NER Age Group Champs, Weekend 1

Day 1

The first of a double weekend of age group North East Regional Championships kicked off at John Charles Leeds on April 27/28 and as ever the young guns did not disappoint. Were we expecting an abundance of Medals? Probably not, the sheer amount of talent across the region is impressively high right now, were we expecting our young stars to give it their best and come back happy with their results and more importantly their performance, absolutely. By the end of Weekend 1 we were sitting happy with 9 finalists, 21 PB’s and 1 Bronze Medal.

Day 1 kicked off with 2 of the hardest events on the calendar, the Girls 400m IM followed by the Boys 200m Butterfly. We have a tradition at Dartes of exposing our young athletes to all the events on the Olympic pool programme. We believe it’s an important part of their swimming development and we call those who take part: The Animal Squad. Day 1 was the scene for 3 of our young stars to step up and show their Animal credentials.

First was Lexie Goddard, pre-race briefings with Lexie are usually entertaining to say the least, a pantomime of theatrics, loud noises and the occasional word from the Coach being slipped in the rare moments of silence, today it was “get your arms spinning fast on backstroke!”. When you consider Lexie first swam the 400m IM Long Course in February this year, and has swum it a further 4 times since, setting another PB in March, our expectations for another PB were low but she went out strong on 1:14 for her first 100m, from there on in it a matter of playing catch up as the stroke rate throughout middle sector dropped further and further from where it needed to be. Talking to her afterwards we could tell she had given it everything, there were no tears or claims she’s never doing it again, just a smile and accepted she gave it her all.

Next up our 2 boys Alex Eggitt and Caspar Burdon, the 200m Butterfly can be excruciatingly painful, these two boys however made it look extremely easy, almost relaxing with both boys settling into their rhythm for 150m and finding another burst of speed for the final 50m. The reward….huge PB’s and smiles for the both of them and a good example of how to race the bigger events as an Age Group athlete.

Next up was 4 girls for the 100m Backstroke, Freya Cooper, Jessica Hubery, Ruby Wakelin and Millie Dey. All 4 hovering around their PB’s with a couple under and a couple over, and some good examples of skills on show. A good showing girls.

There were some doubts whether Henry would final the Boys 100m Breaststroke, the competition in a merged 11/12yrs age group was strong. He went out seeking that 10th spot and blitzed his way down the first 50m on a 43.06, on the turn he was on pace for a PB but a final was still doubtful, then out of nowhere Henry found his second wind and picked up his stroke rate again, on the touch he achieved a 3 second PB and a time that got him into the final in 10th. Could he drop any more time off in the final? You bet he can! Finishing 5th and knocking off another 2 seconds for a fantastic time of 1:28.28, following that Final, clairvoyant Coach Mark Weatherill said one thing “he can definitely go sub 40 seconds tomorrow”, well we’ll see if he does or not……

Heading into the 200m Freestyle, we was looking for one thing today, consistency over the middle sector. Being able to go out on 50m PB+1 is all well and good, but by the time the lactate kicks in the body must be able to deal with it and maintain its rhythm. Our 5 Girls all managed to achieve this with very little difference between the 2nd and 3rd 50m and Phoebe Weatherill achieving the final with a very hot first 100m and a painful 2nd 100m but she held it together and headed into the final in 5th. The final was a different swim entirely, a more reserved (or tired) approach to the first 100m but a much stronger finish in the 2nd 100m resulted in a small improvement from her heats, 0.01 in fact! For Phoebe today was about putting in a good swim in a pool she doesn't particularly like when it comes to Freestyle, and many of our younger athletes can learn a lesson from this, train hard and keep grinding, don't shy away from challenges and conquer those demons!

Our 50m rockets were up to round off the morning heats. First our multi-talented star Jack Jones stood tall behind the blocks for the 50m Freestyle. Jack Jones has shown in training that when it comes to 50m he can mix it up with the best of them and we was hoping for the same again today. All that was needed was to be strategic in where we breathe and keep the head down in the final sector. A sub 30 second was the target and a clean breakout, finding his peak stroke rate early on, controlling his breathing as best he could and setting the pace in his heat resulted in a time he can be proud of, he achieved his goal and joins the sub 30 second club with a 29.98 seconds swim, well done Jack!

And finally our Breaststrokers Sofia and Jessica Moore stepped up to round off the mornings swimming. Looking from poolside, Sofia’s stroke rate seemed to match that of a 200m, a PB nonetheless but she knew she could do better, hopefully a lesson learned for tomorrow's 100m Breaststroke. And finally Jess Moore, after enduring a less than ideal season with an injury that’s kept her out of the pool for a spell, it was good to her coming back on form, blitzing her heat and just a smidgen outside her PB, good job Jess.

Now the medal.

Up for his only swim of Day 1 the 50m Freestyle heat, James Ellis or "Mr.Roboto" as i like to call him now decided to try a new tactic to deal with those jittery pre-race nerves. A headset, music and a pre-race brief that was simple enough, “i want to see you doing the lorry driver dance and a couple of pirouettes down the marshalling area, if you don’t there’s going to be a gruesome Fly set on Monday evening for everyone……oh and swim fast!”. And boy did he deliver, firstly catching our attention from the other side of the pool with moves that The Tin Man from the The Wizard of Oz could only wish were his, and secondly with a swim that saw him go sub 30 seconds for the first time, in a Long Course pool no less! As always there was a lesson to be learnt from this swim, if you make one mistake over 50m it bites back viciously at the end of the race and fortunately James came out knowing exactly where he needed to improve heading into the final. A cleaner breakout with less hesitation going into the first stroke. Would he learn his lesson for the final?
 

Sadly not, going into the final and 25m down he lay 5th/6th and it would take something special to get into the medals at that point. Fortunately this is a boy who has an incredible final 10 metres on him and so it was again, making his way through the pack, head down and spinning his arms for all their worth. He came out with a Bronze Medal at the North East Regional Championships and a day without putting his head in the bin once.

An awesome day of swimming was had and good luck to all for Day 2!

Day 2

As if day one wasn’t tough enough with his 200m Butterfly, first up for day 2 was one of Regional Squads rising stars Caspar Burdon in his hit out at surely the toughest of multi stroke races, the dreaded 400m Individual Medley. Dreaded or not, as usual Caspar took it in his stride with another excellent performance knocking 11 seconds off his previous personal best from the Yorkshire Championships only 2-months ago in February in a time of 6:19.83. Well done Caspar!

 

Super Jack Jones was next up in his 400m Individual Medley. This multi talented young sportsman is always ice cool at meets and today was no exception. Running through his pre-race plan it was “yep, yep, got it, yep, ok, yep, got it”. 100m of all strokes back to back and starting with the butterfly is certainly no joke and sometimes we don’t always get what we want. But these situations are opportunities to learn and Jack being the seasoned competitor he is, he’s always ready to do just that. Posting a 6:04.99 it was still great work. Well done Jack!

 

As one of the younger members of the squads I’ve not known Eva Longley all that long, but what i do know about her is her bravery. Most swimmers don’t want to go anywhere near a 200m Butterfly race, but this young lady wants to put herself through it at every opportunity and in training her face lights up whenever a coach says ‘fly’. Standing on the blocks Eva stood tall and confident with a small nod in our direction it was game time. The brief was to hold her stroke rhythm and breathing pattern, and for the most part of it that’s exacly what she did. By the time she hit the wall in a time of 3:24.25 Eva was 3rd in her heat taking 14secs off her personal best. To say she’d given it everything would be an understatement, when Eva arrived back for her post race talk she was ‘COOKED’. Well done Eva, brilliant performance!

 

It doesn’t really matter, be it younger or older members of the squads, the 200m butterfly takes no prisoners, especially when it comes to pre-race nerves. This time it was the turn of Lexie Goddard. Lexie is one of those swimmers who you need to worry about when she goes quiet. Well there was no need to worry about Lexie this time around, the volume was up, the chatter was on rapid fire and there wasn’t a dull moment to be had. Further backing up this theory, Lexie had a superb race, well mostly! I don’t think she’ll mind me saying that her third 50m had me worried momentarily but there was no need when Lexie more than saved it with a smokin fast final 50m. Well done Lexie, a superb effort and another massive 10seconds off your PB in a time of 2:46.46 from only 2-weeks ago! The rarity of such an achievement isn’t lost on the coaching team. Well done Lexie!

 

As we headed towards the final heats of the 200m butterfly it was the turn of the formidable Phoebe Weatherill. Such a controlled and solid heat swim saw her tick every box on her race brief, even walking away with a sore forearm from all the ‘scooping’ she’d been tasked with. Another PB from only two weeks ago too in a time of 2:37.25 saw Phoebe narrowly missing a swim off and into the final. See you at 5pm Phoebe where you get to do it all again!    

 

Looking across the pool, Robo-James was in full robotic dance mode. Goggles and headphones on lining up for his 100m Backstroke, he was in the zone. My moves weren’t being replicated which meant his mind was elsewhere or my moves were far too advanced (not likely!). Either way I’ll take that over his head being in the bin due to pre-race nerves. James went out fast, but was it too fast? Pacing for young swimmers is a hard skill to develop and can only be perfected through years of experience. Following a fast start the return 50m was hard for him, but based on the fact that the 11 yr old James was in a heat packed with 13year olds his 8th place finish was impressive and saw him safely into the final in a time of 1:17.05. See you at 5pm Robo-James for the finals!

 

Any breaststroke swimmer will tell you that breaststroke is NOT the ‘rest-stroke’ especially the young firecracker that is Sofia-Elyse Sanders. Her super high stroke rate in the 100m Breaststroke. Half way saw her beat her 50m PB from 24hours earlier and knock off a massive 2seconds from her 100m personal best in a time of 1:28.21. At the finish is was 2nd place in her heat, and this could only mean one thing - yep, you got it - see you at 5pm for the final. Well done Sofia.

 

Next up in the 100m Breaststroke was Lexie. After what seemed like only 5mins after her 200m Butterfly heat, back she was doing Lexie type stuff right before a race, chatting like crazy, and just being Lexie. As pointed out previously, this was a good sign. Her 1:28.30 saw her narrowly miss a PB which when you take into account the close proximity of a 200m butterfly this was a strong performance. Well done again Lexie.

 

Rounding up the morning session was a couple of quick fire rounds of 50m races. 50m Freestyle for the girls and 50m Breaststroke for the boys. The brief on the Freestyle was somewhat simple - it’s an all out effort and no pacing necessary, think strategically about where you breathe and get your head down into the finish and lastly, looking across the pool with your head up before hitting the wall was punishable by death, or a poor finishing time at least. First was Sofia who narrowly missed a PB by 0.02secs in a time of 31.66. Followed up by the super smooth Jess Moore with a new PB of 30.79. Great work and into the 30’s now Jess. The ever smiling Millie Dey was on the blocks next sprinting for home in 30.77 for another PB and another first time venturing into the 30’s in the long course pool. Rounding out the girls 50s freestyle splash and dash was Lexie and Phoebe. Steely faced Lexie was all business standing on the blocks and finished off a busy and tough morning’s work with a respectable 30.83secs. The final heat saw formidable Phoebe cut her personal best even further with an impressive 29.22secs and into the final, adding to her 200m butterfly final later on in the day.

 

Seeking his first sub 40secs 50m Breaststroke was the Heat-seeking Henry McKenzie and Super Jack was back for redemption from his earlier 400IM. High tempo racing was the brief and both boys delivered in abundance. Henry did indeed hit the wall in an impressive 39.78 taking almost 2-seconds off his personal best, making him 3rd fastest into the final. Impressive work Henry! Super Jack living up to his name dropped another second off his personal best with an aggressive yet controlled 38.44 and into the final. Could he drop any more time in his final? We’ll see later on! 

 

With the morning session done, it was time for the distance swimmers to do their thing in the 800m Freestyle. It wasn’t long before Freya Cooper and Jess Hubery arrived ready for their warm up. With the warm up and pre-race briefs done it was time to head to marshalling. Freya set herself a tough target of sub 10mins and a 40sec PB. The back up was to not go above 40secs per 50 and to Freya’s credit she only did that twice. Support was on point for Freya with us all waving her on from poolside (side note: her goggles filled up early on and she couldn’t see us, but she could certainly hear us!). Although Freya missed her own target it was an impressive swim. At 200m she was 4-seconds over her 200m PB, and at 400m she was only 2-seconds over her 400m PB. The result - 10:30.64 and a 9 second personal best. Well done Freya - awesome swimming!
 

Distance swimming can be brutal at times. Jess is a powerhouse at this discipline, one which takes no prisoners especially if you don’t pace it to perfection. Suffering from ongoing respiratory problems we went into the 800m with no expectations, but as always, Jess rises to the challenge of the tougher events and you’ve got to admire a kid for that. Jess always goes out fast, and today was no exception. It’s a risky but brave tactic to go out fast and hold on. Sometimes it works, and other times it bites down on you hard and you pay. Going out 2-seconds slower than your 50m PB for the first 50 and 5-seconds slower than your 100m PB for the first 100m is quick but in a race where the first and last 100’s should be your fastest, Jess didn’t have me worried. At 200m she was 5-seconds slower than her 200m PB and right on track, and again I wasn’t worried. From there on in, the fast pace start must have started to bite as the lactate built up wouldn’t clear. Stood on poolside i knew what was happening. No waving, no shouting or encouraging words made Jess move any faster. Talking to her afterwards she’d given it everything, i knew that was the truth and an effort that requires acknowledgment and a pat on the back. After all what else can we do if not our best. Well done jess, and although i know it’s not what you came for. Re-evaluate, learn and move forward.

 

Heats and distance races done, it was finals time. Phoebe was first up with her second 200m Butterfly of the day. Do what you did in the heats Phoebe, settle into your rhythm in the first 100m, push the 3rd 50 and accelerate into a strong final 50m for the finish – yet again, all boxes ticked with an impressive swim almost matching her heat swim with a 2:37.48 and 9th fastest in the North East Region – superb swimming as always from the formidable Phoebe!

 

Pre-race nerves only show a swimmer that they care and when they know this that feeling in the pit of their stomach becomes less of a threat. Lack of pre-race nerves from a swimmer concerns me, it tells me they might be getting complacent. So nerves are OK, but sometimes they can be disabling, especially for the younger swimmers. For James, the impending 100m backstroke final was a daunting thought. Escorting him through marshalling I was bringing out the jokes, using distraction techniques, the whole bag of tricks. My go to conversation is a projection technique and it’s super simple – think about later on when you’re sat eating your tea. Think how good it will feel to know you conquered your fear, you stood up to those feelings and didn’t back down. Or do you want to sit there eating your tea full of regret, thinking that I could have done that race – I know where I’d rather be! After the race James said he was “glad that I made him do that race!” I didn’t make you do it James, you did it all by yourself and you should be proud and use that experience next time you feel the nerves build and the feelings telling you to run away. Face it head on and never back down. James was strong in his final, much stronger than the heat taking almost a second off his heat time with a 1:16.11 and a 5th place finish. Be proud of yourself James!

 

The Firecracker was up next in her 100m Breaststroke final. Sofia marked out a couple of rivals she wanted to beat during her pre-final chat. Usually I like swimmers to concentrate on what they’re doing not on others but her doing the talking she went through her processes first then it was down to who she wanted to beat. Not wanting to dampen down the firecracker I let her light herself up and off she went to marshalling. Sofia went off fast and true to her new name. in all honestly Sofia was probably too fired up in the first 50 beating her 50m PB yet again for the second time in the process. Her earlier exertions began to show in the closing stages as Sofia hit the wall giving it her all and in a time of 1:29.54 and an 8th place finish. Cracking performance Sofia, well done!

 

Before we knew it, ‘the formidable’ was busy foam rolling her hammies, her quads, even her forearms were receiving a good and proper rolling. Making light of the situation I joked it was a bit over the top doing a 50m freestyle final as your swim down for her 200m butterfly final, but Phoebe being Pheebs she smiled it away and headed off to do business. Another rock star performance saw a 29.26 on the board at she slammed into the wall, only 0.04secs over her heat swim and another jaw dropping performance with a 6th place finish from a super busy day at the office. Well done Phoebe, amazing as always!

 

The ‘heat seeker’ Henry McKenzie was on the starting blocks next ready to take it out in the 50m Breaststroke final. Yet another sub 40-sec time of 39.94 saw Henry finish in the tough spot of 4th place. 4th fastest in the North East Region is something to be proud of and build on for the future. No medal today but a massive well done Henry, you’ve done yourself proud all weekend and can’t wait to see what you can do in the 200m Breaststroke during weekend 2.

 

Last but certainly not least in the finals it was time for Super Jack to do super things and that he did. Bursting out of his breakout Jack was ‘ON-IT’ immediately. With a super high stroke rate from the off he hit the wall with yet another personal best of 38.28secs. Going into the final in 10th and coming out 5th! Awesome work super Jack, well done!

A huge thank you to Mark Weatherill for Team Managing over the weekend!