Dartes at the North East Regional Championships

Three weekends of competition at the North East Regional Championships have come to an end, and there has been plenty to celebrate for Dartes swimmers including first time finalists, finalists, a swim off, medallists, and plenty of learning opportunity for our swimmers.  

 

In the first weekend, we made our way up to the Sunderland Aquatics Centre for the Age Group Championships.

 

Day 1 Highlights:

 

Finalists:

Archie Ainslie              200m Butterfly 

Archie Ainslie              50m Freestyle

Noah Annis-Scotting  100m Breaststroke

 

Final (Final or HDW) Placings & Medals:

Archie Ainslie              200m Butterfly - Bronze

Archie Ainslie              1500m Freestyle - Gold (HDW)

Archie Ainslie              50m Freestyle - 6th

 

Day 2 Highlights:

 

Finalists:

Archie Ainslie              400m Individual Medley

Kenny Matthews        200m Butterfly

Kiera Binns                  200m Butterfly

Archie Ainslie              200m Freestyle

George Knop               200m Freestyle

Darcy Nelson               50m Freestyle

Phoebe Weatherill     50m Freestyle

Jack Jones                    50m Breaststroke

Noah Annis-Scotting  50m Breaststroke

 

Final (Final or HDW) Placings & Medals:

Archie Ainslie              400m Individual Medley - Bronze

Kenny Matthews        200m Butterfly - 10th

Kiera Binns                  200m Butterfly - 7th

Archie Ainslie              200m Freestyle - Bronze

George Knop               200m Freestyle - 6th

Darcy Nelson               50m Freestyle - 8th

Phoebe Weatherill     50m Freestyle - 9th

Jack Jones                    50m Breaststroke - 5th

Noah Annis-Scotting  50m Breaststroke - 7th

 

Weekend 1 Highlights:

 

Jack Jones & George Knop both experiencing their very first North East Regional Championships and both excelling when racing in their final! Up first was George who was racing in the 200m Freestyle after posting a 2.32.07 in the heats, he went on to swim a best time in the final bringing his time down to 2.31.26 finishing in sixth place, which is an excellent result. Jack was racing in the 50m Breast final after securing a place in a time of 42.09. A great final swim saw Jack take 5th place in a time of 41.02 which was a new best time! Well done to both boys!

 

Distance swimming is something that we’ve focused on this season especially as we have a very young squad, so in line with their specific needs as age group swimmers and to ensure longevity, we’ve rightly focused on it. It has paid off and I’m sure it will pay off in the future as more swimmers find distance training and racing interesting, exciting and engaging. Last season, we had no distance swimmers for the boys 1500m Freestyle, but this season, we had Archie Ainslie and Alex Eggitt! Excellent racing by both swimmers saw Alex take 6th place and Archie take gold. Darcy Nelson (8th), Freya Cooper (14th) and Jessica Hubery (11th) raced in the 800m Freestyle.

 

A lot of swimmers forget that training the engine is vital especially, if you want to make it into senior swimming. People talk about garbage yardage, but with little knowledge. Controlled volume with a specific focus not only aids your distance racing, but it also aids your sprint and middle distance events, aids recovery time post training/racing, and has several other physiological benefits. A great example is Caleb Dressel the American Olympian. His training and racing background as an age grouper was very much focused around all events including distance events, so as he developed and matured, the athlete and coach are able to look at specialising. All too often people ‘Pidgeon Hole’ themselves because they either don’t like to try different things due to fear of failure or they don’t like the idea of being uncomfortable. There are of course other reasons, but it comes down to one thing. Are you willing to allow other people to have an opportunity to be better than you or do you want to be better than them? Opportunities do not come often, so take them whenever they appear!

 

 

The bank holiday weekend saw three days of competition for our Youth and Senior swimmers who took the stage at Ponds Forge. Daniel Bailey, Greta Highfield, Harrison Maskrey, Maciej Banas and Nathan Massam raced in multiple events.

 

Some of the highlights included Maciej Banas who made a new best time in 50m Breaststroke and 100m Breaststroke with some fast racing taking his 100m down from 1.15.46 to 1.13.97, and his 50m down from 34.26 to 33.67. Nathan Massam also dropping time on the 100m Backstroke from 1.06.20 to 1.05.80.

 

The weekend also marked a final competition for Captain Daniel Bailey who is moving on to focus on his career. Dan has been apart of Dartes for many years and we wish him the very best for the future!

 

 

The final weekend of North East Regionals saw us travel up to Sunderland Aquatics Centre once more! It turned out to be another excellent display from our Age Groupers who came away with a swim-off, finals, personal bests and medals, but above all enjoying what they do best.  

 

Day 3 Highlights:

 

Finalists:

Archie Ainslie             200m Individual Medley

Archie Ainslie             100m Freestyle

Darcy Nelson              100m Butterfly

Jessica Hubery           400m Freestyle

Phoebe Weatherill    400m Freestyle

Phoebe Weatherill    100m Butterfly

 

Final (Final or HDW) Placings & Medals:

Archie Ainslie             800m Freestyle - Silver

Archie Ainslie             200m Individual Medley - 4th

Archie Ainslie             100m Freestyle - 4th

Darcy Nelson              100m Butterfly - 4th

Jessica Hubery           400m Freestyle - 6th

Phoebe Weatherill    400m Freestyle

Phoebe Weatherill    100m Butterfly - 8th

 

 

Day 4 Highlights:

 

Swim-Off:

Freya Cooper             200m Backstroke

 

Finalists:

Archie Ainslie              100m Butterfly

Archie Ainslie              400m Freestyle  

Darcy Nelson               50m Butterfly

Darcy Nelson               100m Freestyle

Phoebe Weatherill     50m Butterfly

Noah Annis-Scotting  200m Breaststroke

Kiera Binns                   200m Individual Medley

 

Final (Final or HDW) Placings & Medals:

Darcy Nelson               1500m Freestyle - Bronze

Jessica Hubery            1500m Freestyle - Bronze

Archie Ainslie              100m Butterfly - 4th

Archie Ainslie              400m Freestyle - Bronze  

Darcy Nelson               50m Butterfly - 5th

Darcy Nelson               100m Freestyle - 6th

Phoebe Weatherill     50m Butterfly - 6th

Noah Annis-Scotting  200m Breaststroke - 4th

Kiera Binns                   200m Individual Medley - 7th

 

 

Weekend 3 Highlights:

 

Jessica Hubery raced in her first final in the 400m Freestyle at a North East Regional Championships. Freya Cooper was drafted into the swim-off for the 200m Backstroke in what was a great atmosphere. It was excellent to see swimmers at the lane end supporting their team mate and pushing her on! More Dartes swimmers racing in the distance events; Freya Cooper (5th), Darcy Nelson (bronze), Phoebe Weatherill (5th), Jessica Eggitt (11th) and Jessica Hubery (bronze) all in the 1500m Freestyle. Archie (silver), Jack and Noah (18th) qualified and raced in the 800m Freestyle event. Very close in the finals for Archie (100m Butterfly), Darcy (50m Butterfly) and Noah (200m Breaststroke)!

 

 

Swimmers that competed in the North East Regional Championships (in no particular order) are; Archie Ainslie, Noah Annis-Scotting, Kiera Binns, Freya Cooper, Millie Dey, Alex Eggitt, Jessica Eggitt, Jessica Hubery, Jack Jones, George Knop, Kenny Matthews, Darcy Nelson, Ruby Wakelin, Phoebe Weatherill, Daniel Bailey, Maciej Banas, Greta Highfield, Harrison Maskrey, Nathan Massam and Lexie Goddard.

 

As always a huge thank you to all of our poolside staff; Dan Dickinson, Harry Ainslie, Vicki Annis-Scotting, Stacey Nelson, Mick Binns and Mark Weatherill. Well done to all of our qualifiers, finalists, top ten places and medallist! Great to see happy smiley faces over three weekends of competition. The coaching team are proud of you all. Every achievement is something to shout about!