Meet Report: Welsh Summer Open Meet 2018

An uplift­ing week of rac­ing down in Swansea pro­duced 408 PBs, 12 golds, 15 sil­vers, 18 bronzes and 89 final swims

The Welsh Sum­mer Open Meet pro­vides a fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­ni­ty for swim­mers to expe­ri­ence com­pet­ing at a 7‑day com­pe­ti­tion with heats and finals, to be part of a team envi­ron­ment, and to learn how to cope with the demands asso­ci­at­ed with this lev­el of com­pe­ti­tion. City of Leeds swim­mers who have com­pet­ed at this event pre­vi­ous­ly have sub­se­quent­ly gone on to com­pete at ASA Nation­al Cham­pi­onships and become val­ued mem­bers of our nation­al teams.

A well-rep­re­sent­ed group of 37 swim­mers per­formed extra­or­di­nar­i­ly well over the gru­elling week-long meet, which includ­ed up to 3 ses­sions of rac­ing per day; life­time per­son­al bests fell left, right and cen­tre. Heads were turned dur­ing finals ses­sions as the horns and voic­es of the whole team of City of Leeds swim­mers, staff and sup­port­ers over­pow­ered the com­pe­ti­tion with noise of encour­age­ment to fuel some impres­sive racing.

City of Leeds swim­mers were suc­cess­ful in achiev­ing 89 places in finals and took home an impres­sive 45 medals – 13 more than last year. Par­tic­u­lar­ly impres­sive was our final­ists’ abil­i­ty to con­vert 72 heat swims into even faster final swims, giv­ing an 81% con­ver­sion rate. And from a total of 584 swims, our ath­letes achieved 408 per­son­al bests, which is almost a 70% PB rate.

A great fin­ish to the 2017 – 18 sea­son. Well done everyone!

A spe­cial thanks to our bril­liant vol­un­teers Kim Math­ias, Meron Gebre and David Broome for their hard work, ded­i­ca­tion and sup­port to the swim­mers and coach­es over the week. Events like this would not be pos­si­ble with­out the help of these unsung heroes.

Also a big thank you to all the par­ents, car­ers and sup­port­ers of the City of Leeds Swim­ming Club.

Awe­some Swimming!
WE ARE… LEEDS!

Medal­lists and Top 8 Finishes

12 Gold

Megan Sharp (4), Louis Ain­ley (2), Sasha Long (2), Philip­pa Brom­ley, Eliz­a­beth Rus­sell, Kas­ja Rick­el­ton, Adam Wood

15 Sil­ver

Jamie Broome (3), Jad Idris (2), Sasha Long (2), Elliott Watkins (2), Philip­pa Brom­ley, Megan Bur­nell, Ellie Dibb, Hol­ly Mac­don­ald, Eliz­a­beth Rus­sell, Adam Wood

18 Bronze

Martha Callaghan (5), Kas­ja Rick­el­ton (3), Sasha Long (2), Ellie Dibb, George Knowles, Dominic Math­ias, Rhys Rid­di­ford, James Robin­son, Eliz­a­beth Rus­sell, Adam Wood

18 4^th Place Finishes 

Martha Callaghan (3), Solomon Hodg­son (2), Jes­si­ca Wid­dow­son (2), Adam Wood (2), Lucy All­man, Jamie Broome, Megan Bur­nell, Jad Idris, George Knowles, Sasha Long, Hol­ly Mac­don­ald, Dominic Math­ias, Megan Sharp

16 5^th Place Finishes

Jolie McG­reavy (2), James Robin­son (2), Megan Sharp (2), Louis Ain­ley, Char­lie Broome, Jamie Broome, Megan Burnell(1), Martha Callaghan, Hol­ly Mac­don­ald, Dominic Math­ias, Jes­si­ca Wid­dow­son, Elliott Watkins, Fin­lay Williams

24 6^th Place Finishes

Jamie Broome (4), Char­lie Broome (2), Kas­ja Rick­el­ton (2), George Knowles (2), Elliott Watkins (2), Adam Wood (2), Lucy All­man, Philip­pa Brom­ley, Martha Callaghan, Hen­ry Firth, Jacob Good­win, Dominic Math­ias, Jolie McG­reavy, James Robin­son, Joshua Sut­cliffe, Megan Sharp

23 7^th Place Finishes

Samuel Emmett (3), Louis Ain­ley (2), Hol­ly Mac­don­ald (2), Kas­ja Rick­el­ton (2), Jamie Broome, Philip­pa Brom­ley, Char­lotte Clarke, Ellie Dibb, Nathan Dulay, Martha Everett, George Knowles, Sasha Long, Jolie McG­reavy, James Robin­son, Joshua Sut­cliffe, Elliott Watkins, Fin­lay Williams, Adam Wood

16 8^th Place Finishes

Kas­ja Rick­el­ton (3), Jad Idris (2), Louis Ain­ley, Nathan Dulay, Hen­ry Firth, Jacob Good­win, George Knowles, Hol­ly Mac­don­ald, Dominic Math­ias, Jolie McG­reavy, Rhys Rid­di­ford, Megan Sharp, Fin­lay Williams