The weekend’s competition proved to be another hugely successful event for our younger swimmers, as they battled against 9 other northern clubs in Durham City’s annual Medley Challenge.
The event saw our youngsters go head to head across all four strokes, to win a place in an age group medley final.
After some strong performances and a ream of personal best times, we managed to secure a place in 10 out of a possible 14 finals – with some events even having more than one qualifier!
After some exciting swims, we were crowned champions in the Boys 9 years age group, the Boys 12 years age group and Girls 13 years age group, with a further 3 silver medals, two bronze and several place awards to add to the tally.
Congratulations go to:
Jacob Davison (9) Wavin Cup Winner
Luke Pye (12) Nationwide Home Improvement Cup Winner
Taryn Wheat (13) Ramside Hall Hotel Cup Winner
Lauren Heppell (9) Silver
Tara Sebastiao- Yatsuzuka (10) Silver
Lauren Exley (15) Silver
Hannah Wright (12) Bronze
James Davison (13) Bronze
Naomi Sheavills (11) Finalist
Jessica Wright (12) Finalist
Rebekah Heppell (14) Finalist
Grace Routledge (15) Finalist
And a huge well done to all our other competitors who achieved numerous personal best performances.
Apart from the stifling heat, it was a fantastic day all round, and another successful day of competition for our swimmers.
We are pleased to announce plans to launch a club Bonus Ball Scheme on 7 November 2015, as a targeted fundraiser for team kit for our swimmers.
At Chester-le-Street ASC we boast some tremendously talented young athletes; whose hard work and commitment continue to make us proud as they deliver ever more impressive results, and as a club we want to recognise and reward these achievements a little bit more.
We also appreciate how expensive it is for parents of competitive swimmers and with this in mind, new fundraising plans are being developed and introduced to help and support parents and swimmers as much as we can.
As part of our plans to ‘rebrand’ our team image poolside (full details regarding this will be published separately); we are looking into a range of sustainable funding options to enable us to provide hats and subsidised kit for all our County, Regional and National Championship Qualifiers and League events.
BUT to do this we need your support!
One of our funding plans is to run a weekly Bonus Ball Scheme for our members. Numbers can be “purchased” for £1.00 per week, with half the money raised offered as weekly prize money ( up to a maximum of £25.00), the remainder to be put into a ‘funding pot’, specifically for the provision of team kit.
The more members who participate in the scheme, the greater the benefits for our swimmers (and the bigger the prize fund!)
So what are you waiting for, speak to Fiona Heppell today to purchase your number!
Full details of the scheme and rules of participation are available for download below.
The Championships will continue to form part of a broader Performance Pathway Strategy aimed at increasing and supporting junior talent on the journey towards senior medal-winning performance, as well as offering more athletes across the Home Nations an opportunity to compete at one of the end of season events.
Following the successful inaugural ASA Championships this year, the event has been reviewed and as a result some minor changes will be made.
The age groupings for the 2016 ASA event have been slightly altered with male athletes aged 13/14 years, 15 years, 16 years, 17 years, and 18 years and over, and for female athletes aged 12/13 years, 14 years, 15 years, 16 years, and 17 years and over.
All ages for the event are as of midnight on 31 December 2016.
Qualification
Swimmers will have the opportunity to post a long course ranking time within a ‘qualification window’ which this season will run from 11 March 2015 – 30 May 2016 (inclusive).
As in 2015, up to the top 24 ranked swimmers in each age grouping will be invited to the British Summer Championships which will take place 26 – 31 July in Sheffield. English swimmers who qualify within the next 20 places in the rankings, in each age grouping, will then be invited to the ASA National Summer Championships.
There will not be any relay events in the 2016 ASA National Summer Championships programme. Relays will only be held at the British Summer Championships.
We will be holding a clearance sale of team clothing on Friday 9 October 2015, in preparation for the launch of our new swim shop and team kit range in the next couple of weeks.
All items will be sold at half price including hoodies, cotton t shirts, poloshirts and performance t shirts.
Please note that stock is extremely limited and not all sizes are available and will be sold on a first come, first served basis.
The sale will take place in the foyer alongside the sweet stall, so come along and grab yourself a bargain, but remember when its gone its gone!
Please hand entry forms and payment to Barbara Routledge.
** IMPORTANT – When submitting entries, please could swimmers clearly identify whether they are entering for Age Group, Open events or both, as swimmers may be eligible to compete in more than one category **
Due to a typing error, FINA have re-published their guidance released earlier in September in relation to their interpretation of SW 4.4 and SW 9.1, which relate to the Start and Medley swimming.
Please could all swimmers ensure that they are familiar with this interpretation.
Any questions please speak to Gary, Lorraine or Kelvin.
