East Midlands National Swimming League Final

St Ives swimmers enjoyed one of their best results for many years in the East Midlands Region of the National Swimming League finishing in a highly creditable fifth place out of the 22 competing clubs in Division Two. But despite this encouraging result it was very much a case of mixed feelings for Saints’ coaches for what might have been in this season defining fixture. The St Ives club had stormed through to qualify for a place in this year’s final on the back of outstanding form in the two earlier rounds with two hard earned second placed finishes. Going into the final, coaches Sandra Brice and Sue Gow were quietly confident of competing for the top two promotion spots only to see their top squad decimated at the last moment by the recent sickness bug. With over half a dozen swimmers absent and several others less than fully fit, it was left to the club’s younger age groups to put in one of their best all round performances of the year to help beat off Nottingham based Bramcote on the night and secure fifth place in the league. Saints’ 11 and 13 year age groups proved very competitive throughout the gala with Peter Todd the star performer with two individual wins and a relay win with the 11 year and under squad which also included Stanley Waters, Luke Watson and Daniel Yarney. Hard earned second placed finishes were achieved by 13 year old Tom Davis and Carl Johnson. On a night where local rivals City of Cambridge took the League title, the St Ives club showed once again that they are more than capable of competing with the big clubs and, with the younger age groups excelling, can look forward to even better times ahead.

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Saints excel in Nottingham 

Swimmers from the St Ives Swimming Club put up a stellar performance in the first round of the East Midlands Division of the National swimming league, held in Nottingham on 11th October. Competing against strong teams from Cleethorpes & Scunthorpe, Bramcote, Dereham, Kettering and Coalville, the Saints were narrowly pipped from first place by Kettering, who beat them by five points.

Peter Todd, won first place in the boys 11 years 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke. Chloe Solomou won the 100m Butterfly in the girls 15 years category and Andy Weatheritt won the 100m breaststroke and  100m freestyle in the open category. Luke Watson, Peter Todd, Daniel Yarney and Giovanni Di Siena were impressive winners in the boys 9-11 years 4 x 50m medley relay. Gemma Sargent, Becky Hime, Chloe Solomou & Jazz Powell won the girls 15 years 4 x 50m medley relay. 

Andy Weatheritt, Luke Watson, Gemma Sargent, Andrew Moss, Hannah Smith, Catherine Pritchard, Peter Todd, Tom Davis, Chloe Solomou, Ellie Roberts and Louise Todd all recorded new personal best times in various events. Full of confidence, the Saints are looking forward to the next round of the league on 8th November.

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Records tumble at St Ives Swimming Club

A full house and a charged atmosphere added to the drama as seven records fell at St Ives Swimming Club's Championships for 25m, 50m and 200m freestyle events on the evening of 12th October. Mr David Smith of David Smith St Ives Ltd, Timber Engineering Specialists and major sponsors of St Ives Swimming Club, presented medals to the top three swimmers in each event and then posed with swimmers in the club who had broken club or championship records this year.

(Back row L-R) Kyle Ferrier, Gemma Sargent, Peter Todd, Sebastian Di Siena,Ellie Watson, Hannah Cooper

(Front row L-R) Daniel Yarney, Mr David Smith, Ellie Burgess and Glenn Ferrier.

Missing record breakers from photo - Andy Weatheritt & Jack Smith

 

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St Ives Hang onto a first division status

The final round of this year’s Milton Keynes and District Junior League pitched St Ives swimmers into a tough relegation battle at the foot of Division one. Earlier rounds had seen Saints picking up fourth and third placings with a highly controversial disqualification costing them dear in one of the rounds. The final was held at the Aylesbury aqua complex and brought together teams from the home club, Harrow/Wealdstone, Acton, Chelsea/Kensington and High Wycombe. Against such tough opposition every point was keenly contested with top three placings at a premium. A strong all round performance from the St Ives club included a solid showing from the relay teams towards the end of the gala which pushed them ahead of home club, and close rivals, Aylesbury. Although one point shy of fourth placed Chelsea/Kensington, Saints had done just enough to hold on to their first division status and can now look forward to battling it out with other top teams in next year’s league.

 

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SAINTS RECORD TUMBLE

A packed crowd of families and friends cheered on St Ives swimmers to record-breaking performances at the latest round of their Club Championships. The new format annual championships provides swimmers with the opportunity of swimming 50M (25M for 9 and under competitors) and 200M distances of the same stroke in one session. This testing format kicked off with backstroke and breastroke competions held over two weekends.  With medals and end of year trophies at stake, Saints swimmers got off to a flying start to the new format with over 250 PBs achieved over the two weekends of competition. Records also tumbled with Hannah Cooper, Sebastian Di Siena, Gemma Sargent, Ellie Watson, Molly White, Andy Weatheritt and Daniel Yarney sharing 11 championship or club records between them many of which have stood for several years. Amongst the spectators was Stephen Eggleston of the club’s latest sponsors, My Home,who gave out new shirts to the club captains.

 

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YARNEY SMASHES 20 YEAR RECORD

 A fully rested and, for a lucky few, tanned squad of St Ives swimmers were very much dropped into the deep end at their first gala following the long summer break. With only a few training sessions under their belt, Saints found themselves up against teams from Lowestoft, March and home club Wisbech at the D Perry Memorial trophy gala. Despite the limited preparation, the St Ives youngsters surprised and delighted their coaches by coming away with a hard fought second place in the gala and an encouraging 16 PB times. Star performer of the evening was undoubtedly 9 year old youngster Daniel Yarney who recorded a time of 38.67 in the 50M butterfly which broke the clubs age group record of 20 years standing. The superb swim stunned rival coaches with Daniel finishing at least ten metres ahead of his nearest competitor.

Saints can now focus on putting in some hard training in preparation for key upcoming events including the Speedo and Anglian League competitions.

 

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Milton Keynes Diddy League Round 2

Saints youngsters hit their best form of the season so far in battling to a hard fought third place in the latest round of the Milton Keynes and District League. This encouraging result follows a fourth place picked up in the first round of the nationally qualifying league held in June at Amersham. The second round took place at the plush Aylesbury Aqua Centre and featured teams from Chelsea and Kensington, Acton, Newport Pagnell, Linslade and home club Aylesbury. The small St Ives club were always likely to struggle against the first division opposition and so it seemed to be the case when Saints got off to a sluggish start. However, a string of PB times leading to high point winning top three finishes, pushed Saints up to third which they just hung on to following a thrilling final canon relay in which St Ives came second. Poolside coaches Sue Gow, Sandra Brice and Simon Richards were greatly encouraged by the result which they will be looking to build on going into the third round of the league after the summer break.

 

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Parents swim St Ives to second place at Mildenhall gala

 A memorable, and no doubt often to be recalled, relay performance from St Ives parent swimmers helped Saints squeeze into second place at their most recent trophy gala. The Mildenhall gala was an ideal opportunity for a number of younger swimmers to gain valuable experience and older swimmers to set some new PB’S. The evening held gala proved successful for Saints with their youngsters setting 22 PBS and finishing a highly creditable second. There were a number of top performances on the night and in a very evenly fought contest the swimmers from St Ives just managed to pip the home team to finish second behind Newmarket.

 

 

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St Ives Swimmers at East Regions

Seven swimmers from St Ives Swimming Club maintained its high standards in recent years by qualifying and participating at the East Regional Championships held at UEA Sportspark, Norwich. Andrew Weatheritt (Aged 16), Gemma Sargent (14), Hannah Sargent (17) and Sam Taylor (16) swam in May at the Youth Championships and Peter Todd (10), Kyle Ferrier (11) and Carl Johnson (12) swam over the last 2 weekends in the Age Group Championships. They were up against the top swimmers in the Region, some of the best in the country.
All swimmers performed creditably with particularly impressive performances by Andrew (50m breaststroke) and Kyle (100m freestyle) who both reached event finals to finish just out of the medals in 4 th place, Kyle by only 0.03 second.
Head Coach Andy Hunter said “This emphasises St Ives’ emerging strength across all the age groups and will inspire more of our developing swimmers to achieve the qualifying times for next year. They and all of our coaches have worked very hard to get there and fully deserve this success”.

 

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Milton Keynes Diddy League

After the highs of last year’s promotion as Division 2 Champions of the Milton Keynes and District Junior League, life in Division 1 in the company of big clubs such as City of Milton Keynes, City of Oxford and Luton was always going to be a tough ask for St Ives swimming club’s youngsters. So a battling fourth place in the first round of this year’s MK league was no mean achievement for the St Ives swimmers. The annually held league provides a great opportunity for young swimmers aged from 9 up to 12 to compete against some of the best swimmers in the area. The top teams from the division go on to compete at national level. In this year’s first round gala Saints travelled to distant Amersham where they found themselves up against teams from the home pool, Hillingdon, Acton, Newport Pagnell and Windsor. A packed Amersham pool saw a keenly contested gala with Hillingdon, Windsor and Amersham quickly building a lead over the other clubs. Strong performances, especially from St Ives’ youngest competitors in the 9 and 10 year age groups, kept challenges from the Acton and Newport Pagnell swim teams at arms length throughout the evening’s gala leaving Saints in a comfortable fourth place after the final canon relay with Hillingdon as eventual winners. Saints swimmers will be back in action for the second round to be held in two weeks time where they will be looking to improve further on their encouraging first round performance

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Fenland open meet success for St Ives Swimmers

What better way to spend a typically wet and miserable British Bank Holiday weekend then inside in a swimming pool! At least that was the thought of fifteen swimmers from St Ives who made the short trip to the Whittlesey pool and were able to take at least temporary refuge from the weekend’s rain. The annually held Fenland Open is a popular and well attended gala attracting top swimmers from all over the region and beyond to the spacious Whittlesey pool. This year Saints swimmers were in top form coming away with an encouraging 22 PB’S and an excellent 17 top 6 medal-winning finishes. Top performers in the gala were Katie Rogers with a 2nd, two 3rd places and a 4th, Andrew Moss with two 3rd places and two 4th places and Georgina Butler with a 1st place and two 4th places. Saints swimmers are now focussing their training on upcoming key East Midland League and Cambs County galas.

 

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Anglian League and Peterborough Open 08

A solid second place finish in the latest round of the Anglian League has placed St Ives swimmers in a very strong position in the league following the club’s earlier outright victory in the first round. Saints brought their best form to the second round gala producing an outstanding 25 personal best times out of the 31 events swam on the evening. The strong all round team effort proved too much for tough opposition from Louth, Bottisham and home club Wisbech. However, St Ives left it just too late to catch up with eventual winners, Boston , despite a strong finish to the gala including a finger tip loss to Boston in the final canon relay.

Earlier in the month St Ives swimmers turned out in force for the Peterborough Open Meet. The annually held gala is run over a whole weekend and represents one of the highlights of the local open gala season. With 24 clubs competing, all events were keenly contested and medals difficult to come by. A final tally of 36 medals, however, backed up by 43 PBs underlined the rich vein of form Saints swimmers are currently enjoying. Top performers for the club over the weekend’s competition were Rachel Moss and Andrew Weatheritt with 4 medals each together with Giovanni Di Siena and Carl Johnson who both won 3 medals. Other medallists were Oliver Cook, Kyle Ferrier (2), Michael Mackrell (2), Katie Rogers, Hannah (2) and Gemma Sargent. Carl Johnson (4) and Peter Todd also achieved regional qualifying times.

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Congrates in County Championships 2008

St Ives swimmers found the new format County Championships very much to their liking bringing home an outstanding haul of 54 medals from the finals gala. The medal total, together with an impressive 100 PBs, delighted head coach Andy Hunter who had pushed his swimmers to the limit over the previous year in helping them to beat the tough new qualifying times set. The new format finals were held over an exhausting weekend of swimming at the Peterborough and Cambridge pools and, with events ranging from 50 to 1500M, the competitor’s skills and endurance were tested to the full. Coming through that examination with flying colours were multiple medal winners Andrew Weatheritt who won 4 gold medals in an outstanding final tally of 11 medals, triple gold medal winner Kyle Ferrier who bagged 7 medals and Giovanni DiSiena and Hannah Smith who each won 6 medals. Impressive performances over the weekend also came from Thomas Davis (4), Mike Mackrell, Rachel Moss and Chloe Solomou who each won 3 medals. Other medal winners were Carl Johnson, Hannah Milner, Jasmine Powell, Rhiannon Pritchard, Katie Rogers, Peter Todd, Gemma and Hannah Sargent.

Confirmation of the St Ives club strength in depth was underlined the following weekend by an impressive third place finish in the County Relay Finals. A frantic evening of swimming at the Cambridge pool saw Saints just fall short of the County’s two big clubs, winners Peterborough and second placed Cambridge, but well clear of fourth placed local rivals Huntingdon. The relay competition provides an excellent test of a team’s all round abilities with a format of 4x50M freestyle and medley events for 9 year olds through to open level. Top performers from St Ives on the night were the boys 12 and under squad (Kyle Ferrier, Andrew and Thomas Davis, Carl Johnson, Jack Smith) who won both of their events.

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