Exeter Long Course Level 1 Meet

The first meet of the new year saw Dinnaton swimmers at Millfield 50m

pool swimming with confidence and promise for the county

championships ahead. The medallists during the meet were a

deservedly proud Faye Hammond whose strong swim in the 800m

freestyle earned her the bronze medal. David Hammond also achieved

well in the 800m freestyle (silver), as well as the 200m backstroke

(bronze).

Harriet Tuck swimming in the endurance events of the 1500m freestyle

and 400m freestyle gained two bronze medals, Jasmin Morgan took

medals in both distance and sprint events of 400m freestyle (bronze)

and 50 backstroke (silver). Megan Bowen celebrated her wins in the

400m freestyle, 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly, as well as taking

a close second place in the 200m IM, 400m IM and 100m freestyle.

Jack Northmore showed his developing talent touching first in the

200IM and 100m freestyle as well as medalling in the 100m butterfly

(silver).Chris Farmer completed this wealth of success with a bronze

medal in the 200m freestyle in a new PB of 2.06.61.

With many new talents attending their first long course Level 1 meet it

was a weekend of firsts in many different ways and Rebecca Johns,

Tait Marles and Chloe Thompson all achieved some excellent personal

best times.

Many other swimmers competed for Dinnaton at Millfield and showed

improving technique and determination these included Callum Clay,

William Potter, Josh Dunn, Sally Carter and Roisin Vosper.

Full Results here

Important

Please note that the Dinnaton Presentation Evening will

be held this year on 13th March. Keep the date free,

it will be quite a night!

Scottish National Short Course Championships 2010

Laura Lamb travelled up to Glasgow to take part in the Scottish National

Short Course Competition. As this was an open competition against mainly

older swimmers Laura was aiming for personal best times and to broaden

her experience of swimming at national level. Her first swim was 50m

backstroke and she achieved a good personal best time of 32.45 coming

23rd overall and 3rd fastest of the 14 year olds, she also achieved a

personal best time in her 200m backstroke and swam well in her freestyle

and IM. Her best swim was on the last day when she achieved a personal

best time of 1.08.65 for her 100m backstroke, again 23rd overall out of 80

and 4th in her age group. The star of the competition was Hannah Miley

who achieved 10 national golds and is now preparing for the

Commonwealth games. It was a great experience for Laura to be

swimming in the same events as such exciting british talent and to achieve

such good times.

Thanks to Sue Albutt for this report!

DEVON COUNTY COMPETITION PROGRAMME 2010
CHAMPIONSHIPS & AGE GROUP COMPETITIONS

Take a look at this really useful document

Long term athlete development

Results of time trials for B1, B2 and C available here

Criteria for squad movement now available on squads page.

Plymouth Leander Level 1 Long Course Meet

Two swimmers attended the Plymouth Leander Level 1 Long Course

Christmas meet at Millfields (not club supported) looking for improved

times. The meet kicked off on the Friday evening with the mixed 1500m

free with Megan (Bowen) swimming an absolutely amazing race where

she came in 10 secs under the national time for the 800m at the split

(improving on her national time achieved at Cardiff) and stormed home

in an incredible time of 18:36:37 - a huge 35 seconds inside the 12yr old

national time and some 20 seconds inside the 13yr old national time!

This performance, taking Gold and a new Meet record, prompted

comments by the announcers at the high standard of coaching at

Dinnaton producing results like this! A very proud moment!!

On the Saturday Megan competed in the 200m free - a huge task to

switch from 1500 to 200 but she attacked it with real spirit and

determination taking Gold in a time of 2:18:26 just 0.78secs outside

the national time! David Hammond then swam a fantastic 200m

Back storming home with a great 4 second PB of 2;47:75 only 4 secs

off his national time! The two Dinnaton swimmers did the club proud

at a really well attended meet up against really tough competition from

all over the UK and even including swimmers from Dubai!

Thanks to Sandy Bowen for this report!

Congratulations to the Dinnaton Team

for a Fabulous Effort in the Final Round

of the Arena National Swimming League!

The final round of the National swimming league was held at

Riverside Leisure Centre in Exeter on Saturday 12th December.

With fewer swimmers available than in previous rounds, it was a

hard task before them, but one that the team rose to and showed

their true colours!

A tense crowd watched the swimmers moving closer and closer

towards the leading club only missing out on the top position by a

small margin. The Open boys team took us home in style by winning

the final event with ease.

Team points were

Clevedon - 187

Dinnaton - 183

Glamorgan Valleys - 147

Newton Abbot - 144

Stroud - 83

New B1 Squad Attendance record now on the squads page.

Welsh Capital Open Meet

at Cardiff International Pool

The Welsh Capital open meet was held at the newly built Cardiff international

pool, despite the weather the swimmers arrived full of enthusiasm and

determination to achieve. The weekend started with a blaze of glory as Megan

Bowen achieved her first national time in the 800m Freestyle and took the

gold medal. The medal winners were

Megan Bowen - Gold 800m Freestyle, Silver 400m Freestyle, Bronze 200m Freestyle

Sally Carter - Gold 100m Butterfly

Harriet Tuck - Silver 800m Freestyle

Laura Lamb - Bronze 200m Backstroke

Callum Clay - Silver 100m Backstroke, Silver 50m Backstroke

Ben Gittens - Silver 200m Freestyle, Silver 200m Breaststroke, Silver 100m Breaststroke

Ryan Moreno-Chamorro - Bronze 50m Breaststroke, Silver 200m Breaststroke

William Potter - Silver 200m Backstroke

Some exciting swims and personal best times were produced throughout

the weekend by the team, in particular Roisin Vosper, Chris Farmer, Faye

Hammond, David Hammond,Josie Bray and Brad Mullarkey. Special thanks

to Alan Rooker who lead the team throughout the weekend so positively and

made all the difference to their achievements.

Full results here

Dinnaton Junior Club Championships

This year the club held it's junior championships separate from the seniors,

due to them having to be slotted in to suit the Club's busy program and by

default this has set a trend that hopefully will be carried on in future years.

The Junior Championships were held over Five sessions where 16 events

were swum with only two exceptions from the full Olympic Program which

were the 400 IM and 1500 freestyle. In excess of 45 swimmers took part

and it would be accurate to say that we just comfortably achieved all swims

within the allocated time.

We swim the Club Championships at this time of year to allow all swimmers

to compete and achieve Devon Qualifying times for the coming Devon

Championships which will be held in the first three months of 2010. I am

sure that more Devon Times have been achieved by our juniors this year

than ever before. The age group of the swimmers taking part was .7 - 13

years and it would be difficult to find a more keen group anywhere in sport.

No sooner had a competitor finished their race, they were up and cheering

for their friends and rivals in a sporting demonstration second to none and

I was very proud of them to say the least. I commend this spirit to all parents

who are wondering whether their children should be involved intensely in a

sport as a terrific opportunity in positive mental and physical, child

development.

We started on Thursday 26th November and there was one session each

day finishing on Monday 30th where all 45 swimmers turned up for a grand

finale.

An indication of the great spirit that was prevalent throughout the

Championships was on Sunday morning when we found that we had a

spare hour and asked for volunteers from B2 for an extra event, the 800

freestyle for boys and girls. Twelve hands instantly shot up and it would

be fair to say that if I could bottle their genuine enthusiasm I could make

millions. We also swam 5 full heats of the 200 butterfly.

I do not have the overall results yet, as they have to be processed and put

in age groups which will probably take a week but suffice it to say that the

Club is extremely proud of their junior competitors, and if the seniors can

demonstrate a fraction of their spirit, their championships too will be a

resounding success.

Well done to the competitors, the organiser (Steve Senior), all the willing

officials and the coaching staff who together have produced a wonderful

event.

Arena National Swimming League results and league table