St.Neots Swans Swimming Club News Articles

County Championships

Andrea Gilbert — Wed, 01 May 2019 17:28:35 +0100

Cambridgeshire County Championships 2019

Over three weekends in January and February of this year, 15 of our swimmers competed at the annual Swim England Cambridgeshire County Championships. The swimmers who achieve County qualifying times are amongst the top 20 in the county for each event by age group. Some exciting racing was anticipated, and for many of our swimmers, they were looking to see if they could race times to build on last years achievements.

Our team of fifteen, competed across 82 events. This was nearly twice the number of events entered as compared to 2018, which is a super achievement and highlights the growth all the swimmers have made over the course of the year.

Overall, 53 PB’s were swum, 16 events with Heat Declared Winners in the Top 8; 18 events with swimmers making the Finals and two thirds of the events entered, our swimmers were within the Top 10 in the County. Super swimming across the whole team.

From our older swimmers; Luca Strazzullo retained his first in county position from last year and swam away with Gold in 50Breaststroke Age 13. Luca is looking forward to returning to regionals this year to swim in all three distances of the breaststroke events this year.

Ewan Thompson swam in 3 finals, achieved 10PB’s and a regional time in the 200Breaststroke. Ewan is looking forward to joining Luca and experiencing his first taste of regionals in May.

Darcy Button swam off with a Bronze medal in100Backstroke Age 16. Darcy is also chasing down her regional time for the 50Freestyle and is within 0.24 seconds from it – a fingertip finish away!

Alice Jack swam a super 50Freestyle to drop 1.7 secs and achieve a PB of 31.91. Alice also finished 7thin the county in 200Backstroke age 15.

Amy Rickwood swam 2 personal bests in 50Backstroke and 50Freestyle and finished 7thin county in the final of the 50 back.

Emily Williams swam to finish in the Top 10 in the county for 8 out of 9 events and finished in 4thplace in the county in 200Fly age 15.

Ellie Thompson achieved top 8 final positions for 4 out of five of her events and came fourth in the 800Freestyle age 16 with a personal best of nearly half a minute faster.

Matt Albone swam PB’s in all 5 of his events and making the final for 50Backstroke finished in 7thplace in the county.

Max Lubello swam a personal best of 31.19 in his 50Freestyle and Hannah Williams finished in Top 10 in the county in her 50Fly.

Amongst the younger swimmers; Josh Needham swam 8 personal bests out of the 9 events he entered. He finished in the top 10 in 8 of those events and came 4thin the county in the 200Free with a 7second improvement on his previous time. Josh swam in his first ever final at this county championships and came in 7thin the 100m breaststroke.

Ruby Lane swam 2 personal bests for both events she entered and came 5thin the county for 50breaststroke – swimming to a time of 0.24 seconds outside a regional time. Another one with a fingertip finish away from her regionals!

Tilly Davis swam 8 personal bests out of 9 events and finished within the top 10 in the county in 8 of those events. Tilly also made her first ever finals at counties in 3 events, finishing in 6thposition for 50Backstroke, 100backstroke and 50 breaststroke.

Alexia Gilbert swam an outstanding PB of 36.77 in the 50Freestyle, knocking 2 seconds off her previous best and swimming two further PB’s in the 100free and 50backstroke. Alexia also finished in the top10 in the county for two events, finishing in 6thplace in the 200backstroke.

Millie Al-Ali swimming her first time at Counties, swam a super-fast 50Free in 37.90 seconds which puts her in third position in the age10 group and a promising position for next years Counties.

Congratulations and well done to all our swimmers at the Counties. The teamwork you demonstrate through your camaraderie and support for each other in your individual races is great to see. Keep on with the cheering! We are looking forward to watching you all progress over the year and build upon these achievements at next years County Championships.

We also look forward to seeing many more of the club compete at open meets during the year as you try for your county qualifying times in preparation for next year. Please do be aware that the current qualifying times are currently under review. As soon as the new times are issued, they will be shared across the club – watch this space to see what times you will need to be aiming for, for next year. One last thing! Do not forget that you need to be looking at the age category of how old you will be at end December 2020!

	50 Freestyle	100 Freestyle	200 Freestyle	400 Freestyle	800 Freestyle	50 Breaststroke	100 Breaststroke	200 Breaststroke	50 Butterfly	100 Butterfly	200 Butterfly	50 Backstroke	100 Backstroke	200 Backstroke	100 Individual Medley	200 Individual Medley
Age Group 10/11
Millie Al-Ali	19					12
Tilly Davis	15	9	9			6	10		10			6	6		10
Alexia Gilbert	12	11										9	11	6	16
Age Group 12
Ruby Lane						5									12
Josh Needham	10	13	4			10	7	8				10			5	7

JFL round 5

Andrea Gilbert — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 14:38:18 +0100

Well done and thank you to everyone who swam, coached, umpired, timekept, recorded, announced, fed & watered, did the entry table and raffle table, donated raffle prizes, watched, cheered & supported! Phew! We all made a JFL meet happen, run smoothly, achieved some super swimming and hopefully was enjoyed by our visiting teams as much as us!

The fifth round of the JFL saw the Swans swimming against Chatteris, Bottisham, Boston and March Marlins. In this penultimate round of the year, what a round it was with two thirds of the races being PB’s!

With a full sheet bar one exception, Swans swam well all round to achieve 3rd position. Great achievement!

It was also great to see some wins on the night too. Led by our older boys, from Ewan Thompson (free) James Brace (breaststroke), Alexia Gilbert (back) and Max Lubello (free & IM) with Max getting that all important fingertip finish to win the IM! Great finishing!

PB’s were achieved by:

Max Lubello - Backstroke, Freestyle, & 100IM

Lola Philpott - Backstroke & Freestyle

Noah Brace - Freestyle & Breaststroke

Lyla Sabine - Freestyle

Matthew Needham - Breaststroke & Freestyle

Matilda Wilson - Breaststroke

Evelyn Petrie - Fly

Georgie Thompson-Clark - Freestyle

James Brace - Breaststroke & Fly

Ewan Kendall - Fly

Amelia Ostrowska - Fly & Backstroke

Elinor Rickwood - Backstroke

Dominic Chaplin - Freestyle

Isabella Ricketts - Freestyle

Ewan Thompson - Backstroke

Natalie Ormston - Freestyle

Alexia Gilbert - Backstroke

Joshua Needham - Breaststroke

Mia O’Aivazian-Little - Breaststroke

Thea Brace - Breaststroke

Layla Button - Fly

Fantastic swimming all round!!

new backstroke wedge

Andrea Gilbert — Thu, 13 Sep 2018 17:48:52 +0100

Those at training last night had the first chance to try out the new backstroke start wedge. Bought with some of the money gratefully received from the Mick George Skip of Gold Competition, we hope that all the club swimmers will benefit from being able to practice with the new style start wedge and hopefully, improve their overall performance in backstroke.
Andrea will look to include it in any training sessions focusing on backstroke and starts and turns. Make sure you don’t miss them!

July Open Meet successes

Andrea Gilbert — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 13:48:48 +0100

July Open Meet Round Up

Over the last couple of weekends, St Neots Swans have been busy swimming at several galas across the region.

At Peterborough over the first weekend in July, a few from the club swam at the COPS Summer Sprintastic Open Meet.

Ewan Thompson came away with a bronze in the 100m breaststroke and a PB time and silver in the 200m breaststroke with a PB time; age 11-12 group.

Ellie Thompson swam a PB time in the 50m backstroke heats to earn a place in the finals. Ellie also swam a PB in her 50m free.

Hannah Williams swam a PB time of 30.67 secs in the 50m freestyle to earn a place in the finals. Hannah also swam a PB in 200IM.

Max Lubello swam 3 PB’s in all three races he swam; 50m Fly, 100mIM and 50m Free.

Emily Williams swam a PB in the 50m freestyle final and followed Darcy Button’s example of breaking the 30second barrier to become the second Swans swimmer to swim sub30!

Great swimming all!

More PB’s were swum at the Cambridge Jeanne Barker July Open on the 14th & 15th:

Layla Button – 200IM

Ewan Thompson – 50mBreaststroke and Gold medal, 50mFly & Gold medal, silver medals 200mBreaststroke & 200mFree

Darcy Button – 50mFly

Ellie Thompson – 100mFreestyle

Hannah Williams – 50m,100m&200mFreestyle and 100IM

Jade Davis – 100m Free and 50mBack

Alice Jack – 100m&200mFree and 50m&200mBackstroke

Luca Strazzullo – 50m&100mFree and 50mFly and 200mBreaststroke and 100IM – plus silver medals for 50mFree, 100mIM, 100mBreaststroke, gold medal for 200mBreaststroke

Josh Needham – 200IM, 100mFree, 50m&100mBack

Emily Williams – 200m Fly and gold medal

Tilly Davis – 100mBreaststroke

Considering this is meant to be the slow down period before the summer break – well done to all for finishing with a raft of PB’s and to all the swimmers, who whilst may not have bettered their PB’s, have maintained their times and overall positive approach to their swimming.

Look forward to continuing the progress after the summer break!

SFL round 1

Andrea Gilbert — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 13:47:56 +0100

Senior Fenland League Round 1

Saturday 7th July saw a full squad of 22 St Neots Swans travel to Newmarket to compete in this years’ first round of the Senior Fenland League. This was the first time this group of Swans has swum in the Senior Fenland League, so the evening was very much a learning curve for all.

Bottisham hosted the evening and the other teams competing were Diss Otters and First Strokes.

The evening started with a round of fast paced relays; 100 Medley relay for over 13’s and 100 Free relays for 12 and under’s. It continued with the more familiar 100m and 50m individual, all strokes, races for age categories Open, 14/U, 12/U and 10/U. The evening was rounded off with another burst of 100 medley relays and 100free relays.

Whilst St Neots finished with 132 points in last position, there were some excellent swims performed on the night, with Captain Ellie Thompson swimming a PB in the 100Free to finish first.

PB’s were obtained by Alice Jack, Matthew Albone, Hannah Williams, Ellie Thompson, Ailish Gray, Jack Ricketts, Noah Brace, Elisha Gray, Marie-Antioinette Quintilla, Amy Rickwood, Emily Williams and Aoife Gray.

Thanks to Bottisham for hosting and looking forward to Round 2 in September!

JFL round 4

Andrea Gilbert — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 13:46:49 +0100

Junior Fenland League Round 4

Saturday night saw a slightly smaller team of 17 St Neots Swans travel to Newmarket to compete in Round 4 of the JFL against hosts City of Ely and other teams from Chatteris, Wisbech and Boston. Again St Neots Swans swam well against strong competition and managed to maintain their fourth place.

50% of the 44 races achieved a personal best time - that’s a massive 22 PB’s swum on what was an incredibly hot evening! With most of the remaining swims, just outside PB’s so that the swimmers are maintaining their current standard. As we approach the summer break, this is great swimming from all.

PB’s achieved:

Imogen Shone - 50 Backstroke

Lyla Sabine - 50 Breaststroke

Noah Brace - 50 Breaststroke & 50 Free

Elinor Rickwood - 50 Backstroke

Natalie Ormston - 50 Breaststroke

Mia O’Keefe - 50 Free

Marie-Antoinette Quintilla - 50 Backstroke & 50Fly

Tilly Sayer - 50 Free & 50 Backstroke

Efraim Gray - 50 Fly, 50 Breaststroke & 100IM

Dominic Chaplin - 50 Free

Abigail Sabine - 50 Backstroke & 50 Free

Amelia Ostrowska - 50 Breaststroke

Harry Shone - 50 Backstroke

Elisha Gray - 100 IM & 50 Breaststroke

Great swimming all!

JFL round 3

Andrea Gilbert — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 14:55:14 +0100

Junior Fenland League Round 3

Saturday night saw the St Neots Swans travel to Kings Lynn to compete in Round 3 of the JFL against hosts West Norfolk and other teams from Mildenhall, City of Ely and Thetford. Another nights good swimming and the Swans finished in fourth place.

23 PB’s were swum on Saturday night which is an impressive nights swimming across 19 swimmers and 44 races! With Georgie Thomson-Clark swimming three PB’s - well done Georgie. There were some exciting races too which were closely contended. Notably the boys 50 Fly for 13/U was a particularly close swum race with Elisha Grey holding his own and grabbing second place - great swimming. Swans team support was in full evidence and the shouting reached a crescendo at the relay race! Team captains Ellie and Darcy awarded their swimmers of the evening awards to Tilly Davis and Finley Sayer - well done both.

Thanks to West Norfolk for hosting another enjoyable round of the Fenland League!

PB’s achieved:

Jack Begnett - 50 Free

Georgie Thomson-Clark - 50 Back, 50 Breast, 100IM

Elisha Gray - 50 Fly, 50 Back

Evie Ruffles - 50 Fly

Mia Jones - 50 Breast, 25 Fly

Tilly Sayer - 50 Free

Efraim Gray - 50 Back, 50 Free

Harry Shone - 50 Free

Layla Button - 50 Free, 50 Back

Josh Needham - 100IM, 50 Fly

Lucas Oxborough - 50 Free

Imogen Shone - 50 Free

Ewan Kendall - 50 Breast, 25 Fly

Tilly Wilson - 50 Breast

Fin Sayer - 100IM

Great swimming all!

Bank Holiday Swimming Round Up

Andrea Gilbert — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 14:19:57 +0100

A Bank Holiday of Swimming!

Over the end of May Bank holiday weekend the Swans were represented at the East of England Regional Championships by Luca Strazzullo and by 19 of the clubs swimmers at the Fenland Open Meet hosted by March Marlins.

In the last few weeks, Luca achieved race times to qualify and compete in the 50m and 100m breaststroke categories at the East of England Regional Championships, which were held in Luton over the last Bank Holiday weekend. Day One saw Luca achieve 10th place in the 100m, settle his nerves and get the feel for the pool and the competition. Day Two saw Luca achieve PB’s in the 50m, finishing fastest in the heats to qualify for the final and swimming faster again in the final. The final was an awesome swim with a finger tip finish that saw Luca gain fourth place. A great experience to build on and a super achievement that now sees Luca currently ranked 32nd in the country for his 50m! Super swimming Luca!

The Fenland Open also saw some outstanding swimming from the club. 32 PB’s were achieved overall on the day, 3 Gold medals (Emily x2, Darcy) 5 silver medals (Ewan, Emily, Darcy x 3) and 4 Bronze medals (Darcy, Joe,Tilly D x 2). There were plenty of thrilling races to watch and with a particularly notable finish by Darcy in her 100m breaststroke, to swim with added strength and power in the last 25m to finish first in her heat. A great swim which earned her a silver medal to add to her tally for the day; Gold in the 100 IM, silvers for 100m Back, 100m Fly and 100m Breast and bronze for 100 free. To cap the day - Darcy was awarded Overall Winner for Age 14 - a great accolade for a great days swimming! Well done all Swans swimmers for this was a great days racing, where everyone worked towards their County and Regional times and created a solid foundation for the year ahead.

Thanks as always to all those who make these meets happen - especially as the events were held during national Volunteer week! And thanks to all the 🏊‍♀️ 🏊‍♂️ - you’re all awesome!

Medal Success

Andrea Gilbert — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 14:16:20 +0100

Swans Swim to Medal Success

Day One of the Cambs ASA County Developments has seen some great medal successes for the St Neots Swans.

With 22 swimmers looking for county times in events that they’ve not yet achieved, the swans earned 13 Gold medals, 12 Silver medals and 2 Bronze - an amazing 27 medals in total! Ruby, Thomas, Emily, Matthew, Alice, Luca, Thea, Hannah and Tilly all achieved swims within the current existing County times for year end December 2018. A great start to the year ahead to swimming towards county qualifications and great to see so many of our younger squad entering and starting to create times from which to build upon.

400Freestyle

Gold - Ruby Lane, Hannah Williams

Silver - Alice Jack, Alexia Gilbert

50 Backstroke

Gold - Jade-Lee Davis, Luca Strazzullo,

Silver - Ellie Thompson, Ewan Thompson, Matthew Albone

200 Backstroke

Gold - Alice Jack

Silver - Jade-Lee Davis

50 Breaststroke

Gold - James Brace, Thomas Lane, Emily Williams, Hannah Williams,

100 Breaststroke

Silver - Hannah Williams

200 Butterfly

Gold - Emily Williams, Ewan Thompson

100 IM

Gold - Emily Williams

Silver - Matthew Albone, Thomas Lane, Tilly Davis, Hannah Williams

Bronze - Ellie Thompson

100 Freestyle

Gold- Matthew Albone

Silver- Thomas Lane

Bronze - Jade-Lee Davis

Medal Results	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE
Emily	3
Hannah	2	2
Matthew	1	2
Thomas	1	2
Jade	1	1	1
Alice	1	1
Ewan T	1	1
James	1
Luca	1
Ruby	1
Ellie		1	1
Alexia		1
Tilly D		1
TOTAL TEAM SWANS	13	12	2

JFL round 2

Andrea Gilbert — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 11:57:12 +0100

Junior Fenland League Round 2

And the PB’s keep on being achieved!

Second round of the JFL saw the Swans swimming at Newmarket against First Strokes, Mildenhall, Peterborough B and hosts; Bottisham. Some good solid performances saw us maintain our fourth place on the night.

Settling into second swims for a number of the new squad members, we’re seeing new pbs being created against the first round JFL. In all 19?Pbs gained by:

Mia Jones - free

Tilly Sayer - breast

Marie-Antoinette Quintilla - back

Isabella Ricketts - fly

Thea Brace - free

Dominic Chaplin - fly & free

Georgie Thomson-Clark - free

Jemima - back & free

Mia O’Aivazian-Little - breast

Lola Philpott - fly & IM

Joshua Abbott - back

Finley Sayer - free

Imogen Shone - free

Noah Brace achieving 3pbs in all 3 of his races in breast, back & free

Overall it was a great night for PB’s in Freestyle! Great swimming all. All your hard work in training is showing through.

Captains Choice for swimmers of the week were awarded to Josh Needham & Tilly Sayer well done!

Thanks to Bottisham for hosting and thanks to all the volunteers, without whom we wouldn’t be able to swim & compete. Always appreciated.

Full results can be found at:

http://www.fenlandleague.org/page43.php