2022 English Nationals Review

For 2022, Nationals was split in half by the Commonwealth Games. First up was British Summer Champs, following a week later was Swim England's National Summer meet. Conveniently for us, both took place at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. Unfortunately it also stretched the season a week or so into August for those competing.

Athletes for either meet were invited based on their performances during a three month qualifying window. A national ranking in the top 50ish being the grade required. We had ten qualify for the pool events and another for open water.

Up and coming superstar Jenson Owen (Edl) was making his Nationals debut at the younger end of the 13/14 years age group. Established stars from British Nationals Callum Broadhead (Arm) and Molly Chambers (Drn) were also returning for a second week. Joining them were four more debutantes.

For Jenson, qualifying as one of the few 13 year olds in a double age-band, competing against the best 14 year olds in the country was always a tough call. To put that in context, 13 year olds are included to allow the very best youngsters to experience this level of competition. It's not expected that many will qualify in the first place, and it's a rare occasion for them to sneak into the medals. This isn't Yorkshires or even NER's, Nationals is a big step up from either of those meets.

So, with that in mind, his four finals and full-suite of PB's represents an excellent performance. Jenson was the only 13 year old finalist for 100m Butterfly and 50m Backstroke (9th in both). He just missed the final for 400m IM but was the fastest 13 year old in that too. At 100m Backstroke his 8th place finish in the final left him as 2nd fastest 13 year old. This was a taster for the future, next year we'll see what he can do at the head of his age group.

To top off those performances, he equalled the Dartes age-group record on the 50m Backstroke in 30.11.

In the youngest age group for the girls (12/13 years) Cazia Martin (Arm) marked her debut with a final for 200m Backstroke. She also earned two more top 10 finishes at distance Freestyle (which don't have finals), coming 5th at 1500m and 9th at 800m.

Joining her in the distance Freestyle was Greta Highfield (Ros). Not a girl we had pencilled in for the 800m and 1500m at the start of the season, but she certainly stepped up to them like a pro. Two more top 10 finishes in the 14 years age group (6th and 9th).

Now British Swimming is launching a new distance swimming initiative shortly (400m, 800m, and 1500m). It's an area of the sport that has been identified as a weakness nationally and a strategy has been devised to fix that. These results are likely to be around the cut-off mark for that cohort, so fingers crossed that one or both of our young girls get selected for that.

Returning from British Summer Champs with Callum was Louie Nightingale (Spa). Two Butterfly PB's at British were a successful first campaign for him, he backed up those results with another PB in the 100m Butterfly here. He's made dramatic progress this season with the last three or four months being especially impressive in the big quality training sets. We expect to see that reap big rewards next season, for now 13th place is a solid start.

Successful events tend to cycle around over the years and clubs and coaches get a reputation for developing certain strokes as a result. We used to be very strongly represented at Backstroke with nine consecutive years of Yorkshire Gold for the boys, and a few medals at Nationals to boot. These days it's the girls on Butterfly.

The first set of finals on the penultimate evening saw Grace Burton (Arm) take full advantage of her one event at Nationals. A small PB in the heats had earned her lane 6 for the final. Not quite the middle lanes of the fastest qualifiers, but close enough to be exciting.

With both coaches present that night, she was getting plenty of advice beforehand. As a coach you never quite know what sticks and what doesn't, what resonates with each individual athlete, but you try none the less. Coach Dave often tells the story of the boy who never did what was asked of him in the pre-race briefing. It took a few meets before he realised that the boy in question was doing what was asked of him at the last meet, and nailing it - it just seemed to take a while to process. But that's a different tale.

"Believe in your race," Grace later reported that Coach Rob had told her - that one stuck. While Coach Dave decided to prep her for the pain of the backend: "it's going to hurt after the 100m, be ready for it, and push on anyway!" (how many times have Maddie and Molly heard that over the years - but it's what you need to do).

You know when younger swimmers are starting to switch on to race process when they're asking questions like: "Should I go out in a 1:12 again, or is that too fast because it's practically my PB?" When the coach responds with a nod: "I think you need to" and the swimmer just says "OK" with a serious expression you know you've cracked it.

She didn't go out in a 1:12 in the final, it was a 1:11.38 - that really is a PB and would have placed her 15th in that race earlier in the week! This night, she turned 4th.

The thing about having older team mates who've already had visible success in the same event, is that young athletes hopefully realise that they're not being asked to do anything different. "it's going to hurt after the 100m, be ready for it, and push on anyway!" 200m Butterfly is very, very painful, but when you realise that you're not the first to be asked to bury yourself on that infamous third 50m, when you realise that you can still bring it home strongly at the end (because you've seen your team mates do it), that's when big things happen.

Her third 50m was 39.53, a full second faster than in the heats, which meant she was now 2sec faster as she touched the final turn and just about lying 3rd. The pain must have been excruciating, would Grace be tough enough to hold it together?

Between family and team mates in the stands, there were eight or so bouncing screaming supporters willing her on down that final 50m. It's unlikely to have made much difference, you don't get the credit for this one. Grace finished on 41.60 in the heats, she smashed that with a 39.24 in the final. The clock stopped on 2:30.15, a Bronze medal and only 0.1 from the Silver. A 4sec PB from the heats.

So next time, whether racing or training, remember what Coach Rob said: "Believe in your race".

Finally we come to a special moment. Our last race of the Championships and a fond farewell, but unfortunately not quite a fairy tale ending. Molly Chambers (Drn) has come to the end of her time at Dartes, rushing off to university after the summer - we wish her well.

She knocked another quarter second from her 50m Butterfly PB in the heats to qualify fastest for the final. We had hoped, with crossed fingers and toes, for a Gold medal to finish the season off in style. And despite trailing for most of the race, she was edging in front in the last 5m. But something was wrong. Her usual spot-on walls let her down at the end.

Young swimmers can learn from this (and should). Get your turns and finishes right every time (in training and competition), never leave it to chance. If Molly's finish had been to its usual standard, she'd have won. Somehow it fell short. We can imagine the thoughts going through her head at the time: "Do I glide? Do I squeeze in another stroke?" She opted for the latter and it cost her the Gold. The other option may have cost her a medal of any colour.

28.77 won the race, 28.79 was Silver, Molly went 28.84 for Bronze (her PB was 28.69 from the heats). A stroke takes about 0.6sec. Molly's finish is usually spot on - heartbreaking.

Swimmers: Learn to spot your walls!

And there ends the longest season in history.

Well done everyone, see you all in September.