Surreys 2015, the final weekend

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Surreys2015_Bronze1Head Coach Martin Jurco writes: The Surreys concluded last Sunday with a day of relays. Coaches put together 27 teams.  There were many magnificent performances and great fun for all swimmers.

Our 12-13 girls team (Reese, Imogen, Mia, Kirstin) finished third. Additionally, Leander had 2 top 8 finishes. Many swimmers are still too young to be competitive in the Under 16 and the 16 and Over age groups, so the main purpose was to gain experience and have fun. We will build strong teams in the years to come.  Read the full results. Continue reading →

Surreys 2015 – sprints

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Martin writes: The third weekend of competition began on Saturday at Crystal Palace with the sprints – all races one length of the 50m pool.

Leander collected 3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals on the day.

Leander swimmers also achieved:

  • 64 new PB’s
  • 20 Final places
  • 31 new Regional Qualifying Times

Our medallists were:

Bella Hodges 2 Gold, 1 Bronze

  • Sandor Apponyi 1 Gold, 1 Bronze
  • Kirstin Harvie 1 Silver
  • Imogen Marcar 1 Silver
  • Annabel Warfield 1 Bronze

We are now placed 9th with 233.5 points already ahead of our last year total points of 210 points. Leander swimmers won 17 medals in total. Read the full results.

Coaches were most impressed that swimmers were able to step up and improve times from heats into finals, a mark of every experienced swimmer. This gives us lots of confidence before Regional Championships in May.

Bring on the relays on Sunday!!!

Surreys 2015 2nd weekend

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Head Coach Martin writes: The second weekend of the Surreys was made up mostly of distance events swum long course at Surrey Sports Park. Leander swimmers continued to excel.

On Saturday 11 swimmers had to face the toughest events, all on the same day: 800/1500m FC, 400 IM and 200 Fly. Kirstin qualified in all 3 and swam superbly achieving two 7th places. Mia was closest to the medals with 4th place in 200 Fly.

Other ‘hard core’ swimmers were: Megan, Tymek, Jack, Jake White, Lucy, Mia, Jemima, Imogen, Enerel and Jordan, many of them swimming these events long course for the first time. It was great to see more swimmers qualifying and placing better in these events than last year.

On Sunday we had 400 FC, 200 IM and 200 BC. Bella Hodges won Gold in 200 Back and Bronze in 400 Free. Further Leander swimmers placed 12 times in the final 8; achieved 25 PBs and gained 2 new Regional Qualifying Times this past weekend.

Leander is placed 10th with 136 points. Next weekend is the last for this year and we will see all sprint events (50m) and relays. Good luck to all Leander swimmers.

Read the full results.

Surreys 2015 1st weekend

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Head coach Martin writes: Thirty one Leander swimmers took part in the first weekend of the County competition. And we started with a bang bringing home 7 medals, 1x Gold, 2x Silver, 4x Bronze.

Our medallists were:

  • Bella Hodges 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
  • Sandor Apponyi 1 Silver
  • Christo Chilton 2 Bronze
  • Imogen Marcar 1 Bronze

Leander swimmers also achieved

  • 25 Final places
  • 65 PBs out of 97 swims
  • 16 Regional QTs

This placed us at 10th place with 99 points.

Regional qualifiers from Surreys to date: Bella, Kirstin, Mia, Megan, Imogen, Sandor, Jules, James Webster, Alex Archer, Cecilia, Reese.

It was great to see some of the parents volunteering, as these championships cannot run without you. However, as the club with the 5th highest number of qualifiers we should try harder to help and spread the load with other clubs. The organisers hope to see more Leander faces on poolside in next two weekends.

Read the results so far.

High Wycombe Sprint Meet

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Kate and Caroline write, with photos by Sarah W: An intrepid troupe of Leander swimmers ventured out early into the pre-dawn gloom of a cold and frosty February morning to attend the High Wycombe Sprint Meet. The first nail-biting question of the day was would swimmers actually get to the starting blocks? A lorry fire had closed part of the M40 and traffic was grinding to a standstill. Luckily some nifty manoeuvrings by expert Leander parent-chauffeurs meant that all swimmers made it to the pool on time.

For some swimmers this was their first chance to race in a 50m pool and everyone soon got into their stride. A great team-spirit prevailed with swimmers encouraging (and being encouraged by) their team mates. Everybody swam well and some heats were very close indeed with the lead changing in the final moments.

There were plenty of medallists; some hard-won 4th places, and an admirable clutch of PBs. In total Leander won 9 gold medals, 10 silver and 20 bronze and took home the trophy for Top Visiting Club to boot. Well done to all swimmers who took part. The trophy will be taking pride of place in the trophy cabinet soon.

2015-02-08 20.13.30 2015-02-08 20.10.05

 

 

 

 

 

 

High Wycombe Day Two – Distance Meet

Sunrise… Sunset
Day two of the High Wycombe Weekender began with a beautiful sunrise that heralded the start of a sparkling winter’s day. Indeed at times, the sun shone in through the big glass windows so dazzlingly and the light bounced off the pool water with such intensity, that swimmers, spectators, coaches and officials could all have done with wearing sunglasses!10 swimmers competed in this arduous distance meet. For some it was their first experience of racing in a long course pool and for many their first attempt at distance events. All acquitted themselves admirably, especially those who swam both the 400 and the 800 free in the same day. The swimmers really enjoyed themselves and Leander came away with one bronze medal and PBs across the board. All in all a positive day rounded off by a stunning sunset!

Winter Party Night

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Leander had a great party last Friday. All our swimmers, and even some brave parents hit the dance floor to the slamming tunes of our master DJ. Fabulous food and a fun evening had by all!
Sue, who did a truly fantastic job organising the party wrote: A massive thank you to all of you who helped tonight and in the preparation to an amazing party.  A special thank you to Sarah White who prepared so much of the food, a superstar. Ruth was brilliant with the raffle. The list of those to thank is so large, so basically thanks to all of you who helped me.

 

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