Congratulations to all our swimmers at the English Nationals this past week in Sheffield. Finals made, PBs achieved. Well done Harrison, Abs, Ida and Daniel. Also a big shout out to a couple of our affiliated Referees who helped officiate the meet – Phil & Louise – big thank you from all of us at FDSC. And, of course, big thank you also to Nigel coaching the team all the way to the end.
The East Region Open Water Champs took place on Sunday 14th July at Whitlingham Lake, Norwich. Just to get in the water and swim, at least, 1km is a fantastic achievement in itself. Lots of great swimming (even with the wetsuits). Loads of Beds ASA medals won but that all still needs to be confirmed. Until then:
Regional Medals
1km – Silver for Hudson
2km – Gold for Thomas; Silver for Phoebe, Gareth and Jaye; Bronze for Nigel
3km Gold for Lochy & Silver for Ali
Shout out to Lochy & Amber who have been invited to Nationals off the back of two great swims!!!
First up was Niamh up in Aberdeen for the Scottish Summer meet. Made reserve finalist in her two events (100 & 200m Fly) and a big PB in the 100m. Well done Niamh; enjoy the trip back down South!
The sun made a rare July appearance and due to amazing planning and foresight it didn’t clash with the football (just). Stacks of fun with virtually all our swimmers on the inflatables (and many in the water as well). Food & refreshments were merrily engulfed after all the energy zipping around the obstacles and then it was back home for the football. I think the parents enjoyed themselves too (especially the ones on the course itself). Great way to end the season for the majority of our swimmers. Enjoy the summer, see you at training and above all have fun!
Junior League R2 complete. Massive improvement in the racing and technique shown by our newer Flippers from R1 (well done coaching team!) and complimented by all the more experienced swimmers. Its great to be able to run these sessions for all eligible members and not just a selected team. 4 lanes of racing means more timekeepers (and welcome to all the new ones), qualified officials and team managers. Everyone stepped up! Thank you. Onto the final round at Tiddenfoot in August. Go Dolphins!
Cracking weekend of swimming. First up was the Junior Para Championships with Abs bringing home the gold in the 400m FS and Ida smashing many PBs. Then it was a full club effort with two teams in the Dunstable Charity Gala (including all those on the county pathway day who had to rush over from Luton to attend). Lots of fun, lots of great racing and all for a really good cause.
A huge thanks and well done to all parents, volunteers, officials and of course the children for a fantastic two nights racing for the first round of the National Arena Junior League. The two evenings went really well with lots of fast racing, loud cheering and lots of fun all around. This was a first event for many of the children and we were all super pleased how well everyone participated and performed! The second round is scheduled for Mon June 10th and Weds June 12th in a similar format as this week. Following these two rounds we will be selecting our fastest team for an in-person final round on Saturday July 6th at Tiddenfoot Leisure Centre, Leighton Buzzard. Very exciting!
Finally and arguably most importantly, we want to say a huge thanks to all our volunteers and officials over the two evenings – we can’t stress enough how much we value your help, quite frankly these events and others couldn’t happen without you. Extra special thanks go to Kate F, Katie M, Marcus and James for becoming our newest qualified timekeepers, I know they will agree how much fun it is being amongst the action at the start and finish. However we always need more of you in any capacity, so if anyone would like to join in the fun next time, please do let us know!
Regionals 2024 is a wrap. Huge congratulations to all those that qualified for the Luton & Norwich meets across April and May. It was a really successful meet with 3 Golds, 4 Silvers and 3 Bronze medals. Lots of great racing and lots of fun was had. A strong team of 13 represented the club comprised of Harrison S (2 Silver, 1 Bronze), Lily F, Abs (2 Silver, 1 Bronze) , Daniel (2 Gold, 1 Bronze), Joseph, Lucas, Yasmine, Ida (1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze), Niamh, Elise, Lily MB, Sophie K & Eva J. All swam amazingly with some personal bests also achieved in what is an extremely high level of competitive swimming.
Fabulous weekend of competitive swimming at the Chiltern League, Swim East Regionals & The British Masters. Also a couple of our Masters even managed to find time to train and run the London Marathon.
Round Up:
Chiltern League: 5th Place on the night & 5th overall after the 3 rounds. Well done to all that represented the club.
Swim England East Region Regionals: 1st weekend of Regionals (15+/Para).
Congrats to Harrison S, Daniel, Max, Yasmine, Abs, Ida, Lucas, Lily F & Joseph for qualifying.
1xGold for Daniel (400IM)
4xSilver for Harrison S (400IM), Abs (100FS, 400FS), Ida (100BF)
4xBronze for Harrison S (200BF), Abs (50FS), IDA (100BR), Daniel (400FS)
British Masters
Congrats to Ian, Jaye & Thomas for qualifying
3xGold for Ian (1500FS) & Thomas (800FS, 400IM)
4xSilver for Ian (200BS, 800FS) & Thomas (1500FS, 400FS)
3xBronze for Thomas (200BS, 200IM) & Ian (400FS)
London Marathon
Massive congratulations to both Alistair Shaw & Marcus Cook for completing the London Marathon. Hope you both are feeling not too bad, today!
Congratulations to Niamh Bunker on qualifying for the Scottish National Age Group Championships in Aberdeen. Niamh qualified for the 100 & 200 Butterfly events in the 14yr category. After a tricky 200m, she smashed the 100m Butterfly with a new PB and coming 18th out of 29 in her age group. Well done, Niamh, on your first National level competition.