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Northumberland and Durham Open Championships (including Youths)
Morpeth swimmers Alasdair Inverarity and Thomas Oman competed at the 2009 N&D Championships at the new pool in Durham. This was Thom's first experience of competing at this level. Both swimmers had events on both Saturday and Sunday, with Thom swimming in the 50m and 100m butterfly, and the 50m backstroke, and Alasdair competing in the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, and the 100m and 200m butterfly. Thom's most successful race was the 50m butterfly where he overcame his nerves and swam to a new personal best time of 30.50 seconds. Alasdair rose to the challenge of the 200m butterfly, and finished as second reserve for the final. The 100m butterfly on Sunday morning saw the two swimmers in adjacent lanes in their heat, and they were matching each other stroke for stroke throughout the race with Thom just ahead until the last 5 metres when Alasdair made a final surge for the finish and touched first, just 0.2 seconds ahead of his teammate.
Congratulations to both swimmers on their achievement in qualifying for this competition.
Newburn Gala, January 2009
Coach's report
The 10th and 11th January was possibly a little too close to the Christmas break, with some swimmers having not swum for close to three weeks, the results definitely indicated this with a lot of swimmers.
A lot of swimmers turned up for the event. Claire Turner started things rolling with a personal best time for 400m Freestyle, completing the swim in 5:39:17.
The Saturday continued to roll out relatively well with Thomas Oman beating his 100m Fly time from the Blyth meet with a time of 1:09:05 and a very fluent 100m IM in 1.13.81. Matthew Pallet swam an excellent 50m Breaststroke in 55.80, Charlie Short swam a good strong 200m Breaststroke in a new personal best of 3.38.95 and Fraser Garland completed a steady 200m Backstroke in 3.33.75. Later in the afternoon Thomas Oman went on to gain another N&D qualifying time swimming 50m Butterfly in 30.72.
Sunday saw a good 400m IM from Jane Booth in 7:30:30 and further good swims from Thomas Oman in the 50m and 100m Backstroke. Alasdair swam a good 200m Freestyle in 2.24.61. As the afternoon came closer, the buzz from the Morpeth corner was starting to die down, with a lot of run of the mill swims taking place, long term injuries taking their toll and a few false starts by swimmers. The break from training was becoming evident, this coupled with the disruption from changing pools since the flood, the swimmers had taken all they would from the event. Just before the close for the day, Fraser Garland did offer us, and the other clubs, some light relief by taking his goggles off half way through his 200m Freestyle and then proceeding to swim with his head above the water, or crashing into the lane ropes when his face was down. We laugh and learn!
For a report from a parent's perspective, click here
Blyth Christmas Cracker Meet,
December 2008
Excitement was increasing as we approached nearer to Christmas, and to kick start the festive season the Blyth Christmas Cracker meet (or as it’s known to the swimmers, the gala with the chocolate Santas!) was held on Saturday 6th December at Blyth Sports Centre.
We had a good turn out of swimmers. This was Chris Carlilse and Hannah Sheerin’s first competition. Chris did incredibly well in his individual events and became a vital member of the team relays. Hannah was also a great asset to Team Morpeth, swimming a strong 100m Freestyle, although she was a little eager in starting the 100m Breaststroke.
Charlotte Miller started the event by swimming a 100m Backstroke in 1.47.34, a 3 second personal best time. Charlotte continued this success with pb times in all her events, including a 4 second improvement on her 100m Breaststroke. Rob Carr was another swimmer who achieved pb’s in all his events, which is credit to his commitment to training and the goals he sets. John Kelly, Gregory Parker, Alasdair Inverarity, Matthew Pallet and Thomas Oman all gained personal best times in all their events.
Thomas Oman put his current training ethos to good use gaining an impressive N&D time in the 100m Fly in a time of 1:09:49. His strokes looked fluid and strong and he did himself and the club very proud.
A competition would not be a competition without a few comedy moments, such as Jessica who waited on poolside all afternoon for her one swim and then did a false start. Fraser swam in the open relay with boys/men three times his height – but kept up a good fight; Greg dropped his DS into the pool - oops, and Charlotte munched her way through the biggest bag of sweets possible. Couple these with the excellent swims medals gained and personal best times, it was a good meet for Morpeth swimmers.
North East Region Senior/Junior Championships (NERs)
Coach's Report
An exciting day……a visit to a fantastic new facility, competing in a major competition, nerves were up. And that was just from the Coach. It had been a hard decision for Alasdair as to whether to compete in the North East Regional Championships. A trip to Durham for 4 lengths of the pool isn’t exactly the most productive use of time. But this was the NER’s. A chance to compete against high quality swimmers; swimmers who train for more than 10 hours a week; swimmers who compete at a completely different standard to the local competitions usually attended.
I was very proud that Alasdair chose to compete. Not only because Alasdair was the first swimmer from Morpeth to compete in the NERs wearing the red hat of Morpeth Amateur Swimming Club, but also to prove to himself that he could make it, be up there at the next level, and to witness the quality of swimmers out there and hopefully raise the bar in Alasdair’s long term goals.
The race itself did not go quite to plan. Alasdair swam the race with no major hiccups, good technique, but with a lack of drive. This was a great learning curve for both myself and Alasdair and it has given us a chance to assess where Alasdair’s swimming is going and his short and long term goals. I am still impressed Alasdair took the challenge to compete at the NER’s and as Alasdair himself said “I came with the aim not to come last and I didn’t”.
For the competition results click here
The 3rd Weekend of the Autumn Graded Series
Coach's Report
The whole weekend was absolutely fantastic. There was not one swimmer who performed badly and everyone was in good spirits on the poolside. It was a brilliant competition, lots of spectators, a good buzz from all the swimmers from various clubs around the area including local clubs such as Alnwick, Ponteland and Tynedale.
Saturday 8th November:
The morning started well, with a later than usual start (warm up at 8:30, pretty impressive). Jane and Gregory took the event by storm, both gaining new personal best times, Greg shaving just under a second from his 200m Free and Jane taking a massive 7 seconds off her 100m fly time. Both swimmers looked confident in the water with minor errors that show a lot of potential for the next time.
The afternoon saw Frances competing in her first competitive swimming competition. Yet there was no sign of nerves and Frances looked very comfortable in both the 100m Back Crawl and 100m Breaststroke. Again, Jane took huge amounts from her entry times, giving her impressive pb times in the 100m Back Crawl and 100m Breaststroke. The main star of the afternoon was Gregory in his 100m Individual Medley event. Every length was attacked with great force, looking very impressive and finishing in a time to celebrate in 1.39.22. All four swimmers gained new pb times and left for the evening with Cheshire cat smiles on their faces.
Sunday 9th November:
John took the bull by the horns and entered the often (wrongly) feared 800m Freestyle. Warm up was at 8am, but John bounded onto poolside looking very pleased with himself. And he had every right to look so smug. For a first time attempt at this distance John attacked it well, keeping his focus and speed up throughout all 32 lengths. Completing the event in 14.13.33 John gained a good feel for the event and it has given him a good benchmark to set his targets for his next 800m swim. John then stayed to cheer on the other swimmers competing the 800m, no doubt sussing out his major competitors for next time!
Gregory continued with the success of Saturday's swims, again gaining a new pb in the 200m Breaststroke. Last time Gregory completed this event he was disqualified, so nerves were high going into the race, although as soon as he hit the water all was forgotten and this was a new race for Greg to conquer. In a time of 3.43.42 and coming 2nd overall for his age group, Gregory certainly achieved this. Jessica was also worried having not swam a 100m Butterfly event for years, but she also fought through her nerves to achieve a very impressive time of 1.28.55.
In the afternoon, possibly due to a little too much sugar, the coach was very positive and even managed a little boogie to Casper Slide part 2. Bethany, Jane, Gregory, Lucia and Hannah caught onto these positive vibes with Bethany and Jane starting the afternoon off with very impressive 400m Freestyle events in times of 7.21.21 for Bethany and 6.51.39 for Jane. Jane showed absolute strength and determination throughout her swim, while Bethany reminded us all of her long strokes that can only come from such a natural swimmer. Unfortunately Gregory’s 200IM did not go as well, struggling to complete 2 lengths of butterfly, he looked tired and was disqualified due to an ‘infringement of the rules’. There was no stopping Lucia as she brought spirits back to a high with a very fast 50m Back Crawl and Bethany followed suit. Hannah swam a fantastic 1st 20m Back Crawl until the usual 5m from the flags became (in Hannah’s mind) 7m and she turned over too early in preparation for her turn. The sneaky fly kicks did not go unnoticed and unfortunately a 2nd swimmer of the weekend was disqualified. However, Hannah came back like a true athlete in the 200m IM completely the swim in 3.27.22, every 50m looking as strong as a top squad swimmer, with fantastic technique. Lucia also had a great 200m IM holding each stroke together well and swimming her own race.
It had been an exciting weekend with some brilliant results. Well done to all swimmers who took part. This was definitely a great way to finish the graded series.