Our young stars of the future were battling through the 3x800m Freestyle test set with Head Coach Jordan. As a portent of what is hopefully to follow, Phoebe Weatherill and Jessica Hubery headed the table with an impressive 10:01 and 10:04 average. Can that translate into success at the Yorkshire Championships? Meanwhile Jo Watts showed he's a natural at the big distances with an impressive 10:31 average. For reference, to give them something to aim for, the Age Group record for this test is 9:53. That was in December 2016....

The NER's was a weekend on fire for our group of Regional Athletes. 8 medals from the Winter Competition is just the cherry that lies on top of a weekend full of positives, with too many to mention. But first let's take a look at where those medals went..... Top of the shop had to be the prolific James Ellis bringing home a whopping 6 medals in Backstroke, Butterfly, Medley, and Freestyle. He even threw in the 200m Fly, an event that's filled him with dread for some time but...

Every season sees the top swimmers in the country picked for Swim England's National Development Programmes. This is a series of camps intended to teach young athletes the skills, techniques and reinforce the characteristics of Elite Level athletes that they will need to excel in the sport. we're delighted to announce that 2024 has been one of our most successful years for Camp Selections with 9 selected to attend throughout the year. We've been recording these selections in our Honours section since 2015. The table above shows the numbers involved...

“Well, that wasn’t as bad as i thought!”…. were the words uttered in the aftermath, amongst the red faces, the smiles and the feeling of achievement, of making progress. Or simply after realising that it was a case of ‘job done’. All too often we defeat ourselves without first even getting wet. We try to encourage the squad to embrace challenge and to view it as an opportunity to see what you’ve got. Realise it will hurt, realise it’s meant to, and realise it’s how we improve. It’s how we...

Towards the end of 2009 we decided something needed to be done to get more of Doncaster's finest contesting the big events (distance Freestyle, the Big Medley, and the dreaded 200m Butterfly). So we invented the Animal Squad to recognise those competing in the killer events. The results were extraordinary, especially for the 200m Butterfly. We immediately doubled (or close enough) the previous year's tally and the following year almost matched it again, with an increase in numbers competing across all 4 events year upon year it proved to be...

We have a new queen of kick, congratulations to Phoebe Weatherill for surpassing the previous time of 6:14 set by Jessica Hubery, laying down a new gauntlet, followed closely by the fast improving challenger in Kiera Binns. Will we see someone get past the magical 6 minute marker and claim that record? Overall, we're seeing huge improvements across the board, good job. Pos Name Stroke Date Rep 1 Rep 2 Rep 3 Rep 4 Avg 1 Phoebe Weatherill Butterfly 23/10/2024 6:17 6:08 6:04 6:17 6:11 2 Kiera Binns Butterfly 23/10/2024...

The ‘Mets’ is always one of the highlights for Head Coach Jordan. It allows for some rare head to head racing while also showing what’s possible in the sport with some hard work and dedication. It also encourages excellent performances, and coming as it does, right at the start of the short course season, shakes off those cobwebs and boosts confidence going into the Winter Yorkshires. This year followed those traditions and served up an outstanding set of results for all our swimmers across the squads. The DMasa Individual Championships,...

A busy fortnight in late September saw DARTES complete their BML Division 4 fixture list over consecutive weekends and in turn securing promotion. We await formal confirmation of the results, but it is expected that we will join Sheffield City, Edlington and Wakefield in division 3 next year. Going into the 2nd and 3rd rounds with a healthy 59 point lead allowed the opportunity for the club to provide valuable competitive swimming experience to a wider group of children. Even more pleasing was that they too proved to be more...

The girls have been getting close to the Dartes record for 4x400m which stands at 6:00. Jessica Hubery (Drn) is inching her way ever closer, taking 9 seconds off her previous attempt in May. Following close behind her was Phoebe Weatherill, shaving a second off her average and Kiera Binns finally establishing herself in the sub 7 minutes across all 4 attempts and doing it well. Remember though, we're still looking to get everyone much closer to the 7min mark, so we still have a bit to go. Freya Cooper...

The day started with a gruelling 5km event for our open water national debutant Jessica Hubery. This event exemplified the great strength and determination Jess has since her open water experience in Manvers not too long ago in May, having to get out early, but when the pressure is on Jess doesn’t crumble, she digs deep and carries on, this was evident at Sale a few weeks ago where she came home with 2 Gold Medals in the bag…..but that was only 3km, a baby compared to this. Jess acquitted...