Three swimmers from DASC made the long trek North to compete in the Scottish National Age Group Championships which were held in Aberdeen on 12 -16 April. Between them they entered 10 events and made 10 finals.
Harry Whitfield (13) was dominant in two of the distance Freestyle events, winning Gold in the 400m and 1500m HDW (Heat Declared Winner) events. Later he competed in the shorter Freestyle events, finishing 3rd in the 200m and 4th in the 100m, both in new Long Course PB times. In addition, he also won a Bronze in the 100m Butterfly in another PB time. Given that Harry had already set PB times in all these events in swims from earlier in 2023, it is great that he was able to better those times again, so soon after setting them.
Lucy Oliver (14) swam in 4 events, finishing the Championships with a Silver in 200m Butterfly, Bronzes in both 50m Freestyle and 100m Butterfly, and 4th place in 100m Freestyle.
Niamh Kay (16) finished 9th in the final of the 50m Breaststroke in her age group.
‘“We really enjoyed the atmosphere and the pool facilities were great. It was good to see the hard work we’ve been doing in training has got us to Scottish Nationals and competing against some really fast swimmers.”
Well done to the five swimmers who entered the long distance events at Tynemouth last Friday and huge congratulations to Harry Whitfield, who’s 800m time of 9:11.05 has placed him at the No.1 position in the swimming rankings for his age (age at 31 Dec.23 short course boys 800m Freestyle).
A huge well done to Josie Johnson (A1 squad) who recently attended the Citi Para Swimming World Series inc. British Para Swimming Meet 2023 in Sheffield where she swam alongside some top British Champions. The competition ran from 16th-19th April with 311 athletes representing 36 nations.
This meet doubles up as a World Series meet involving dozens of Paralympic and world medallists, including British multi-Paralympic champions Maisie Summers-Newton, Bethany Firth and Jessica-Jane Applegate, and as as the flagship domestic para-swimming event, with the future stars of British Para-Swimming taking to the blocks. Each event featured a National Meet final alongside a World Series final, with heats running concurrently.
Josie swam in 3 events; 100m Freestyle, 100m Breaststroke and 100m Backstroke and achieved PB’s in all 3 events, including a massive 10 second backstroke PB! Well done Josie.
Great set of results over 3 days last weekend for Evan and Alexa. They competed in 5 events each, Evan made all finals and won Bronze in the 1 metre competition , Alexa made 4 finals. The highlight of the weekend was when they dived in the 3metre synchronised event against Olympic gold medalist Jack Laugher and his partner Anthony Harding and were presented their medals by Olympic gold medallist Matty Lee.
“Fantastic Championships this year. All swimmers were really supportive of each other and times swam, number of finals and medals all exceeded my expectations!!”
On the 11-12th March two Top Squad swimmers, Harry and Lucy, travelled down to Coventry to compete in the English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA) Inter-Divisional Championships where all regions across England compete against each other in a mixture of individual and team relay events. The pair were selected to join the Junior Boys and Junior Girls team for the North East and represent their schools and Darlington ASC.
The weekend was a great success and both swimmers raced brilliantly coming away with 6 medals between them and a new hoodie!
Harry swam in 4 events (200 and 400 freestyle, medley relay and freestyle relay) and came away with 2 silver medals and a new PB in his 400 freestyle.
Lucy competed in 5 events (100 freestyle, 100 and 200 butterfly, medley relay and freestyle relay). Lucy won gold in her 200 butterfly and freestyle relay, silver in the 100 butterfly and a bronze in the medley relay.
The Junior Boys came third overall and the Junior Girls were first! Overall the North East amassed the most points and were champions for the 5th year running!
The DASC AGM will be held on Wednesday 26 April at 7.30pm at the Dolphin Centre. Please Save The Date and think about attending.
The next DASC Committeewill beelected at the AGM on Wed 26 April. All adult members are invited to attend the AGM and can stand for election to the Committee. Please consider helping your club out by getting involved in this way.
