DSE Nationals Short Course
- Saturday 26/Sunday 27 November 2011
At the weekend, five members from GCSC Disability Squad were part of the largest regional team of 23 swimmers, representing the South West Region at the DSE Open Short Course National Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
All five swam in the 100 freestyle with Sallie Phillips, Levana Hanson, Becky Turner and Ryan West achieving personal best times. Ryan also gained a qualifying time for the Paralympic selection trials.
The 100 backstroke was next for Henry Fletcher and the three girls. Levana lost time on her turns, but still achieved a pb. Sallie won her heat by a huge margin, beating her entry time by 22 sec and another pb.
Ryan was the only Gloucester swimmer in the 100 individual medley, achieving another pb in 14 seconds below his entry time.
The Saturday morning session finished with Ryan in the second leg and Levana in the first leg of the respective 34 point 4x100 medley, but sadly the men’s team were disqualified and the women’s team finished fifth. Henry swam the first leg of the 60 point 4x100 medley, securing a great start for the SW team to win bronze.
In the afternoon, Henry got the squad off to a good start with a pb in the 200 freestyle.
This was shortly followed by Sallie and Levana in the 400 freestyle. Unfortunately Sallie couldn’t hold her balance on the blocks long enough and was disqualified before the race started, a second longer and it would have been a perfect dive! Levana mis-counted and stopped at 14 lengths, but realised in time to finish the last 2 and gained a pb and a silver medal in the S8 classification.
The day closed with Ryan representing Gloucester in the 200 individual medley, achieving another pb.
After a good night’s sleep, the team were back on poolside ready to continue making GCSC proud, with Henry achieving a 9 sec pb in the 100 breaststroke. Levana also achieved a pb and met the qualifying time for the Home Nations Talent Development Programme.
The busiest race of the championship was the 50 freestyle, with all five Gloucester swimmers in the water again. Becky had some problems with her goggles, but both Ryan and Henry achieved pb, with Ryan’s being his second Paralympic selection trial qualifying time of the weekend.
The day closed with Ryan again supporting the 34 point relay team in the 4x100 freestyle to finish fifth.
It was a great opportunity for our swimmers to compete against a wide range of ages, including several Paralympic medallists and the commentator made several references to our young swimmer’s talent.
Huge thanks to Josh and Emily for their support, I think Emily completed a greater distance than the swimmers – chaperoning them to and from the starting blocks.
The championships bore several British records, 2 European records and 4 World records. With all competitors on such good form, our team should quite rightly be proud of their achievements with two thirds of the 21 races resulting in personal best times, 2 Paralympic selection trial times, National Talent Development entry and 2 medals.
Well done GCSC Disability Squad.
Gavin Phillips 30-Nov-11