathew finishing 1st with a PB. For the 11/U Lauren Jolliffe finishing 3rd and Jordan Rudge finishing 2nd. The following four races 50M Freestyle for the 10/U Rebecca Moloney was first with a PB, George Burrell was 3rd in the 11/U Lauren Hughes was third and Ryan Kelly was 1st. Older swimmers again open age 50M Backstroke Hannah Woods finishing 4th, Nick Higgins 3rd, 50M Breaststroke 13/U Louise Lazell was 1st Ben Shambrook 2nd.

Next up was the 6 lengths increasing age group butterfly races, for the girls Georgia Harrod, Abigail Hart, Lauren Hughes, Louise Lazell, Alex White and Emily Bulleid taking 2nd place, for the boys Finlay Rudge, Daniel Mclagan, Ryan Kelly, Nick Higgins, Tom Mclagan and Adam Shambrook, finishing in first place. In the 50M backstroke 13/U Isabella Salthouse finished in first place and Philip Hart finishing second.

In the 4X1 length freestyle relay 9/U for the girls finishing 4th Rebecca Kitching, Katie Bulleid (in her first ever gala and second relay of the evening), Chloe Moloney and Georgia Harrod, the boys Charlie Boden, Simon Smith, Owen Miller and Finlay Rudge finished first but were time faulted. Charlotte Speakman got a PB in the one length 10/u fly race, both Abigail Hart and Daniel Mclagan were 2nd in the 50M fly race.

Both the boys and girls finished third in the increasing age 6X1length Breaststroke race for the girls Rebecca Kitching, Lennie Overbury, Megan Halfacre, Louise Lazell, Hannah Woods and Megan Thomas, for the boys Konrad Gubinski, Jordan Rudge, Daniel Mclagan, Ben Shambrook, Philip Hart and Adam Shambrook. Both Isabella Salthouse and Tom Mclagan finished first in the 13/U two lengths fly, Emily Bulleid was second in the open age group 50M breaststroke, with Adam Shambrook finishing first.

Finishing up the races was the 10/u 4X1 length freestyle relays for the girls Abigail Hart, Charlotte Speakman, Lennie Overbury and Rebecca Moloney finished third , for the boys Dylan Nutt, Mathew Thomas, George Burrell and Jordan Rudge.

Overall the final scores were Maldon 105 5th place, Rochford 124 4th place, Braintree 136 3rd place, Basildon 144 2nd place Colchester 165 1st place.

We look forward to round two!

 

Braintree swimming club had a small group of swimmers competing at the Essex Age Group championships, at Blackshots Swimming pool Thurrock, swimmers have to gain qualifying times in their own age groups to be able to swim at these championships. The swimmers compete in heats in their age group the first six then go through to the finals medals are awarded for first to third place and pendants are awarded for fourth to sixth, this weekend was all

First to take to the pool was nine year old Georgia Harrod, in the 50 metre backstroke event, Georgia swam well to qualify for the final in 5th place, improving on this in the final with a fourth place finish overall. Ten year olds Daniel Mclagan and Verity Warner-Moulding also swam in this event with Daniel claiming a PB and Verity just missing hers. Eleven year old Emily Woods also qualified for the final in her age group, although Emily qualified in fourth position she could not quite hold onto this in the final and finished in fifth place. Twelve year olds David Fryatt and Isabella both swam in the backstroke unfortunately just missing their PB’s in this event. For the thirteen year olds Sophie Howard swam to a PB, with Hannah Travell making the final qualifying and holding onto the bronze medal position, Luke Durban also made his final qualifying in sixth place and finishing in fifth place overall. For the fourteen year olds Rebekah Booty, Emily Bulleid and Helen Mitchell all took to the pool with only Emily managing a PB.

In the 50M Butterfly event Georgia Harrod again made her final qualifying in sixth place, but again improving on this in the final and finishing in fourth place, Emily Woods and David Fryatt both managed a PB in their age groups, with Hannah Travell just missing hers, Luke Durban once again in the final qualifying in third place, but just missing the medals in the final finishing in fourth place.

Only three swimmers in the 50M Breaststroke event Georgia Harrod getting a PB, with Helen Mitchell just missing hers, Emily Woods swam well with a PB also qualifying for the final in sixth place, improving on this in the final finishing overall in fourth.

In the 50M freestyle event, Georgia Harrod again made her final qualifying and finishing in fifth place, Verity Warner-Moulding just missed her PB, Emily Woods made another final qualifying in fourth place, and finishing in fifth place overall, David Fryatt, Isabella Salthouse, Harriet Bartram-Baird, Sophie Howard, Rebekah Booty all gained a PB in this event with Emily Bulleid and Nina Wiseman just missing theirs, thirteen year old Hannah Travell qualified for her final in fifth place, but swam an excellent final to end up with a silver medal.

A team of Hannah Travell, Nina Wiseman, Rebekah Booty and Helen Mitchell competed in the under 16 Individual Medley and 200M freestyle relays, finishing eighth in the Medley and fourth in the 200M freestyle, well done girls.

Some of the event scheduled to take place on this weekend had to be rescheduled due to a problem at the pool and will probably be swam at Braintree’s home pool on the 13th and 14th February good luck to all the Braintree swimmers for that weekend.

Saturday 16th January 2009, was a chance for the Braintree swimmers to leave their goggles at home and put their glad rags on, it was club disco night, it was good for the swimmers to let their hair down and be able to socialise and celebrate all the hard work they put in, all the hours of early mornings and late nights training, swimming takes a lot of dedication from the swimmers, their parents, the coaches, and the committee so the disco was a big thank you to everybody.

The disco also includes the presentation of trophies medals and shields, the swimmers compete for these in the club championships and some throughout the swimming year.

The winners were as follows, girls and boys aged 8 and under Rebecca Kitching and Finlay Rudge, girls and boys aged 9-10 Abigail Hart and Ole Mills, girls and boys aged 11-12 Sophie Howard and David Fryatt, Girls and boys aged 13-14 Helen Mitchell and Tom Mclagan, girls and boys aged 15-16 Nina Wiseman and Adam Shambrook, aged 17 and over boys only Peter Hawkings, Girls overall champion Helen Mitchell.

There was then an award of the most successful swimmer of the year and this went to Luke Durban, who qualified to swim at a county level, regional level, and at the national level, Luke has also been selected to swim for the prestigious Ortus Londinium squad and will get to compete in Nice in France in March, to be selected for this squad you have to have a top 17 National ranking in a 50M pool which show just how successful Luke has been!.

There was then an award of the stroke trophies for the fastest times set this year by a club member, female and male Individual medley trophies Nina Wiseman and Lee Peterson, the same swimmers won the perpetual 100M breaststroke trophies, and the 100M Butterfly trophies Lee also won the 100M backstroke trophy, for the girls in the backstroke the winner was Rebekah Booty. Winners of the 100M freestyle trophies were Hannah Travell and Max Palmer-Everson.

There was then the award of the Achievement trophies, Helen Mitchell took the Sean Eveleigh Achievement trophy for breaking a club record by the biggest margin.

It was then time for some shields where the club looks to the future, the youngest best swimmer award went to Charlie Boden, the winners of the Watkins shield for the most promising young swimmer runner up went to two swimmers who will get six months each with the shield Lennie Overbury and Rebecca Maloney.

Lastly there was the awards of medals and Ribbons to the men who swam in the parents race, Wayne Bulleid in first place, Mathew Hart in second place, Paul Kelly in third place, Keith Tyler in fourth place, Steve Rudge in 5th place.

Everybody had a great time, we wished Nita Mills a happy 40th birthday, we also said thank you to Nita for all her hard work running the club shop. We would also like to say thank you to Lynne Mclagan for all her hard work organising a really great disco and all the trophies and shields, we also said a partial goodbye to club legend Janet Watkins.

Janet Watkins has been coaching swimmers for Braintree Swimming club for thirty years or more, she has now decided the time has come to take a step back and semi retire, she has handed the job of Junior section Coach on to a new successor, Nicky Wiseman has slotted into the role perfectly although she is not quite as loud as Janet.

Anybody who has ever been coached by or been in the pool when Janet is coaching will know her instantly her dulcet tones cam be heard all over Freeport "I said streamline off the wall", or "tumble turns at both ends" are amongst her favourites, we wouldn't like to say how many swimmers have been taught by Janet over the years, but she will be sorely missed that is for sure, Janet will continue to assist for holiday cover and some Sunday mornings, when she is not off on one of her well earned holidays!.

Braintree Swimming club wish Janet all the best for her retirement and look forward to seeing her on poolside when she is called upon, but we will miss her most at swimming gala's where she could usually be heard above everything else, microphones included encouraging her swimmers and looking for another win!.

Happy Retirement Janet, good luck Roger!

Weekend of 09th January saw a good turnout from BBSC despite the heavy snow experienced over the last week.

A small group of Braintree swimmers braved the elements to swim at the Sudbury open swimming meet. The swimmers were Charlotte Speakman (9) Lauren Hughes (11) Abigail Hart (10) Millie Bauckham (13) Amy Lazell (11) Louise Lazell (13) Rebecca Maloney (10) and our two boys George Burrell (10) and Charlie Boden (9) in his first open meet ever!

Personal Bests (PB) were hard to come by after the Christmas break but all the swimmers gave it a good go and swam really well this open meet is only for improving your times, no medals or places are awarded.

First up was the girls 200M Backstroke with Charlotte, Lauren Abigail and Millie all taking part and only Abigail managing a PB.

Next event the 50M Breaststroke race, boys went first with both George and Charlie taking part Charlie managed to take 6seconds off his personal best!. Charlotte was the only female swimmer and just missed her PB. The 100M Freestyle was the next event with Millie, Abigail and Lauren taking part, only Lauren managed a PB in this event.

The 100M Individual Medley followed with George, Charlie, Charlotte Abigail, Amy Louise and Lauren taking part, George took over 20 seconds off his time in this race, Amy also swam to a PB in this race.

Next event the 200m Butterfly Charlotte and Millie took part in this race, Charlotte for the first time although disqualified in the end, it was a brave first effort swimming eight lengths of this difficult stroke.

50M Freestyle was the next event to take place Charlie and George swam again for the boys, with Charlie just missing his PB and George taking two seconds off his time. For the girls Charlotte, Lauren, Abigail, Amy, Louise and Millie all took part, with only Amy gaining a PB. The 100M Breaststroke was next and only Louise took part and gained herself a PB.

Next up the last event of Saturday the 200M Freestyle, both the boys took part in this event with Charlie taking seven seconds off his time, George also got a PB and took 3 seconds off his time. Form the girls only Amy took part and was just outside her PB.

On Sunday there were only three female swimmers taking part Abigail, Millie and Rebecca.

Abigail was first up in the 50M butterfly race and gained a PB. Rebecca and Abigail both took part in the 100M backstroke race and both gained a PB. Rebecca was the only Braintree swimmer in the 200M Breaststroke race where she gained a thirty second PB, she also took ten seconds off her 400M freestyle time, three great swims from Rebecca.

Abigail and Millie both swam in the 200M Individual Medley race with Abigail gaining a PB and Mille just missing hers. In the 50M backstroke race, Millie, Abigail and Rebecca all took part, with Rebecca gaining herself another PB.