End of Year Report 2009

Scunthorpe Anchor are going from strength to strength and 2009 has been another successful year with massive achievements by our swimmers.  The Liverpool Open Meet and Rotherham Metro Open meet were the first to be targeted in 2009 in which we were named top club at the Rotherham meet with Kieran Skinner achieving Top Boy and Lauren York and Caitlin Bower finishing 2^nd and 3^rd for Top Girl.   We were also proud to have 25 swimmers achieving podium positions and Lauren York starting off the year with 2 club records in her new age group.  January also saw us compete in the Barnsley Minor League gala and Lincs Senior League in which we finished 3^rd and 2nd respectively with four new club records been smashed to Lauren and Jasmin.

We then move on to February and after finishing 3^rd club at last years Yorkshire Counties we wanted to continue with our successes.  We had 17 swimmers taking part in the Junior/Senior event and BAGCAT’s.  The three weekends saw some massive P.B’s for our swimmers and  a total of eight club records been smashed, 4 to Kieran, 2 to Holly Williams and one each to Jack Newton and Scott Zimmerman.   Scunthorpe swimmers walked away with a total of 10 medals, 4 gold, Kieran (3), Scott (1), 1 silver, Kieran and 5 bronze, Caitlin (2), Josh (1), Kieran (2).  Overall we were to finish in 3^rd place with Caitlin Bower finishing in 5^th position, Josh Jones 6^th and Kieran Skinner 5^th.

March saw us fielding two teams for the Lincolnshire Junior League with one team at Lincoln and the other Gainsborough.  The swimmers at Gainsborough were on good form with 32 1^st places from 49 races.  The team at Lincoln were also in high spirits with some great performances on the night which were rewarded with new P.B’s for a number of swimmers.

Our first home gala of the year also took place in March, the Barnsley Minor League in which some of the younger swimmers took part.  We finished 2^nd overall with 13 first places and 22 P.B’s.

After a busy start to the year April was a relatively quiet month with only two open meets.  The Derventio in which Josh Jones started his roll on National Qualifying times with his first one of the season in the 200 I.M.  Josh finished 3^rd in the BAGCAT rankings at this event.  The Minster Open Meet took place at Beverley.  From the club members who attended the open meet the following swimmers finished in the top three places:  Becki Baker (2^nd, 3^rd), Lauren Callaghan (1^st), Yasmin Callaghan (1^st),  Nathan East (2^nd), Becci Foster (3^rd),  Rhiannon Haber (3^rd, 3^rd, 3^rd), Ryan Johnson (1^st), Nahum Kloss (1^st, 3^rd), Hannah Mayall (2^nd, 3^rd), Frances Moir (1^st), Emma Sanderson (2^nd, 2^nd), Sven Schygiol (2^nd), Michael Trueman (1^st, 3^rd).  Besides this there were also 17 speeding tickets given and we were to finish in 3^rd position overall.

Anya Snow was presented with Young Sports Girl Achiever of the year by North Lincolnshire Council after been nominated by her school for which she attended an awards ceremony and received her award from Nigel Adkins.

April also saw the changes to club records and we now hold both long course and short course club records rather than converting long course times.  They are updated on a regular basis and are available to view under General Information.

At the Radford Open Meet at the beginning of May Josh was to bag more National qualifiers, this time for the 400 I.M, 400 free, 800 and 1500 free which saw his tally total 5.  It was a good weekend with numerous district qualifiers, medal winners and Caitlin Bower finished 3^rd overall.  The same weekend also some of the senior swimmers travel to Sunderland to take part in the ASANER Senior/Youth Championships, Lauren, Jasmin, Aislie and Sam Green achieved 7 P.B’s between them.

The next round of both the Lincs Senior League and Lincs Junior League also took place this month and we were to finish 2^nd in the Senior League with Jasmin and Kieran gaining new club records in the 100 free and 100 fly respectively.  The two teams taking part in the Junior League were at Grimsby competing against each other which proved to be a force to reckon with and there were some close finishes.  Overall CASA A finished in 1^st position and CASA B in 3^rd.  James Clayton was the lucky owner of a new club record at this event by taking his own record in the 25m fly event.

Josh Jones didn’t want to settle for five National qualifiers and after attending an event at Ponds Forge gained his sixth in the 200 breast.  Press coverage ensued and an article was published in the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph celebrating his massive achievements.

The ASANER district championships took place in June with six of our swimmers qualifying to take place.  Josh Jones, Kieran Skinner Jack Newton and Holly Williams all qualified for finals, Josh in the 400 I.M and 100 breast, Kieran in the 200 fly and 100 breast, Jack in the 400 free and Holly in the 200 fly.  Jack Newton, Bryony Bower and Caitlin Bower also had some great swims gaining new P.B’s and club records.

July was a great month for Josh Jones as he took part in the Nationals alongside Callum Gladding, Oliver Webster, Tom Paine, Sophie Long and Leah Altoft from Cleethorpes.  This is the most prestigious event on the swimming calendar and to qualify to swim is a huge achievement.  Josh finalled in 3 out of his 6 events.   A follow on from this was that Josh and Callum were selected to take part in the English Talent Development Programme.

We took 13 swimmers to compete in the Hull Open Meet this month .  The swimmers achieved 49 P.B’s overall with  some swimmers gaining P.B’s in all events entered. Overall Yasmin Callaghan finished in 3^rd place and Jack Newton in 2^nd.  New club records in the 200 fly were also set by Holly Williams and Jack Newton.

The club sprints presentation night also took place and the newly appointed club captains, voted by the swimmers, were announced as Tom Spencer and Emma Sanderson.  Trophy winners can be seen in the photo album.

August gave swimmers a well deserved two week break to re-charge batteries ready for the new season which kicked off on the 12^th September with the Lincs Junior league held firstly by CASA A at Riddings pool and later that evening at Lincoln with CASA B.  It was good to see that following the break we were performing well with a number of P.B’s and after last year been crowned overall winners of the league this year we had to settle for 2^nd place to Lincoln Vulcans.

The final round of the Barnsley Minor league took place on the final weekend and we finished in 2^nd place overall to Barnsley.  Hannah Mayall, Yasmin Callaghan, Adam Vaughan and Scott Zimmerman gave us four individual 1^st places, each with new P.B’s.

The Leeds Open Meet was targeted in early October by sixteen of our swimmers.  Another successful meet with 73 P.B’s, Ryan Johnson, Nahum Klos, Francis Moir, Axel Schygiol, Scott Zimmerman and Adam Vaughan in all entered events.  Also for Becci Foster, Holly Williams, Sven Schygiol and Michael Trueman in all but 1 event.    A huge number of swimmers gained medals and new club records were achieved.

November brought us the Barnsley Minor League Open at Knottingley in which we had 16 swimmers taking part of which seven took part in finals.  They were Adam Vaughan, Michael Trueman, Finley Fox, Megan Fletcher, Tom Spencer, Emma Sanderson and Rhianon Haber.  Overall all swimmers achieved 31 P.B’s

A long weekend of club championships took place at the end of November.  It was a brilliant championships with 28 new club records been made and lots of swimmers qualifying for the 2010 Yorkshire County Champs.   A separate report written by Lynn Leeman is available following articles/reports.  Trophy winners can be seen in the photo album.

In December we swam in the final of the National Arena Swimming League at Coventry.  We were extremely proud to have reached the final and although on the day we were up against some tough competition Dave commented on how proud he was of the swimmers achievements.

To sum up once again we have had a great year with a number of new swimmers joining the club and huge personal achievements by all swimmers during the previous twelve months.  2009 saw the largest number of our swimmers achieving County and District qualification than ever before and Josh Jones qualifying for more National events than the previous year.  We are without doubt going from strength to strength and will continue to strive forward in 2010.