Day 3 & 4 at Age Group Nationals...More Pb's...More Finals...More Medals!

Day 3 of the Age Group National Championships saw HANNAH JONES qualify and come 5th in the 13 years Girls 200m Fly final, in which she swam a time of 2.24.56 only the second fastest time she has swum this event.

The boys then swam in the 4 x 200m Freestyle relay final in which the boys swam to 6th positon, the boys swam well with KEVIN WALLBANK posting a pb in the heats in the lead off leg in a time of 2.06.95, BEN GOODALL swam a pb relay split of 2.06.57 in the final and JAMES LATHAM a personal best split of 2.08.08 in the final.

Another shout out goes to JOSH BOOTH who swam a lifetime best to win a SILVER MEDAL in the Boys 14 years 200m Backstroke.

Day 4
ABBIE WOOD won a SILVER MEDAL in the 11 years 100m Breaststroke in a lifetime best of 1.20.97, nearly 3 seconds faster than her personal best that she set at the 100m split of her GOLD medal winning 200m Breaststroke.


CONNOR SMITH swam an amazing 200m Freestyle (1.59.85) to qualify 3rd fastest for the Boys 14 years final. He then swam another lifetime best (1.59.37) to come 4th in the final. This knocked 2 seconds off his best time that he swam in January. These times are class performances for Connor who has stepped up and made the all important progress of times from heats to finals, and testament that his Long Term Development is on track.


EVE FARNSWORTH swam in the heats of the 100m Backstroke and swam a personal best time of 1.08.55. LUCY WOOD swam to a lifetime best in the same event of 1.08.82.

CONNOR SMITH was also in action in the Boys 14 years 100m Fly where he swam to another Pb of 1.02.32.

The 13 years girls also swam in the 4 x 200m Freestyle relay, none of the girls are known for their freestyle (yet), but EVE FARNSWORTH swam to a Personal Best time of 2.16.46 and LUCY WOOD also swam to a pb relay split of 2.18.66.

Other Swimmers in action today were BEN GOODALL and JAMES LATHAM and HANNAH JONES who swam performances shy of their personal bests.

The last day starts tomorrow and we have 5 swims left to go BEN GOODALL goes in the 400m I.M an event that he has improved rapidly on over the last year and his first national qualification on this event. The WOOD sisters are in the 400m I.M and as Eve says "The Woods are on fire" lol. Then we have the FAB FOUR and the AWESOME FOURSOME in the 4 x 100m Medley relays.

Keep up the Great Work DX.

Abbie Wood NATIONAL CHAMPION

Abbie Wood - National Champion!!!

Day Two of the British Gas ASA National Age Group Championships sees Abbie Wood crowned as the gold medallist and national champion in the Girls 11 Years 200m Breaststroke.

Abbie qualified fastest from the heats in a time of 2:52.80 - a 5 sec PB and then went on to smash this by a further 2 secs by winning the final by almost 4 secs in a time of 2:50.97, setting herself apart as the class act in Girls Breaststroke for 11 year olds in Great Britain.

WELL DONE ABBIE - ALL OF DX ARE VERY PROUD OF YOU!!!

There were many other eXcellent performances on Day 2 showing the whole team are 'firing it up' just at the right time......

Connor Smith swam a big PB of 54.83 in the heats of the 100m Freestyle and went on to claim 5th place (4th GB) in the final with a time of 55.20. He'll now be fully focussed on going one better in his best event, the 200m Freestyle, by trying to get up onto the podium.

Sarah Vasey stormed back into form in the 200m Breaststroke swimming a seasons best time and showing great mental toughness by finishing 8th in the 13 years final in a time of 2:48.85. This will give her great confidence for the rest of the meet.

Kevin Wallbank and Ben Goodall both took over 3 secs off their 200m Fly PB's that they set only 6 weeks ago and can be very pleased with their 13th and 14th place finishes and times of 2:17.27 and 2:17.30.

Hannah Jones, in her National Age Groups debut, set a new PB of 1:07.07 in the Girls 13 years 100m Butterfly and finished 10th in the final. This will have set her up nicely for her strongest event, the 200m Butterfly tomorrow where she has a great lane draw for the heats to go in and match up with the country's finest.

The heats of the girls 4x100m Freestyle relay saw the Derventio team of Hannah Jones, Lucy Wood, Sarah Vasey and Eve Farnsworth claim 14th place (4:14.03) by almost 3 secs faster than their qualifying time from Regional Age Groups in June. If they can repeat this sort of form in the medley relay, who knows what they can achieve, going in as the No.1 ranked team!

Ben Goodall had a busy day and set a further 2 PB's, this time in the 1500m Freestyle and at the 800m split! His time of 17:04.51 earnt him 8th place in GB for the 14 years age group.

This makes seven Top 10 finishes for DX after only 2 days of competition.

THE TEAM IS DOING AMAZING, KEEP IT GOING INTO DAYS 3, 4 & 5 !!!!!

DX swimmers step up and the FAB FOUR move up 9 places.

Today was the start of the British Gas National Age Group Championships 2010.

First in for DX was JAMES LATHAM swam in his first ever nationals swam just shy of his personl best in the 14 years 200m Breaststroke. The speed is looking good for his 100m event and as mentioned later on his awesome relay swims.

EVE FARNSWORTH competing in her first ever individual nationals, was in next in the 13 years 200m Backstroke, Eve rose to the challenge and stepped up at Nationals to swim a Personal Best time by 1.28 seconds to 2.27.45. Eve was ranked 25th going into the Championships swam to 17th position overall.

LUCY WOOD also in her first ever nationals improved on her personal best time with an excellent 2nd 100m in the 13 years 200m Backstroke. Lucy was ranked 16th going into the championship, Lucy swam to a new personal best of 2.25.57 and finished in 11th position just 0.15 seconds outside the final, which means that she is in the top 10 13 year old girls in the country (the winner being from Turkey).

To finish off the first day of competition the Boys had the 4 x 100m Freestyle relay. The Fab Four were ranked 14th in the country after the regional qualifiers, in which they got the Silver medal behind City of Birmingham, the boys saw this as their weakest of the 3 relays. Their goal was to make the final which they did easily qualifying in 7th place. KEVIN WALLBANK led off in a new personal best time of 58.71, followed by our distance supremo BEN GOODALL 59.40, JAMES LATHAM 59.51 and CONNOR SMITH 55.95 to finish in a time of 3.53.57 which is a whopping 5.47 seconds faster. In the post race talk the boys felt that they could all step up and improve their times. With this in mind the boys were in the zone and did just that. KEVIN WALLBANK swam another personal best time to lead off the team in 58.65, BEN GOODALL was second in the pool in a relay split personal best time of 59.22, JAMES LATHAM then swam another relay split pb of 58.49 and CONNOR SMITH anchored the relay to 5th position in a whopping 55.07 seconds to a time of 3.51.43 another 2.14 seconds. The DX boys have improved 7.61 seconds in one day, with all four lads stepping up and improving and improved 9 places from 14th to 5th place. This is testament to their hardwork and team spirit together.

A Big shout out has to go to JOSH BOOTH. Josh goes to school and swims with Millfield Swim Squad and is also a member of Derventio, where he trains during the school holidays. Josh swam a lifetime best of 1.00.83 in the 100m Backstroke in the heats to qualify for the final. Josh then went on to take the 14 years BRONZE MEDAL in a time just off his best in 1.01.00.

Steeps delivers eXcellent relay split in final race at European Juniors!

Chris Steeples competed in his final event of the 2010 European Junior Championships today in the 4 x 100m Medley Relay. The Great British team of David Gregory, Braxton Timm, CHRIS STEEPLES and James Young swam to a time of 3.44.13 finishing in 4th position, just 0.55 of a second off Bronze. Chris swam an eXcellent split of 1.03.25 (His indiviual best being 1.03.91).

Chris has had an eXcellent championships and has done himself, his coaches, his club and teamates proud on his first representation for Great Britain, he has consistently stepped up and improved from his 6 out of 7 swims, which is a testament to his professionalism, commitment and love of the sport.

A big shout out goes to Dean Howard and Etwall Eagles swimming club. Etwall is Chris' first club, which he still represents at county and club level. Dean spotted Chris' potential a few years ago and contacted the previous head coach of DX to ensure Chris had the opportunity to realise the potential. All members of the club are always pleased to see chris, which was evident when he was asked to present medals at the recent schools gala ran by Dean at the club.

Chris who is Derventio eXcel's Men's captain is a role model for all swimmers, he is also very keen to be involved and look after his teammates and pass on his experience and support.

Chris' performances should excite the other DX swimmers as they have not got long until the National Championships taking place in July and August and they have their chance to show what they can do.

(Interestingly also looking at the results are where other current and future European Junior Age swimmers from DX would have been placed....exciting for the upcoming Nationals and future International teams)

Steeps will fly home now and continue training for the Youth National Championships in August in both individual and relay team events for Derventio eXcel, before having a well deserved break in the summer holidays.

Well Done Steeps, I can say on behalf of Andi and myself and all involved at Derventio eXcel that we are very proud of you!

Well Done to ALL the Great Britain European Junior Team!

Steeps narrowly misses best in Helsinki Semi-Final

Chris swam in the Semi-Final of the 100m Breaststroke last night, narrowly missing his best and missing the final by 0.34 seconds.

Chris also swam in the heats of the Medley relay for Great Britain this morning. The team of David Gregory, CHRIS STEEPLES, Cameron Brodie and James Young qualified in 6th place for the final only 0.76 seconds behind third place.

This is the final day of the championship and the final of the Medley Relay will be swum this afternoon.

Steeps Steps up in main event at European Juniors!

Chris Steeples competed in his favourite event this morning in Helsinki, Finland at the European Junior Championships. Steeps who was ranked 22nd coming into the Championship in the 100m Breaststroke swam a personal best time of 1.03.91 to qualify in 8th position for this afternoon's semi-finals. This was a great swim from Chris and has again put him as the fastest and only Britain through to the next round. Chris' split at the 50m mark was 29.99 which again has taken him under the 30 second mark and in a 100m Split!

Well Done Steeps and Keep it up....

GO STEEPS!

Steeps breaks 30 second barrier in Helsinki!

Steeps competed this morning in the 50m Breaststroke swimming to a lifetime best of 29.97 seconds. The bench mark of swimming under 30 seconds is a target that Chris has set for himself this season, and has narrowly missed it on several occassions this year.

Chris was again the fastest Britain in this event and is continuing his eXcellent form at this Championship!

The Derventio eXcel Captain will be competing in the 100m Breaststroke on Saturday morning...you can tune in live (from 8am to be sure not to miss it) on http://www.poltiming-live.com/ or watch the live results at http://www.livetiming.fi/index.php?cid=550&session=1

GO STEEPS!

Steeps continues in fine form in Semi Finals in Helsinki

Chris Steeples has swam to another personal best time, beating his own county record in Helsinki this afternoon as he competed for Great Britain in the Semi-final of the Men's 200m Breaststroke.

The only Brit through to the semi-finals Chris swam a lifetime best of 2.18.41. Steeps went into the competition and his first International cap ranked 27th in the 200m Breaststroke. He swam the 17th fastest time in the heats and qualified for the semi-final in 15th position (European Junior Championships allow 2 swimmers per nation to progress into finals) and moved up to 13th in the Semi-finals.

The splits were great, and proves Chris' ability to perform fast in the morning and to step up in the afternoon to progress in major meets, which is an important skill to take to the next level of Senior International swimming.

Steeps will next be in action on Day 3 of the Championships on Friday in the 50m Breaststroke where his target is to go under the 30 second mark long course.

Steeps off to flying start!

Derventio eXcel Captain Chris Steeples has made a flying start to his European Junior's campaign.

Chris competed in the 200m Breaststroke for Great Britain this morning and posted a Personal Best Time in the heats of 2.19.05 to qualify for the semi-finals later today.

This is the fastest time set by a British Swimmer at the competition....and Steeps is feeling good

in the water and aiming to go faster tonight...the GB hat suits you Steeps!!!! Keep up the good work!

You can watch Steeps and the other GB Junior swimmers online at http://www.poltiming-live.com/ by registering for free. You can also see LIVE and ALL results at http://www.livetiming.fi/index.php?cid=550&session=1

East Midlands Open Water Meet

6 Derventio swimmers competed in the East Midlands Open Water Meet at Bosworth on Sunday 11 July. This meet doubled up as the Derbyshire County Open Water Championships.

The event attracted a large entry from across England as well as a good turn out from the Derbyshire clubs.

Sasha Wisdish was the only DX swimmer in the longest of the events, the 5km, winning a Gold medal.

Scott Tovell-Coleman and Evie Keane swam in the 3km, both winning Gold medals.

Catherine Williams won Gold in the 1.5km as well as an overall Bronze from all female entries.

Hannah Sullivan and Rosie Watson also swam the 1.5km winning Gold and Silver medals respectively.

The water was a very plesant 20 degrees (last year it was 14 degrees apparantly!) and with the sun shining it made for a great day out for swimmers and spectators alike. Next year even i've promised to swim........but only if we get 20 DX swimmers competing too!

Sports Psychology Talk

A Sports Psychology talk has been organised for Monday 26th July at 6:30pm in the Sports Centre at Moorways and is for all Derventio swimmers. (Parents - we will let you know at a later date if you can also attend but at present, this is for swimmers only). Training will take place in the pool from 5:00-6:00pm.

The theme for the talk is: "Mentally preparing for a major meet"

For most of you, Nationals will only be a few days away and so this will get you totally focussed and mentally ready to ensure peak performances are achieved. It will also give you the psychological skills to make you better all round athletes, to take forward into all future competitions.