British Swimming Summer Championships
After an exhausting qualifying window with a relentless number of meets in just two months, we all breathed a sigh of relief and enjoyed a quiet couple of months to the summer. With such a young squad, a squad that was cobbled together out of what remained following a turbulent couple of years and told to work together, it's been a massive learning curve for so many. But through our hardships we have a squad to be proud of, through our harships a British Championships qualifier has risen.
Step up Phoebe Weatherill.
It’s worth noting that Phoebe had never qualified for English Nationals before this point, her PB prior to April and the NQ window beginning was 1:10.07, set at the Yorkshire Championships. By smashing out PB after PB during the NQ window and forcing herself into the top flight, so for her to go one better and make the British Championships in the 100m Butterfly is a very successful season indeed.
Come the morning of her event on Friday, Phoebe was a bundle of nervous, excited energy throughout the morning. A great sign providing you can use it in the right way when you get behind the blocks, fortunately she showed her game face stepping up to the blocks in the first heat of 3 athletes.
Racing got off to a great start, going out on a 31.06, a little too deep on the start and a small glide into the turn slowed her down a touch, but her 2nd 50m, as so often has been the case this year, is where Phoebe shines amongst the competition. And it showed again this time, coming back with a strong 35.25 split to give her another PB of 1:06.31.
Happy days for us all, her target was to win her heat, beating most swimmers in her age group for the next 5 heats. But at no point did we think a final was on the cards, we all thought she finished 11th/12th at best, it wasn’t until the event had finished and Coach Jordan checked the online results (with Phoebe standing to his right), we realised she finished 6th overall, her family already seen celebrating across the stands, making the 13/14 year old final, we’ll see you later on Phoebe.
The finals at any National event are a different atmosphere to anything else we experience throughout the season, the volume is dialed up to 11, the music is arranged to come to a dramatic end towards the end of each race, the crowd (both swimmers and parents) are pumped up and the coaches are on tenterhooks throughout. All is set up to celebrate each athlete making it this far.
Phoebe herself was again excited and raring to go. Coach Jordan kept reminding her, the hard work has been done, you’re here, you deserve to be here and this is now time to show off. She knew what needed to be done and that was to enjoy it.
Up stepped the formidable herself for the final, as Phoebe came out from a better underwater phase than her heat she kept it long and strong, staying in control of her swim and building throughout the first 50m, touching the wall nearly exactly the same as the heat on a 31.09. Come the final 50m, Phoebe tried to attack but the first swim and the long day seemed to take more out of her than we thought, as the middle lanes pulled away Phoebe tried to keep the stroke rate high, to keep pushing to the wall is all we can do in that moment. Phoebe hit the finish just outside her PB set earlier in the day, finishing on 1:06.54 and 8th overall.
To any young and upcoming swimmer reading this, Phoebe has shown grit throughout the season to earn this achievement. What is grit you ask? It’s the ability to overcome challenges and to ensure hardships. It’s about handling and overcoming failure, it’s about getting up one more time over being knocked down.
Well done Phoebe, you did yourself proud.
