Flitwick Dolphins’ swimmers have had a fantastic summer season. In early July, on one of the hottest days of the year, 17 swimmers took part in the East Region Open Water Championships in Norwich. Lily Farr, by winning the 13-14 age group in the 3km qualifying distance, won a place in the National Age Group championships in August. Yasmine Ollerenshaw did a sterling swim in the 2km qualifying event, just missing out on a national qualifying place. Other medallists at Regional level were: Francesca Baber (Gold 15-16yr; 2 km), Charlotte Joyce (Bronze -17-19 yr; 3 km) Alistair Shaw (Silver 40-49 yr; 3 km), Niamh Bunker (Silver 11-12 yr; 1 km) Lochlan Shaw (Bronze 11-12 yr; 1 km) and Thomas Allen (Silver 25-29 yr; 5 km).

As the championships also doubled up as the County championships, Dolphins’ swimmers took back an impressive haul of Senior & Junior County medals and Trophies. There were 8 Golds, 7 Silvers and a Bronze. It was great to see the family tussle for the Bedfordshire trophy in the men’s 3 km event, with Harrison Shaw coming first, ahead of dad, Alistair. Younger brother Lochlan also had a strong swim in the 1km event (along with other first-timers, Niamh Bunker, Eva Thomas and Osian Morton), to go on to finish 3rd in the Bedfordshire championships and gaining Silver in the Junior competition.

The Dolphins girls were also in the medals, with Lily Farr taking silver for both the Seniors and Juniors to add to her Regional gold medal, and Elspeth Morton the Junior bronze, with Darcey Hepworth a very creditable 4th.
Francesca Baber won the Bedfordshire women’s Senior trophy and gold medal in the 2 km race, making it a County/Regional double gold for her, with Yasmine Ollerenshaw taking the Senior silver medal and Junior gold.

16th and 17th July saw 40 swimmers from across the squads take part in the City of Cambridge Swimming Club’s Jeanne Baker Open Meet. There were some spectacular performances with many swimmers achieving a number of Personal Best times (PBs), totalling a massive 142 PBs. The star of the competition with regard to this was Roux Cook who managed to achieve 13 PBs. Overall 88 medals were won, with 32 Golds, 28 Silver and 28 Bronze.

On 23rd July Abs Wicken, one of our para swimmers, had a fantastic experience at the British Summer Championships held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield. Making the finals with a PB and scoring 497 points in the multi-classification 400m freestyle, she went on to do another 5 second PB, scored 521 points and placed 7th in Britain.

5th -9th August Abs was in action again alongside Ida Corcoran, Francesca Baber and Harrison Shaw at Swim England’s National Meet, again at Pond’s Forge. It was a great experience for all of them to be competing at such a level; they came away with 6 PBs between them and Francesca Baber achieved two silver medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle. For the rest of the club to be able to watch via the live streaming, it showed what can be achieved through hard work and determination.

If you are interested in being part of our club, check us out on our website https://flitwickdolphins.org.uk