Swimmers Triumph Once Again at Youth Nationals

Youth swim­mers dis­play out­stand­ing con­sis­ten­cy and strength in depth to fin­ish the five day meet as sec­ond top team overall.

The 2011 British Gas ASA Nation­al Youth Cham­pi­onships were once again a huge suc­cess. The team this year showed great strength in depth. More swim­mers made semi-finals and finals gain­ing impor­tant points for the team.

The Youth Team fin­ished in 2^nd place over­all, 3^rd in the Boys and 2^nd in the Girls cat­e­gories. Cou­pled with the results of the Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships the City of Leeds were Top Club through­out the age groups 11 – 18 years of age.

Dai­ly Reports

Day 1 – Wednes­day 27^th July

The 2011 Nation­al Youth Cham­pi­onships start­ed very well. All of the girls com­pet­ing in the 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley swam Life Time Best (LTB) or Sea­son Best (SB) per­for­mances. Freya Resendez and Anne Bochmann secured their places in the semi finals lat­er in the evening where they both swam faster to book their place in day 2 finals.

The boys 400m freestyle saw two out of the three swim­mers com­pet­ing for Leeds make their way through to the evening finals. Ryan Flan­na­gan and Gareth Mills pro­gress­ing through while Ross Glegg swam a very dom­i­nate heat swim in a SB. Ryan and Gareth con­vert­ed to fin­ish in 4^th posi­tion in a LTB whilst Gareth moved up four places to fin­ish 5^th in a LTB.

The girls again pro­duced some out­stand­ing morn­ing swims in the 200m but­ter­fly. Four out of the six girls made the evening semi finals two of which in LTB and equal LTB. Anna Chees­brough equalled her best time in the evening semi-finals, Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw made it through to her respec­tive age group final in a LTB, while Danielle Hall-Jack­son and Anne Bochmann swam through to their respec­tive age group finals in Day 2.

Matthew Gra­ham pro­gressed through to the semi-finals of the 100m back­stroke, swim­ming a LTB in the semi-final Matthew had a great start to the meet.

The girls 100m freestyle pro­duced fan­tas­tic per­for­mances Danielle Hall-Jack­son swam a SB while Emi­ly Fish­er swam LTB, with Anne Bochmann pro­gress­ing though to the semi-finals that evening where she qual­i­fied for her age group final in the sec­ond days finals session.

Matthew Gra­ham con­tin­ued his form in the 200m breast­stroke. Matthew went through at 100m in a LTB and fin­ished with an over­all LTB pro­gress­ing through to the evening semi-finals ses­sion where he qual­i­fied for the final in his respec­tive age category.

Emi­ly Jones qual­i­fied for her first ever Nation­al semi-final in a LTB in the 200m backstroke.The boys 4 x 100m freestyle team made it through in third posi­tion in the finals ses­sion and sus­tained their third place win­ning the teams first medal of the cham­pi­onships. A great first day with a very busy sec­ond days finals ses­sion ahead.

Day 2 – Thurs­day 28^th July

Har­ri­son Day start­ed the teams cam­paign on the sec­ond day in the 200m but­ter­fly. With the team behind him and Har­rison’s deter­mi­na­tion and endeav­our he swam a LTB which very well deserved. Ryan Flan­na­gan and Gareth Mills pro­gressed through to the semi-finals in the evening finals ses­sion and qual­i­fied of their respec­tive age groups finals on Day 3. Joe French made it through to the semi-finals of the 17/18 year old age cat­e­go­ry con­vert­ing his heat swim.

Claire Cash­more recov­ered from ton­sil­li­tis to com­pete in the Nation­al Cham­pi­onships after her suc­cess­ful Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships. Mak­ing the final of the 50m freestyle fin­ish­ing in 8^th position.

Sev­en of the City of Leeds girls com­pet­ed in the 400m freestyle with three pro­gress­ing through to the evening finals. Anna Chees­brough, Emi­ly Fish­er and Lucy Emer­son com­pet­ed well to swim slight­ly off their LTB. Nico­la Gra­ham swam a LTB while Freya Resendez fin­ished 8^th in the 14/​15years final. Danielle Hall-Jack­son fin­ished 7^th in 16/18 years final while Anne Bochmann secured her and the team’s first Gold medal of the championships.

Gareth Mills and Ross Glegg com­pet­ed strong­ly in the boys 100m freestyle, Ross pro­gressed through to the 17/18 years semi-final con­vert­ing his heat performance.

Leeds had six girls com­pete in the 200m breast­stroke, four of them made it through to the evening semi-finals a fur­ther three girls made it into their respec­tive age group finals. Han­nah War­dle, Freya Resendez, Rebec­ca Davis and Sophie Tay­lor all pro­gressed to semi-finals. Han­nah, Freya and Sophie made it through to the finals in LTB and SB. Rebec­ca swam two SB over the course of the heats and semi-finals.

Matthew Gra­ham and Ryan Flan­ni­gan con­tin­ued their fan­tas­tic form pro­gress­ing through to semi-finals of the 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley and qual­i­fy­ing for the finals in Day 3 all in LTB.

The mid­dle ses­sion of the sec­ond day allowed the dis­tance swim­mers to take the stage. Gareth Mills com­pet­ing in the 1500m freestyle swam a superbly paced race. Gareth’s oppo­nents swam a body length ahead of him on the first 1000m, how­ev­er, Gareth had the greater increase in speed at the end of the race and closed the gap to a fin­ger tip fin­ish. Gareth fin­ished sec­ond to win his first ever nation­al medal. What’s more, Gareth’s time was good enough to break the scot­tish age group record pre­vi­ous­ly held for over four years by GB Inter­na­tion­al Rob­bie Renwick.

In the finals ses­sion Freya Resendez fin­ished 8^th in the 14/15 years 200m IM just out­side her LTB she set in the pre­vi­ous evening’s semi-finals. Anne Bochmann fin­ished 8^th in the old­er age group final. Sev­er­al finals lat­ter Anne and Danielle com­pet­ed again in the final of the 200m but­ter­fly. Anne fin­ished third to pick up her sec­ond medal of the cham­pi­onships equalling her semi-final per­for­mance. Danielle fin­ished in 10^th posi­tion pick­ing up an extra point for the team.

The heats of the girls 400m freestyle Team relay showed what strength in depth the City of Leeds has by two team’s qual­i­fy­ing for the Nation­al cham­pi­onships. The Girls 4 x 100m freestyle A Team fin­ished a very suc­cess­ful sec­ond day off fin­ish­ing 9^th in the final col­lect­ing a fur­ther two points for the team.

Day 3 – Fri­day 29^th July

The girls 200m freestyle was our first event on the third morn­ing of the heats. Emi­ly Fish­er start­ed with LTB after her impres­sive 100m freestyle ear­li­er in the week. Danielle Hall-Jack­son and Anne Bochmann pro­gressed through to the semi-finals with Anne pro­gress­ing on to the 16 – 18 year old final on day four.

Matthew Gra­ham was just out­side his LTB on the 200m back­stroke, while Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw swam her third LTB of the cham­pi­onships in the 100m but­ter­fly. Anna Chees­brough swam a LTB in the 100m but­ter­fly pro­gress­ing through to the evenings semi-finals with Anne Bochmann who equalled her SB.

Claire Cash­more pro­gressed through to the final of the mul­ti class 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley final. Claire qual­i­fied in 9^th posi­tion. Claire showed her expe­ri­ence at the high­est lev­el fin­ish­ing in 4^th posi­tion in the final, a very good per­for­mance from Claire who had just recov­ered days ear­li­er from tonsillitis.

The Boys 4 x 200m freestyle team had an out­stand­ing per­for­mance. The boys qual­i­fied in 8^th posi­tion for the final, how­ev­er, the per­for­mances from Ryan Flan­na­gan, Joe French, Ross Glegg and Gareth Mills were of the high­est stan­dard and all con­vert­ed the heat swims to fin­ish in 5^th posi­tion. Anoth­er encour­ag­ing per­for­mance was Gareth Mil­l’s anchor leg, Gareth record­ed the fastest split (1:50.90) out of all of the forty final­ists team members.

The mid­dle ses­sion of the third day opened the door to our female dis­tance swim­mers to stamp their author­i­ty. Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw opened the City of Leed­s’s account with her fourth LTB, Rebec­ca com­pet­ing in her first Nation­al Youth Cham­pi­onships fin­ished her final swim with sev­en sec­ond LTB, an excel­lent meet for the young­ster. Nico­la Gra­ham and Emi­ly Vose fol­lowed with a LTB in their 800m’s. Lucy Emer­son dropped ten sec­onds to beat her SB. Danielle Hall-Jack­son swam in the final heat against very high cal­i­bre oppo­si­tion. Danielle pulled her­self into a strong sil­ver medal posi­tion chas­ing down Jes­si­ca Thiel­man from New­cas­tle. Danielle fought back to become lev­el going into the last 50m where she touched first to win her first Gold medal of the cham­pi­onships win­ning the 16/18 year old cat­e­go­ry two years out of age in a LTB.

In the finals ses­sion and the con­clu­sion to the pre­vi­ous evening’s semi-finals, Ryan Flan­ni­gan swam a super race to fin­ish 5^th in the 15/16 year olds final in anoth­er LTB, while Gareth Mill qual­i­fy­ing in 10^th posi­tion fin­ished in 7^th posi­tion in a LTB in the 17/18 year old cat­e­go­ry of the 200m butterfly.

Sophie Tay­lor and Freya Resendez com­pet­ed in the final of the girls 14/15 year old 200m breast­stroke. Sophie fin­ished in sil­ver medal posi­tion in a very close­ly fought race for the gold medal in anoth­er LTB. Freya fin­ished in 5^th Posi­tion in a LTB per­for­mance. Freya so far had been one of our busiest swim­mers mak­ing semi-finals and finals in the 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley, 400m freestyle and 200m breast­stroke along with sev­er­al oth­er heat swims. Han­nah War­dle was our rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the old­er age cat­e­go­ry fin­ish­ing 8^th in a LTB.

In the Boys 15/16 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley final we had strong rep­re­sen­ta­tion once again with Ryan Flan­ni­gan and Matthew Gra­ham. Both Ryan and Matthew swam LTB through heats, semi-finals and in the final. Ryan swan him­self to being Nation­al Cham­pi­on, his first Gold medal of the cham­pi­onships, while Matthew fin­ished strong­ly again achiev­ing 7^th posi­tion and anoth­er LTB.

Day 4 – Sat­ur­day 30^th July

The boys 200m freestyle start­ed day four. Ryan Flan­na­gan, Ross Glegg and Gareth Mills all pro­gress­ing through to the evening semi-finals in LTB and SB times. All three qual­i­fied com­fort­ably for the their respec­tive age group finals.

Claire Cash­more qual­i­fied for the mul­ti clas­si­fi­ca­tion 100m breast­stroke final after a com­fort­able heat swim. Claire fin­ished in 5^th posi­tion con­vert­ing her heat time by a large margin.

Ryan Flan­na­gan and Joe French both qual­i­fied from heats to semi-finals and onto the final the fol­low­ing evening in day 5 finals ses­sion for the 100m butterfly.

Emi­ly Jones equalled her LTB in the 100m back­stroke while Rebec­ca Whal­ing qual­i­fied for the semi-finals. Six girls com­pet­ed in the 100m breast­stroke heats, four of which qual­i­fied for the evening semi-finals (Freya Resendez, Han­nah War­dle, Avril Kir­itschenko, Sophie Tay­lor). Freya, Sophie and Avril all qual­i­fied for the final on Day 5.

Two teams qual­i­fied for the Girls 4 x 200m freestyle teams. The sec­ond team of Freya Resendez, Nico­la Gra­ham, Anna Chees­brough and Emi­ly Vose all had strong heat swims. The first team qual­i­fied for the final in third posi­tion and held there posi­tions in the final. Each one of the quar­tet of Danielle Hall-Jack­son, Emi­ly Fish­er, Lucy Emer­son and Anne Bochmann swam LTB to secure their bronze medals. Again our anchor leg from Anne Bochmann was the fastest split of all the final­ist (1:59.72).

Day 5 Sun­day 31^st July

The sprint events were saved for the final day! Ross Glegg and Avril Kir­itschenko pro­gressed through to their respec­tive semi-final. The team were well rep­re­sent­ed in the girls 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley. Emi­ly Vose, Nico­la Gra­ham and Emi­ly Jones all swam LTB’s. Joanne Simp­son swam a LTB and qual­i­fied for her first Nation­al final fin­ish­ing in 10^th posi­tion. Freya Resendez made anoth­er finals appear­ance fin­ish­ing in 5^th posi­tion whilst Anne Bochmann swam to a bronze medal from Lane 0. Matthew Gra­ham was the only male swim­mer in the boys 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley where he con­tin­ued his col­lec­tion of LTB per­for­mances achiev­ing yet anoth­er one in his final event of the championships.

The girls and boys relay teams per­formed well in the 4 x 100m med­ley teams. The boys missed the final by a small mar­gin as did the girls sec­ond team, none the less all of the swim­mers gave excel­lent per­for­mances whilst rep­re­sent­ing the team. The girls first team (Rebec­ca Whal­ing, Avril Kir­itschenko, Anne Bochmann and Emi­ly Fish­er) qual­i­fied for the finals fin­ish­ing in 5^th position.

Claire Cash­more fin­ished in 5^th posi­tion in the mul­ti clas­si­fi­ca­tion 100m freestyle. Claire had suf­fered with ton­sil­li­tis pri­or to the cham­pi­onships, she came to the meet with a pro­fes­sion­al atti­tude that I hope all swim­mers in her com­pa­ny can recog­nise that is the atti­tude need­ed to per­form at the very elite lev­el of your sport.

The con­clud­ing finals from Day finals did not dis­ap­point. Ross Glegg fin­ished in 10^th posi­tion in the boys 17/18 years 200m freestyle. In the same race Gareth Mills won his sec­ond medal of the cham­pi­onships fin­ish­ing third in a LTB.

The girls 100m breast­stroke finals again con­clud­ed on the final day where Leeds were again well rep­re­sent­ed. Sophie Tay­lor won a bronze a medal to pick up her sec­ond medal of the cham­pi­onships, while Freya Resendez in yet anoth­er final fin­ished in 8^th posi­tion in the same age cat­e­go­ry. Avril Kir­itschenko fin­ished in 6^th posi­tion in the 16 – 18 year old age group.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to all swim­mers on a sea­son’s hard work a fan­tas­tic indi­vid­ual and team results.

Top Club Final Standings

Top Over­all Club

1. City of Man­ches­ter Aquat­ics 224
2. City of Leeds 210

Top Boys Club

1. Ply­mouth Lean­der 130
2. War­ren­der Baths SC 114
3. City of Leeds 91

Top Girls Club

1. City of Man­ches­ter Aquat­ics 151
2. City of Leeds 119