Due to the Bank Holidays and The Jubilee Weekend, the following sessions are cancelled:

MIDLAND YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS
5TH-6TH MAY 2012 – COVENTRY SPORTS CENTRE

Issy Lester and Claire Beddow were Shrewsbury’s representatives at this year’s Midland Youth Champs. While the entry level was slightly lower than usual, the standard of the competition was as strong as ever. Both girls were competing in the 15/16yrs double age band.

The first day saw Issy first up in the 100m Fly early in the morning session. She swam a great race, producing a new long course(50m pool) pb, while converting to equal her short course(25m pool) pb also. Next up for both girls was the 200m Freestyle, with both of them in heat 3. Claire raced tough and swam to equal her recent long course pb time in her first ever midlands race, while Issy set a new long course pb time. After a much needed rest gap, they both were up in the 50m Freestyle. Issy equalled her pb, as did Claire whilst winning the following heat from lane 8. Last up on day 1 was Issy in the 200m back. She swam a well paced and controlled race from lane 6 to set a new pb and win her heat.

Day 2 saw Issy compete in the 400m Freestyle, 200m IM and 100m Freestyle. In the unfavoured lane 8 in the 400m Free, she set a new pb by 6 seconds. With not much rest, she was back in for the 200m IM, and thanks to a strong 2nd half to her race, she equalled her pb. Last of her 7 races was in the 100m Free, where she set another new pb and rounded off her championships in the same fashion she started them!! Over the course of the 2 days, the girls represented the club extremely well, but also managed to improve considerably on their ranking positions going into the championships across all their races, which is what racing at this level is all about. Congratulations to both girls.

NUNEATON JUNIOR LEAGUE(DIDDY LEAGUE)
ROUND 1 – SAT 21ST APRIL 2012 – CHESLYN HAY

The 3rd weekend in April saw the start of the annual Nuneaton Junior League competition for 9-12yr old. This ‘diddy’ league is a great opportunity for our junior swimmers to shine and race well in a team environment. And race well they did!! In every race of the night, Shrewsbury swimmers were in the hunt for victories and those all important 6 points. Our first victory didn’t take long to arrive, event 7 courtesy of girls captain Megan Potts in the 12yrs 50m Back, with boys captain Tom Rowley following suit in the next race. Further individual wins came from Harry Bridgeman, Tom R and diddy league debutantes Gemma Hughes, Zac Plant and Orla McCormack, while we notched up 6 relay wins, including the all important gala ending cannon!! Special mention has to go to the 9yr old girls team. Not only did Gemma H win both her individuals and Sophia Motola-Evans win her freestlye, but they teamed up with Laura Walford and Amy Watton to win both of their relays. Well done girls!

The team finished the evening 16 victories, plus a further 19 top 3 finishes, meaning we were 3rd overall. However, this doesn’t reflect the strong team performances across the board and the excellent atmosphere, both amongst the team and from the travelling support! The result puts us mid-table going into round 2, still we a realistic chance of making the final in September and gaining promotion back to league 2. Bring on round 2, again in Cheslyn Hay!

CITY OF LEICESTER AGE GROUP OPEN MEET
13TH-15TH APRIL 2012, BRAUNSTONE LEISURE CENTRE

A new competition for us for 2012 saw 9 SASC swimmers travel to the modern and cool (in every sense of the word!!) pool at Braunstone Leisure Centre. This meet acted as a last chance saloon for swimmers to gain MDQTs for the 2012 Champs in May and June. The meet started for us in awesome fashion, with Will S and Lucy smashing the pbs by 7 seconds each to easily gain their midland times. Saturday continued in the same fashion with several pbs. Ellie hit new times in the 200m IM and 100 Free, while Lucy got a new pb in the 200m back and 200m IM, with the IM being a MDQT. Tom S got a new best time in the 200m Free, while his new 200m Breast time earned him Gold, as did his new time in the 100m Breast final. Tom H and Will both got new best times in the 100m Back, with Will placing 4th in the final, as did Issy in the 100m Fly in a new MDQT and pb. Claire swam to a new pb in the 200 back and also 6th place in the 100m Free final.

Sunday produced much of the same. Jodie swam an excellent 200m free to gain a new best time, the same result came for Tom R in the 200m IM and 100m Free. All swimmers raced to new best times, while more MDQTs came from Issy(50m Free), Claire(200m Free) and Will(100m Fly). Final highlights came from Will placing 5th in the 100m Free and 6th in the 100m Fly and Ellie earning a Silver medal in the 100m Breast. Our 4th and final medal came from Will in the 200m IM. All 9 swimmers raced exceptionally well and represented the club in excellent fashion. I sense this pool and meet will prove to be a happy hunting ground for the club and our swimmers in the future!!

SHREWSBURY ASC 6TH SPRING OPEN MEET

SATURDAY 31ST MARCH 2012

Our 6th Spring Open Meet took place at the start of the Easter holidays, with a high entry level once again from across the county and further afield contributing a quality standard of competition. Shrewsbury had in excess of 35 swimmers racing over the 3 sessions in what was a long but highly successful day for the club both in the pool and out of the water!

Carrying on the high standard of competition and volume of pb times from counties, SASC raced hard and fast all day, finishing up with over 60 new pb times and 50 medals, 24 of which were Gold. Furthermore, Sophie Whittingham claimed top girl in the 17yrs/over category, while there were also 14 Midland Qualifying Times (MDQT) gained. Will Slawson, Tom Sykes and Sophie W gained new MDQTs in the 100m Back, 200m Breast and 50m Fly respectively, while Issy Lester had an awesome set of swims setting pbs in all 5 races and easily gaining MDQTs in 4 of them. Special mention must go to Claire Beddow, who also set pbs in all of here races, particularly in the 200m and 400m free where she smashed her previous best times. Across the whole day we swam really well as a whole team and even in session 3 in the evening, where there were some very tired bodies both on poolside and in the water, all swimmers raised their game and raced really tough to the bitter end!! Big congratulations to all members of the club involved on the day, whether competing or helping in the smooth running, for yet another highly successful open meet. Bring on next year’s!!

Click here for Full Results.

January is membership renewal time with the ASA and SASC. The payment covers the period January to December.

LIVERPOOL SC WINTER OPEN MEET
20TH-22ND JANUARY 2012

We had 7 SASC swimmers travel up to Liverpool to compete in this Level 1 meet last month, the aim being to gain further long-course race practice and also some hard racing mid-cycle.

Will Slawson produced good pb swims in the 200m Freestyle and 200m IM events to achieve his 2nd and 3rd MDQTs of this season, closely followed by Lucy Fairbanks who gained her first Midland of this season in the 200m Freestyle. Lucy also gained long course pbs in the 200m back, 200m IM and 400m Freestyle.

Ffion Butler put in 2 creditable performances racing the 200m IM and 400m Free long course for the first time, while Gemma Hughes raced strongly in the 200m Back to record a decent pb in her first 50m pool event. Issy Lester equalled her 200m IM pb and set a new short and long course 200m Free pb, impressive results as she has only been back in the water for a few weeks after illness.

Finally, for the boys, were Tom Horswood and Ollie Russell. Ollie swam a good race in the 400m IM albeit outside his pb. He swam a 100m fly pb at the start of the race, while Tom produced strong races for pbs in both his 200m Back and 400m Free. More importantly, these strong performances really bode well for county champs up next and also for the rest of the season. Well done to all.

SHREWSBURY JUNIOR MEET
3RD DECEMBER 2011

The 3rd SASC Junior Winter meet saw 40 Shrewsbury swimmers take to the water in our home pool. The meet acts as a chance for our junior swimmers with little racing experience to take part in one of their first open meets, while those more accomplished can improve on their racing skills. All of the SASC swimmers rose the challenge of racing and this began from the very first race. The boys 200m back saw all of the boys in the event gain sizeable Pb swims. Furthermore, Joe Rowley, Ben Taylor, Zac Plant, Robbie Jowett, Tom Turner, Charlie Rimmer and Max Dalziel all gained new county times for 2012. This set the tone for the day where pb times were falling in every event and all of our swimmers were racing extremely well. Lily Oliver, Harry Bridgeman, Charlie Oliver, Orla McCormack and Juliet Mitchelmore, all making their open meet debuts, came away with new pbs, with Orla gaining the 200m Breast county QT. Additional county QT were earned by Aron Preece, Robbie Jowett, Zac Plant, Joe Rowley, Woody Goodall and Lucy Fairbanks.
The SASC team finished the day with:

GOLD MEDALS:          32
SILVER MEDALS:        33
BRONZE MEDALS:      30
NEW CQT:                   16
NEW PB TIME:             102
On top of this, Gemma Hughes and Lucy Fairbanks won the top girls awards in the 9yr and 12yr old age groups respectively. Massive well done to all of the Shrewsbury swimmers, who swam exceptionally well on the day.

HEREFORD OPEN MEET
NOVEMBER 2011

The first target meet of the 2011/12 season saw a large team of 38 SASC swimmers make the short journey to Hereford. Having had several successes at this meet in previous years, hopes were high for this year’s meet. The whole team certainly delivered!!

Event 1 saw 9yr old Ella Martindale record a massive pb and win bronze in the 200m Breast in her Open Meet debut. A further 6 pb swims, 2 medals and a Midland Qualifying Time (MDQT) in this event set the tone for the rest of the weekend. Special mention from the first session must also go to Tom Horswood who recorded huge pbs in both 400m Free and 200m IM, despite only returning from a 2 month injury lay off 3 weeks previously.

Session 2 brought around more of the same success from session 1. The girls 400m Free brought massive pbs for Gemma Hughes, Jodie Beddow and Lucy Fairbanks, while Georgia Huddleston gained another of her 7 MDQTs from the meet. More achievements in this sessions include first County Qualifying times in the 100m Breast for Grace McCartney and Kate Grindley and a gold medal in the 200m Freestyle for 9yr old Woody Goodall in his first Open Meet.

The Sunday sessions started with the boys 200m Breast presented Zac Plant with a silver medal in his first open meet, a much deserved pb and bronze for boys captain Ollie Russell and Gold and a pb for Tom Sykes in the 13yr age group. The boys 100m free later on saw 8 pb times, along with a first MDQT for Will Slawson. The morning session finished with the girls 200m Free in which SASC gained 5 more pb times and 2 gold medals. The final session began with the girls 200m Back. The was the club’s single most successful event of the weekend with 9 pb swims, 3 silvers and 2 gold medals, 4 new County times and a first MDQT of the season for Issy Lester. The remainder of the final session earned the swimmers more medals and pb times. At the end of the weekend, the stats for the club read:

            GOLD MEDALS:          24
            SILVER MEDALS:        30
            BRONZE MEDALS:      26
            NEW PB TIMES:         129
            NEW CQT:                   32
            MDQT:                         9

On top of these Lucy F and Georgia H both gained top girl awards in the 12yr and 13yr age groups respectively. Overall, Shrewsbury came second top visiting club. A very successful weekend for all involved. Congratulations to all the swimmers and a big thank you to the travelling parents for their support and Neil, Karen and Jo for their huge support on poolside. Bring on the rest of the season!!

 'ALMOND MAKES EUROPEAN TEAM FOR BERLIN'

Shrewsbury's very own female club captain Gemma Almond has achieved a massive success at the 2011 European IPC Disability Swimming European Championships in Berlin in July.

Having qualified for the 400m Freestyle event, she was also entered for the 100m Freestyle, 200m IM and the 100m fly. Gemma has continued to train exceptionally hard throughout the year and through her A’ level exams. In Berlin she placed 5th in the 100m Fly with a new personal best time. She also set a new pb in the 100m Free heat to reach the finals where she swam another pb and placed 4th.

She then set a new 400 m Free pb in the final where she again placed 4th, a mere 0.8 seconds from bronze position. She did, however, go one better in her favoured 200m IM event. In the heat she swam just outside her pb placing her 3rd fastest for the final. In the final she swam even faster, achieving a new pb for the event and winning a well deserved bronze medal.
 A huge congratulations to Gemma from the whole club.

A massive achievement we can all be proud of!

The Eddie Blight Trust Fund was set up to help young officials within the West Midland Region.

The fund will assist young officials (aged 25yrs and under) with the initial outlay of clothing and/or equipment up to a maximum of £50.

The grant is not payable until the official has become licensed, although applications can be submitted prior to that.

To Apply, click here.