Annual Club Championships

Scunthorpe Anchor held their annual Club Championships from 18^th to 22^nd November at Riddings Pool.  The first gala saw the swimmers perform in both the 400 metres freestyle and the 400 metres individual medley.  The initial target for the swimmers is to achieve their county times to enable them to represent the club in next years county championships held at Leeds and Sheffield.

From the 400’s, 20 county times were achieved, with huge pb’s from most swimmers. Becci Foster took off over 24 seconds for her 400 IM, Scott Strong had 2 great swims, managing to pb by 20 seconds for his 400 free and an incredible 34 seconds for his 400 IM, Holly Williams knocked 28 seconds off her 400 IM.  Other mentionable swims came from Caitlin and Bryony Bower, Kieran Skinner, Josh Jones, Jack Newton and Francis Moir who knocked over a minute off her previous time.  Six club records were broken, two each by Lauren York and Jack Newton in both the free and IM, Josh Jones in the free and Kieran Skinner in the IM.

Gala 2 started with the 200 metre individual medley (IM).  Out of 28 swims, 24 were pb’s, with more county times achieved.  Bryony Bower had a magnificent swim with an improvement time of 19 seconds.  Anya Snow also knocked 15 seconds off her entry time.  Kieran Skinner achieved his second club record of the championships in this event.

The 10/u 50 metres fly followed and was to be the first ever gala swim for some of our younger swimmers.  Eight year old Jonathan Manchester had a good race closely followed by Jack Christer.  The girls followed with newcomer India Cowell having her first competitive swim for the club. All 6 entrants in the girls race had good pb’s.

The 11/over 100 free had more times tumbling as huge pb’s went to Axel Schygiol and Scott Strong in the boys event and Ellie Taylor and Melanie Calder in the girls event.  Our younger swimmers joined the older ones to enter the 200m breaststroke event.  Sam Neal had a great swim to complete his first ever 200m race.  Adam Vaughan knocked 30 seconds off his previous time and Michael Trueman dropped 20 seconds off his.  The girls followed with Lauren Gwynne and Lauren Jacklin having a fantastic race against each other both coming in within less than second of each other.  12 year old Caitlin Bower had a great race against Jasmin and Lauren in the final heat who together pushed her to a new time of 2.53.22, a 13 second pb and significantly closer to her national time.

The next day of competitions started with the 200m freestyle.  Our junior swimmers, namely Jonathan Manchester, Sam Neal, Conrad Lewandowski, Travis Johnson, Jack Christer, Harrison Caton and William East all had their first swim at this event and performed really well.  This event was well represented and nearly every swimmer swam to a personal best.   Sven Schygiol had a massive 48 second pb followed by Michael Trueman with a 29 second pb.  9 year old Ben Cantrill on his second swim at this event also had a 21 second pb. 

The girls followed with the younger swimmers Lauren Jacklin, India Cowell, Lauren Gwynne and Yasmin Callaghan all swimming this for the first time in competition.  10 year old Anya Snow knocked over 15 seconds off her previous time, as did Bryony Bower and Melanie Calder.  Francis Moir had a massive pb of over 50 seconds.    New club records were again broken in this event by Lauren York, Kieran Skinner and Jack Newton.

The next event of the afternoon was the 10/u 50 metre breast stroke.   County times went to Ben Cantrill, Travis Johnson, Scott Zimmerman and Yasmin Callaghan.  The 100 metres Individual medley followed with Finley Fox and Thomas Duke swimming a great heat with less than 0.2 of a second between them coming in at 1.31.06 and 1.31.22 respectively.  Once again Scott Zimmerman performed brilliantly breaking a 28 year old record with a time of 1.26.94.  Ryan Johnson and Jack Cowling also had mentionable pb’s in this event.  

The girl’s event showed that they were also capable of good pb’s with Lauren Callaghan, Holly Williams, Yasmin Callaghan and Melanie Calder to name just a few.  Two further club records also fell to Lauren York and Kieran Skinner.

The final two events of the afternoon were the 100 metres fly and the 200 metres backstroke which saw more county times achieved. 10 year old Nathan East finished off the afternoon with a fantastic 200m backstroke breaking the club record by over 6 seconds and a full minute pb.  Lauren Callaghan also had a good pb of 20 seconds in the same event.

The final session on the Sunday began with the 100 metres backstroke.  Scott Strong, who is training really hard had a 6 second pb with a time of 1.12.15.  In the girl’s event Hannah Mayall in her favourite swim managed a good 5 second pb.

Our junior swimmers had the 50m backstroke as the next event.  One of our youngest members, Leon Fryer, just 7 years old had his first competitive swim for the club and did really well.  Lee Parrott, Kyle Driffill and Daniel McGready were also competing in this event.  It is great to see our new swimmers competing for the first time.  More county times were achieved by Nathan East, Travis Johnson, Ben Cantrill, William East, Lauren Gwynne and Amy Baker.  Katie Dennett, Anya Snow, Lauren Jacklin, Grace Whomersley, India Cowell, Poppy Sherwood and Elise Richardson all need a mention for their good times.

The 11/over 100 metres breaststroke saw a good challenge between Adam Vaughan and Axel Schygiol.  Our National Breastroke Qualifier 13 year old Josh Jones was away on the North Eastern Level 1 Talent Camp and  Kieran Skinner our other 13 year old was ill so the race was open.  Both boys started well with Adam taking the lead but with 5 metres to go Axel finished hard touching less than half a second in front of Adam and claiming the gold medal.

The loudest event of our whole Club Championships came with the 11 and over 100 metre breaststroke.  Trevor Zimmerman and Steve Vaughan were to go head to head in the same heat and with a multitude of swimmers on each lane end it was going to the touch.  Steve went out faster than Trev who pulled back on the second 50 metres, but just got touched out in the last second with Steve taking the win.

The next event of our very successful club champs was the 50 metres freestyle.  We had county times from some of our younger swimmers in this event, namely Alex Minaudo, Travis Johnson, Ben Cantrill, Finley Fox and Nathan East.  The girls followed with Lauren Gwynne, Amy Baker and Bryony Bower.  Many other county times were achieved by our older swimmers so well done to all.

The final event of this years Club Championships was considered the hardest event, the 200m butterfly.  Only 6 swimmers entered the boys event but all swimmers finished with everyone swimming to a new pb.  Special mentions must go to James Clayton and Scott Zimmerman who swam the event for the first time and to Jack Newton who swam a fantastic race and an eight second P.B in only the second time he has swum this event and yet another club record.

The girls event saw Becci Foster take 20 seconds off her previous time and Caitlin Bower a further 10 seconds off hers.   Holly Williams also had a brilliant swim and made the achievement of a new club record in this gruelling event look easy !

Overall club records went to the following swimmers:

Josh Jones (400 free),

Kieran Skinner (400 I.M, 200 I.M, 100 I.M,  200 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 100 fly),

Lauren York (400 free, 400 I.M, 200 free,100 back, 200 back, 200 breast, 100 I.M, 200 I.M),

Nathan East (200 back),

Scott Zimmerman (100 I.M),

Holly Williams (200 fly),

Caitlin Bower (200 breast), 

Jasmin Kirk (100 breast, 200 breast, 200 fly),

Jack Newton (200 free, 400 free, 100 fly, 200 fly, 400 I.M).

Coach Dave Leeman was pleased with all the swimmers performances over the championships and now looks forward to the Rotherham Metro meet in January where the swimmers can improve on these performances ready for the counties in February.