Amelia Stratford was again on top form at the weekend in the 1500m freestyle. This time it was the long course junior record she broke knocking over 6 seconds off the previous record, a record that had been held by Nicole Clarke since June 2010. Amelia set the record at the Derby Excel meet held at Ponds Forge. Well done Amelia and keep up the great work!

Both Ollie Davis-Tootill and Maddie Johnson were yet again in record-breaking form at last week’s Swim England Winter National Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

Ollie achieved his first open record after only turning 15 in July. In the 200m backstroke, he knocked around 4 seconds off a time set by Paul Mannifield 26 years ago. Ollie’s fantastic swimming means that the record now stands at 2:08.74.

In contrast, Maddie broke a much newer record, one she only set just three months ago. She smashed her time by over three seconds. Her time now for the 200m butterfly now stands at 2:17.04.

What a great way to end a record breaking year for both swimmers.

We had a big group of our younger swimmers at the seaside last weekend taking part in the Scarborough Winter Open. Lily Cattlin focussed on just one event, the 1500m freestyle, and this paid off for her as she achieved a new club record bettering one that was only set three weeks ago!

Lily’s time was 18:46.53 so she now holds the under 15 record and is another new name to add to the records list. Well done to Lily!

We have had two club records broken in November so far.

Firstly, let’s congratulate Amelia Stratford breaking her first record which she acheived at the NER Championships at Ponds Forge earlier this month. She set a time of 18:59.77 in the 1500m freestyle short course beating the previous junior record that had been held by Nicole Clarke since 2010!

Seasoned record breaker Luke Booth knocked almost a second off his 200m freestyle short course open time at the NOVA Centurion meet last weekend. His new time is 1:52.22 qualifying him for the forthcoming Swim England Winter Nationals in that event.

Great work from both swimmers!

The weekend saw our swimmers across a couple of pools competing at different events.

Luke Booth swam the 400m Individual Medley (short course) at the Yorkshire Championships in Leeds in a time of 4:31.23, beating a time he had set himself in Stockport last November. He also achieved the silver medal in the process.

Meanwhile, Oscar Gavelle continued his excellent long distance swimming with a record time in the 800m freestyle (short course) adding to the open water junior records he already holds. His time of 8:58.16 was achieved at the Derbyshire ASA distance day which took place at Repton. He beats Matthew Sotheran’s time from 2009.

Well done to both swimmers!

Our swimmers took part in the final round of the Barnsley Minors Sprint League on September 9th and the results for this round are below:

METRO:140
STOCKSBRIDGE:123
ADWICK: 114
SHEFF CITY:107

This represents four wins out of four for Metro this season so again we are league champions.

A big shout out to coach James Guy and all swimmers and volunteers who took part.

Bring on next season!

A few of our swimmers chose to compete at Derby last weekend and there were some excellent performances, most notably from Bow Gomersall and Maddie Johnson.

Bow absolutely smashed the under 15 boys 200m freestyle short course record with a time of 2:00.81. This was almost two seconds faster than the record set in 1999 by Steven Millican.

Maddie went on to beat one of Debbie Cocking’s 2016 records by the narrowest of margins with a time in the open girls 200m butterfly of 2:20.69.

So nice to see both Bow and Maddie adding to their records tally – well done to both!

The last two weeks have seen our swimmers compete at National Championships both in open water and in the pool. A series of club records have been smashed in the process:

Oscar Gavelle now holds both the open and under 15 records for the 3k open water with a time of 36 min and 57 seconds beating the time previously held by Jack Finnie.

However, Jack broke his own record for the 5k open water with a time of 56 minutes and 17 seconds.

In the pool, Mollie Fisher again broke her own record for the 400m freestyle long course with a time of 4:28.59 leaving her with 12 current records as she competes for the final time for Metro.

Maddie Johnson set some great times to add to the 50m fly record she gained a few weeks ago by breaking Debbie Cocking’s 100m fly time twice with 1:03.19 in the heats and 1:02.77 in the final. She then went on to beat Claire Liggins’ 1999 400m IM record with a time of 5:05.00.

Finally, in the under 15s age group, Bow Gomersall achieved a time of 55.59s in the long course 100m freestyle beating Ollie Davis-Tootill’s time only very recently set at this years NERs.

Well down to all our swimmers breaking records and being great ambassadors for Metro.

Oliver Davis-Tootill had an excpetional weekend at Ponds Forge representing the club at our own gala. He made the most of his final opportunity before his 15th birthday to smash a series of of junior short course records. He broke seven in total and here is the list:

50m Butterfly – 26.70

100m Individual Medley – 1:02.39

50m Backstroke – 27.49

100m Freestyle – 54.60

200 Backstroke – 2:12.24

100m Backstroke – 58.57

50m Freestyle – 24.54

Some of these records had previously stood for over 10 or 20 years and in some cases they have been bettered by over 3 seconds, not just small fractions. Well done to Ollie on this great achievement.

Both Jack Finnie and Oscar Gavelle took part in the NW/NE Open Water Championships in Sale, Greater Manchester. Jack swam the 5k and Oscar the 3k both with great swims achieving medals in their respective age groups in the process. Jack’s time for the 5k was 1:09:42 and Oscar’s for the 3k was 45:44 allowing us to add two new rows to the Club Records list.

Let’s also recognise our A2 Coach Joe Gavelle who was invited to support the Regional coaching team for these open water events.

Well done to everyone!