Swimming Reports and Press 2008
Swimming Reports and Press
2008
Godridge makes big waves
Watford Swimming Club
swimmer David Godridge 14 was again on top form at the
British Championships and Olympic Trials. The
qualification standards were very high, which meant that
only the top swimmers in the Country would be there,
fighting for a place on the British Olympic team.
David’s first race was the 50m freestyle, he was a bit
slow off the blocks, but still managed to clock a
personal best time of 25.02secs long course. His next
race, the 100m freestyle was three days later, and David
wanted to break the 54secs barrier. During the week,
both he and his Coach Terry Davies, father of Olympic
Silver Medallist Sharron Davies, worked on how he should
swim the race, in order to get under 54secs. Things
didn’t go quite to plan, and at the 50m mark David
turned fist in a time of 24.97, and hung on to finish
the race in a time of 53.89 achieving a lifetime best,
as well as being the fastest in his age group. This puts
the youngster 0.66secs in front of his nearest rival,
and the only 14 year old to break the 54sec barrier.
David has also taken the Herts County Junior 100m
freestyle Long Course Record, which stood for 4 years at
54.38secs.
His Coach Terry Davies said, the objective of attending
the British Championships and Olympic Trials was to
expose David to the highest level of competition
pressure that Britain can offer. David has a great
physical ability to perform at a very high level, but
the mental pressures can be devastating. The first
event, the 50m freestyle, providing all the pressure
imaginable, and gave David a considerable problem with
his preparation for the race, and indeed at the start of
his first race. The resulting time was below that of my
expectation for him, as was proven by his faster 50m
split time going through the 100m event.
The 100m freestyle, the blue ribbon event, saw David
fully focused, and raring to go. The two days of
training in the competition pool alongside the very best
swimmers in Britain, raised David’s confidence in order
for him to perform at his very best. A race time of
below 54secs was our goal, and the resulting time of
53.89 confirmed him as Britain’s fastest 14 year old.
We now have four years in which to get David’s 100m race
time down to 47sec, to make the British Team for the
2012 Olympic Games in London.
Our next major focus is the National Championships,
which takes place at the end of July, and David has
already qualified for 5 events and looking to add a few
more.
WATFORD SWIMMING CLUB SHINE IN THE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Watford Swimming Club were back in action competing in the final two weekends in the Hertfordshire County Championships. Overall they amassed a whopping 64 medals, 5 trophies and 8 Country records were broken. Top boy for Watford had to go to David Godridge (14) who was once again unstoppable. David competed in a staggering 17 individual races, 12 of which consisted of heats and finals, (29 individual races overall) plus 4 relays, he made the finals of all 12 of his races, won a total of 17 medals, 10 Gold, 2 Silver, 5 Championship Gold medals, broke 8 Hertfordshire County Records, took 4 Junior Championships Trophies and 1 Senior Championships Trophy. David showed not only courage, but dedication to his Club and Team mates later that day by competing in 4 relay events, still managing to keep his form. It was suggested that, it would be interesting to take an analysis of the County Championships nationally for the 14 years age group, and that it would not be surprising to find David at the top of the list, judging by his performances.
For the girls Carolyn Astbury (15) was also in fine form and won a total of 15 individual medals, 8 gold, 1 Junior Championship Silver, 3 Junior Championship Bronze, 3 Senior Championship Bronze. Having qualified for finals in all her events Carolyn certainly gave the senior girls from the other top clubs a run for their money. Other Gold medallists were Megan Davies (14), Hannah Jibson (12), Sky Draper (12) who also won a Silver, Amy Chung (11) and Ashley Holness-Wright (11) who competed in several finals and also won 2 Bronze. Other notable swims came from Zoe Stewart (13) 1 Silver and 4 Bronze who competed in 10 finals from her of 11 events, Lizee Barry (15) 3 Silver, Amy Stewart (14) 1 Silver 2 Bronze, Paige Dore-Boize (15) 1 Silver, 1 Bronze, Lance Owide (17) 1 Silver, Heather Tysoe (13) 3 Bronze, Nik Spears (14) 2 Bronze, Jack Spence (13) 2 Bronze, Jack Pickford (11) 1 Silver 1Bronze, Shanice Chapman (15) 1 Bronze.
The longest event at the
championships is the 1500m freestyle and Watford had 3
swimmers who all achieved significant personal best
times and gained regional qualification times. Jack
Spence finished 3rd, Heather Tysoe 4th
and Sky Draper 2nd in their respective age
groups.
The U16 girls freestyle relay team which consisted of
Carolyn Astbury, Paige Dore-Boize, Zoe Stewart and Lizee
Barry were also successful in gaining themselves a well
earned Silver medal.
A big well done to all those swimmers who swum at Counties. Particularly to those swimmers from the development squad whose first time it was racing at such a competition.
Chief Coach Terry Davies said: “I am overjoyed with the club’s achievements and once all the points for the British Age Group Championships have been finalised not only should David Godridge come out on top but also several other Watford swimmers should figure in the top eight in the County for their age group. As well as this the U14 Watford boys came 3rd in the County overall. I am very much looking forward to Watford’s two new pools being opened soon as the extra water time will enable us to move further up the ladder and put Watford as one of the leading top clubs in Hertfordshire. With 2012 Olympic hopefuls in our team Watford should go from strength to strength”.
David Godridge
Watford Swimming Club return from Hungary in fighting form
Watford Swimming Club
reaped the benefits from their recent intensive training
camp in Hungary. Having clocked up over 71,000 metres
whilst they were there left them in fine form and
fighting fit for the first round of the County
Championships which were held last weekend. A total of
30 medals and 4 championship records and trophies were
won over the weekend which was a fantastic achievement
for the club.
David Godridge 14 was on top form successfully winning 6
gold medals, and 1 silver. He broke 4 County
Championship records and took 4 County Championship
titles.
David smashed his personal best times in all of his 7
races. On Saturday, he competed in the Boys, 100m
Butterfly, which he won, bettering his personal best
time by over 1 second. In the 200m Breaststroke, he took
over 4 seconds off his personal best. In the 200m
Butterfly, which is probably one of the toughest races,
David not only smashed his personal best by over 13
seconds, winning the race, he was then expected to swim
in the finals of the Senior/Junior Men 50m butterfly
almost immediately. He was still putting on his goggles
and swim cap when the whistle went to prepare for the
race. It was with sheer guts and determination that
David went on to win the Junior Championships title.
Other great swims on Saturday came from Carolyn Astbury
(15) gold in the 400m & 200m frontcrawl, Lizee Barry
(15) silver in the 200 frontcrawl, Shanice Chapman (15)
bronze in the 200m frontcrawl, Zoe Stewart (13) bronze
medal in the 100m Backstroke having reached the finals
and bronze in the 200m frontcrawl, Ashley Holness-Wright
(11) bronze in 200m breaststroke and Jack Spence (13)
took a huge amount off his personal best time in the
800m frontcrawl and not only got a bronze medal but also
a regional championship qualifying time.
Sunday was another great day for Watford and saw David
on fire, he was confident that he would win all his
races and competed in the Boys 50m freestyle, taking the
County record by well over 1 second and went on to do
the same in the 50m Breaststroke, where he not only
smashed his personal best time by 3 seconds, but also
broke the County record, in the heats as well as the
finals, by over 1 second. Later that day he competed in
the Senior Men/Juniors 50m freestyle where he won the
heats. After already competing in 5 races that day, he
knew that, come the finals, he would have to pull out
all the stops to win. He won the race, beating the
Senior Men, and his efforts, won him both the Junior,
and Senior Championship Trophies.
Other fine races on Sunday came from Carolyn Astbury
(15) gold in the 100m butterfly and 200m backstroke and
Championship bronze, Sky Draper (12) who got gold in the
800m frontcrawl and also achieved a Regional
Championship time, Ashley Holness-Wright (11) reaching
the finals of the 50 freestyle and achieving gold ,
Paige Dore-Boize (15) silver in the 200m backstroke, Amy
Stewart (14) silver in the 100m butterfly, Nik Spears
(14) bronze in the finals of the 50m freestyle, Heather
Tysoe (13) bronze in 800m frontcrawl and 200m
breaststroke, Zoe Stewart (13) bronze in the 400m
frontcrawl, & Jack Pickford (11) bronze in the 200m
backstroke.
Over the two days many other swimmers had success in
recording personal best and regional times. Chief Coach
Terry Davies was quoted as saying “I’m so proud of all
my swimmers and it just goes to show that the dedication
and commitment that they show in training pays off. We
are looking forward to the next two weekends of the
County Championships where hopefully we can achieve
similar success.”
Biggleswade Report
from Paul Jones
27th-27th January 2008
The Development squad had
many swimmers competing over the weekend looking to gain
Regional and County times. Lewis Hawkins took big steps
to achieving more regional times with 9 seconds off his
200M free time. Lewis also gained a good 5 second pb in
the 100M Breastroke. Molly Landolfi had a fantastic race
with Amy Chung on the 100M Free with both swimmers
finishing within a hundredth of a second of each other.
Molly achieved several County times including the 400M
Free. Amy Chung achieved several County times and
competing in the 400M IM finished 3seconds outside of
the Regional time. Amy also had a big improved swim on
her 400M Free taking 20seconds off her time. Fiona
McQuire achieved her first 200M County time in the 200M
Breastroke with a pb of 10seconds from the Development
meet. Fiona also achieved in the 50M Back and
Breastroke.
Matt Chapman took 17seconds off on the 200M IM and also
swum the 400M IM. This allowed Matt to qualify for
Counties at these and several other swims. George
Yerbury competing in his first open competition for the
club picked up several County times. Hannah Jibson
picked up a 2second pb on the 100M free putting her well
inside the County time. Hannah also achieved pbs in her
other races. Liam Hamilton had good swims in the 100M
Free with a 8 second pb and 50M Back. Liam Hall picked
up personal bests on his free and backstroke swims.
Well done to all the swimmers for their hard work and to
the parents for their support and encouragement. Bring
on the Counties now!
Herts League, Round One, Jan 6th 2008
Coming so soon after Christmas this gala often
catches out the less fit teams. The A team faced
tough competition against Hatfield and Hoddenston
but finished in a close 4th place with
good swims from Zoe Stewart (U14 100m Free), David
Godridge (Open 100m Free & U16 100m Fly) Ashley
Holness-Wright (U12 50m Fly & 50m Free)
The B team although finishing last on the night had
good swims from Alice Callanan (100m Back U16 and
Open) and Megan Davies (100m Fly U16) who won their
races. It should also be noted that Jessica Sullivan
and Alice Callanan both swam having returned from
holiday earlier in the day.