Open Meet Report

We again attended a number of Open Meets in 2015 of varying standards and varying team sizes. Overall we had 54 different swimmers who competed in at least one meet, which is up on the 41 of last year and I think is a record number. Many of our swimmers came away with medals from these meets, as well as a host of PB’s, speed awards and club records over the course of the year.

 

We had 16 swimmers at County Champs swimming a total of 37 events, 1 swimmer at Long Course Regional Champs swimming 4 events and 4 swimmers at Short Course Regional Champs swimming 9 events.

 

Due to the restructuring of the national swimming calendar, by the time of the AGM we will already have been to 2016 County Champs; we have 7 individual swimmers competing in 13 events and we also have 2 relay teams competing (a first for BASC I think). 

 

We try to attend a variety of meets with different distances and at different levels so there is a chance for everyone to find something to suit them, particularly since you get to choose the events instead of the Team Manager deciding.  In 2015 we attended some Long Course (50m pool) meets and we will hopefully do some again in 2016 as a different experience for our swimmers.

 

On the website you will see pages indicating which swimmers have achieved County Qualifying Times. However, this only compares the qualifying standards to the swimmers’ PB. In order to actually enter the County Championships, the times must have been achieved in a licensed meet within the qualifying period.

So if you are interested in entering County Champs in future, please look out for details of the Open Meets we attend so you can aim to achieve the necessary times.

 

I am always pleased to see how our swimmers support each other at these meets – we may go with a small team sometimes but without exception our swimmers get plenty of encouragement from the others. Obviously, the more people we have there, the more noise we can make in support of the team so it would be great to get even more new attendees this year.

 

As well as the great team spirit, I must also say that behaviour is excellent, which makes life far easier for whoever is team managing.  I have had great support from a number of people on poolside and I must therefore thank Jack Jackson, Lou Gooden, Karen Jones, Richard Jones, Clare Marett and Jill Elsen for their help through 2015, especially in the latter part of the year when I was somewhat immobile and unable to attend myself.  A mention also to our senior swimmers who have helped out when they have been swimming. (Apologies if I missed anyone – your help is appreciated nonetheless).

 

Keep an eye on the website for details and I look forward to seeing many more of you at the Open Meets this year.

 

Kevin Binns 

Open Meet Co-ordinator