NATIONAL ARENA SWIMMING LEAGUE

 

14 NOVEMBER 2009 – ROUND 2

 

The team:

 

Aaron

Edward

Graham

Harry

Jack

Jake

Joe B

Joe H

Josh

Michael

Myles

Nick

Sam K

Sam T

Tom A

Tom B

Tom P

Aimee

Becki

Beth

Chloe

Ellie C

Ellie L

Emily

 

Gemma

Laura

Lauren

Nat

Rosie

Sophie L

Sophie P

 

 

If I thought the last round was tough – what did we do to deserve this one?  This could have been the final and if it had been, we did ourselves proud!!  I would like to say my very sincere thanks to the team that were there for me, giving it 110% as usual.  It was really hard to balance the swims tonight, but you were all outstanding and stepped up to the challenge.

 

Panic set in when after the first 10 events we were in 6th place.  An outstanding swim in this section was the Open lads, Nick, Graham, Tom B and Harry who secured a 2nd place in the Open Medley Relay.

 

Race 11 saw our first win – an excellent swim on the backstroke from Aimee taking the 6 points for Stourbridge.  Tom B put in a brilliant 100m fly to take 3rd place – well done big boy!!  Special mention to Nat who swam out of her skin in the Open fly.  We had now moved into 5th place and the race was on.

 

Aimee took to the water again in race 19, this time on the fly and again secured the 6 points.  This was a fight all the way with Aimee giving it everything on the finish. Great swims in this section also came from Joe H on the fly, taking a well deserved 3rd place, and 2nd places going to Becki and Nick on their backstroke events.

 

Just over half way through the gala and we had now gone into 4th place – looking better but my heart was still racing!

 

The second half of the gala saw some outstanding swims from Aaron (breaststroke); Nat (fly); Ellie L (breast); Jack (breast); 11s medley relay (Aimee, Rosie, Chloe and Ellie C); Ladies Open freestyle relay (Sophie L, Ellie L, Becki, Nat, Sophie and Laura) and the Men’s Open freestyle relay (Tom B, Jack, Josh, Graham, Harry and Nick).  Special mention to Harry who took top points for his freestyle with an exciting finish that had me biting my nails.

 

So the final scores:

 

Boldmere                               253 points

City of Coventry                     221 points

Chase                                     161 points

Stourbridge                         156 points

Worcester                              144 points

Derby Phoenix                       105 points

 

In terms of positions in the gala, we scored our points as follows:

 

POSITIONS

 

 

 

 

Boys

Girls

1st

 

1

 

2

2nd

 

5

 

4

3rd

 

3

 

2

4th

 

6

 

9

5th

 

7

 

5

6th

 

1

 

3

 

I think this is a fantastic result looking at the calibre of the opposition – well done to you all.

 

Age group of the night, yet again, was the Men’s Open swimmers but very close on their heels this time the 11 year old girls. 

 

Joint honours for the stroke of the night go to our breaststrokers and backstrokers, well done to all of you – great effort. 

 

The Girls have it again lads – come on!!!!

 

Swimmer of the night was a relative easy choice this time.  Although I had loads of outstanding performances, and I know all my swimmers gave it their best, there was one swimmer that stood out from the crowd – AIMEE SANDERS.  Well done Aimee on some fabulous swims – you really were top notch tonight.

 

I would like to thank my helpers and officials on poolside without whom my job would be impossible and to our hosts Worcester for a great gala. 

 

Jason