Essex County Age Group Championships 2017
Block A
NUEL has a team of 35 athletes competing in individual events at the Essex County Age Group Championships 2017 and last weekend (21st/22nd Jan) was the first weekend in a series of three. Many of our athletes are taking on events at Essex for the first time having not achieved qualifying times in previous years.
Session 1
Our first event was the girls 800m freestyle in which saw Dina competing for only her second time doing one of the hardest girls’ events in the competition schedule. Dina swam to an overall 16th place in the 12 year age group with a 7-second PB.
Session 2
Session 2 began with 400m events. The first event of the session was the girls 12-14 Girls 400m Individual Medley, which again is seen as an extremely tough event. Swimming this event for the first time long course Dina and Kameliya put in credible performances which saw Dina finish in 14th place in her age group and Kameliya achieving the club’s first event points with an overall 6th place. Next came the boys 400m freestyle in which Marvin, Donatas, Ethan S & Esteban all competed. Marvin, swimming the event for the first time long course, earned more club points by achieving 7th place in the 10/11 year age group. Next wasDonatas, who was in impressive form all weekend. The returning county champion from 2016 gave a really strong performance that saw him gaining the first County medal of this year’s championships for himself and the club with an impressive GOLD medal. Ethan Santos swam to 5th place in the 14 years age group and Esteban finished in 15th place in the 18+ age group. There was then a short break before the 100m events began. The girls were first up with the 100m Breaststroke heats. Dina was our first competitor and again it was the first time swimming the event long course in one of her least favourite events and still was on her PB. Next was Kameliya, who had the added pressure of being fastest competitor in the event. She did not let it faze her and swum to qualify for the finals as the fastest in her age group. The boys 100m free was next on the blocks, which saw a number of our younger competitors competing individually at Essex for the first time. In the 10/11 year age group, Tarelle put in a storming performance to smash his previous PB by over 5 seconds finishing in 9th place in the combined age group just missing the final but was by far the fastest 10 year old. Rhys & Steven both PB’d getting under the 1.20 mark for the first time; Juan was on his PB in his first ever event at Essex whilst Marvin was feeling the effects of his earlier 400m free and was slightly off his best. Ethan Taasin finished 16th in the 12 year old age group with a big PB. Donatas continued his form with another PB and 14th place whilst Mihnea was not far behind him in his first Essex with a PB and 18th place for the 13 year age
group. Ethan Santos showed his strength in the sprint events qualifying for the final as third fastest. Roland & Bobby were next in the older age groups. Roland swam an impressive PB whilst Bobby qualified for the final as second fastest with a new PB in the 15 year age group. Esteban, Nedas & Charlie were all in the 18+ age group. Esteban gained a place in the open final whilst Nedas & Charlie finished 13th & 20th respectively.
Finals
The first final for us was the girls 14years 100m Breaststroke and Kameliya swam a strong race to become our second county champion of the weekend, GOLDnumber 2. The boys 14 year old 100m Freestyle saw Ethan Santos swim to a hard fought 3rd place and BRONZE medal and a new PB.Bobby was next in the 15 year old age group final and swum a great race to finish in 3rd place with our second BRONZEmedal of the session. This was also the first county medal for Bobby since I took over as Head Coach in May 2015 having finished 4th multiple times last year at counties coming away with a medal this time round and was especially sweet. Next was Esteban in the open final where he showed his natural talent and sprint speed to finish 5th overall.
Finals were followed by relay events for the 11/12 year age groups. In the girls 11/12 medley team, NUEL A (Dina, Libby, ToniJayla) finished 17th overall. For the boys 11/12 free team we were able to field 2 teams, NUEL A (Ethan T, Louis, Juan and Steven) placed 14th and NUEL B (Marco, Marvin, Rhys & Raymond) placed 23rd. Both girls & boys teams finished further up the field than last year’s so deserve a big well done!
Session 3
Session 3 began with the 15+ boys 200IM. Bobby & Esteban were our 2 competitors, Bobby placed 6th overall in his age group and Esteban placed 11th. Next was the boys 10-14 100m fly. The 10/11 year old age group saw Steven finish 10th overall. Robert came 20th in the 13 year age group with a new PB and Ethan Santos qualified for the final in 4th place. 200m events were next in the programme with the girls 10-14 200m freestyle. Dina swam a new PB finishing in 16th place in the 12 year old age group, followed by Kameliya and Emile in the 14 years age group finishing 13th & 17th place respectively. The boys 10-14 200m backstroke saw Marvin finish in 13th, Rhys finish in 19th, both with large PB’s and Steven finished slightly below his best in the 10/11 year old age group. Ethan Taasin was next to swim in the 12 years age group and he came a credible 14th. In the 13 year age group Martin swam to his best finishing in 20th place however stealing the show with his second GOLDmedal of the weekend was Donatas. Ethan Santos was next and swam to 4th place overall in the 14 year old boys. Following came the 15+ girls 100m fly with Ella swimming to her best finishing in 15th place overall in the 17 year old age group.
Finals
Our only finalist in this session was Ethan Santos in the 14years 100m Fly. In a swim that was hard fought for places he swam to 5th place.
Relays were next for the 17+ Boys Medley relay and again we were able to enter 2 teams. NUEL A (Bobby, Domas, Esteban & Jed) placed 12th and NUEL B (James, Alfred, AlistairKian) placed 20th.
In the 10-14 girls BAGCAT Free team (Khaejah, Libby, RicamarieEmile) placed 28th overall.
Session 4
First event of the Sunday afternoon saw Bobby as the only competitor in the Boys 15 200m Backstroke where he finished in 10th place. Next was the girls 200m Individual Medley which saw Libby compete in the 10/11 year old age group finishing in 7th place, Dina in the 12 year old age group finishing in 16th with a new PB and Kameliya swimming on par to her LC PB finishing in 4th place in the 14 year old age group. To put this in perspective, Kameliya finished 21st in this event last year so shows the significant improvements made during last season. Boys 10-14 100m backstroke was next in which we had 11 competitors. In the 10/11 year old age group Marvin, Rhys, Juan & Steven all competed swimming strong races but finishing outside the top 20, Ethan Taasin was next in the 12 year old age group, Martin, MihneaDonatas were up next in the 13 year old age group all swimming to new PB’s, however Donatas was the fastest in the group qualifying for the final in 4th place. Ethan Santos was next up in the 14 year old age group and was looking to retain his county title that he had won for the last two years. Not phased by being the fastest in the event Ethan swam a smooth controlled swim and qualified fastest for the final. Jack & Roland also swam good races finishing just outside the top 20 for 14 year old boys. In the boys 15+ 100m Breaststroke, Bobby, AlfredNedas all swam well. Bobby swam to qualify for the final in 6th place in the 15 year old age group, Alfred also had a strong swim in the same age group finishing 16th. Nedas finished 8th in the 18+ age group, but was first reserve for the open final. The final individual event before finals was the boys 10-14 200m Breaststroke which saw strong performances from all of our 4 entrants. First up was Rhys who placed 5th overall in the 10/11 year old age group, Ethan T finished 8th overall in the 12 year old age group with a new PB. In the 13 year old age group, Donatas swam a really competitive race against one of his fellow team mates to finish 4th overall but finishing ahead on Donatas on this occasion was Mihnea who fought hard to get 3rd place and a BRONZE medal. Both swam significant PB’s and well deserved their placings.
Finals
We had 2 finalists in the boys 10-14 100m Backstroke. Donatas was our first finalist in the 13 years age group and wanting to finish on a high, improved his heat placing to finish the weekend’s individual events with a BRONZE medal and an improved PB. Next up was the reigning county champion, Ethan Santos. Nerves did not get the better of him as he swam an excellent race to finish as the county champion for the 3rd year in a row with a GOLDmedal and nearly a two second advantage over his nearest competitor
The final event for the weekend was the Boys 10-14 BAGCAT Medley team which saw NUEL able to field two teams for the event. NUEL A team of Donatas, Mihnea, Ethan SantosRoland swam brilliantly to finish the weekend with a BRONZE medal whilst NUEL B ( Jack, Ethan Taasin, Robert & Maxim, swam to a well deserved 18th place.
In summary, NUEL athletes won 8 individual medals (4 GOLD4BRONZE), had 7 finalists and 22 placings in the top 8 of the County (double last year for the same block). The team has already achieved 53% of our total medal haul from last year and the club is well on its way to exceeding its placings from last year as we are currently placed 10thin Essex.Overall a fantastic weekends swimming by everyone and testament to all the hard work you are doing in training. I am looking forward to continued good results from the remaining 2 weekends!
Well done everyone!
Reporting by Holly Richards, Head Coach
February 2017