Witham Dolphins Swimming Club

News

12/11/11 James Gibson Development Gala

Those of you there on Saturday 12 November at a slightly cooler than normal South Woodham would have seen Witham Dolphins triumph for the 7th time in the 9 year history of the James Gibson Trophy.

This year we invited teams from Halstead, Maldon Sharks and Havering Dolphins and the final result was:

Dolphins also entered a ‘B’ team but because of the lack of swimmers in some categories the ‘B’ team members swam for times only, with may excellent performances on the night.

Witham Dolphins	197 points
Halstead	165 points
Maldon Sharks	155 points
Havering Dolphins	142 points

As you may know the James Gibson is named for our most famous Dolphin, former world champion James Gibson and on the night we were privileged to have Margaret and John Gibson (James’s parents) who presented the trophy to our acting captains – Lauren Flight and Casey Reed.

A big thank-you to all who helped out on the night, and especially Annabelle, who was responsible for selecting 2 teams. Finally a big thank-you to all the parents for getting their swimmers there on time and providing great support.

Epping Forest Autumn Gala 13^th Nov 2011

Over a busy week-end for Witham Dolphins a small squad of mainly younger swimmers attended the Epping Forest SC Autumn Gala on 13 November.

Micky Gore was the star turn for Dolphins taking a first and 2 second places out of the four events she entered, with a creditable fourth place to round things off. She took gold in the girls 50m breast stroke with a personal best and followed up with another best performance while winning a silver in the 100m Individual Medley. She also won silver in the 50m Freestyle.

For the boys Callum Marley was on top form taking three second places in his three events recording 2 personal bests. Josh Fowles and Meg Vaughan also put in good performances with 2 third places for Josh and a silver medal for Meg.

Of Dolphins less experienced swimmers, Isobel Banning stood out with personal best performances in all four of the events she entered and 11yrear old Jasmine Holland who gained a top 10 placing in all five of her events in the very competitive 11-12 age group. Her best performance was recording her first qualifying time for the Essex Championships in the 50m freestyle

Thurrock Open 9^th Oct 2011

The top performance was from Abby Colton recording personal bests in all of her nine events and taking home medals in all but one of those events. The standout performance was her 200m breast stroke where she improved her time by 10 seconds and gained a first place.

This excellent performance was matched by Emily Easton in the 400 Freestyle where Emily improved her PB by 13 seconds and was rewarded with a silver medal.

Dolphins’ two boys, Callum Marley and Josh Fowles, also put in strong performances recording personal bests in all of their events. Callum performed particularly well to also take home two gold medals out of the six events he competed in.

There were also strong performances from the other Dolphins with Mikeala Gore recording three PBs out of five events and Lauren Colton also recording a number of PBs and taking home several medals. Maldon’s Lauren Baker continued her return to fitness after a lay off last year with a top three placing in all of her events.

Success at Ipswich Sprints 10^th July 2011

A squad of Witham Dolphins swimmers took part in the Ipswich July Sprint Meet at the Crown Pools in Ipswich.
Dolphins’ regional medallist 10 year old Emily Easton, had an excellent day gaining top six places in all of the nine girls’ events, five of which were silver medals. She also set a personal best in two of those events and finished the day narrowly missing out on the best girl award for her age group.
Abby Colton was close behind gaining a top six placing in all six of the events that she entered and setting 5 personal bests.
There were also excellent performances: from Lauren Colton who set four personal bests in her five events; Ellie Cullum who set a personal best in all except one of her five events and Micky Gore who set three PBs out of five events.
For the boys Callum Marley was the star of the day with 2 PBs and three top six finishes out of the three events he entered.
PBS were also swam by Emma Vaughan, in her first open gala, Jaymee and Fin Cuthill, Casey Reed, Cameron Brown, Meg Vaughan and Maia McPherson, who also gained a creditable sixth place in the girls 50m Breast Stroke.

Club Summer Championships

Over the weekend 18 & 19 June we held our annual Summer Championships, but this time with a difference. For the first time in Dolphin history the event was licensed – and what a success it proved to be.

Licensing the event means that the times swum will be published on the ASA Ranking Database and any times that meet the new Essex times (when they come out later this year) means we’re already qualified. How cool is that ? No less than 19 swimmers achieved the 2011 Essex times. That’s fantastic and sets us up nicely to take more swimmers to the County Championships in 2012.

Of the 361 swims, we had a fantastic 163 PBs – that’s over half of all the swims in the champs, plus a brilliant 47 events swum for the first time. Well done to eveyone who took part. Full results are available on the results page.

The Summer Skins events were won by Lauren Flight, who beat Lauren Baker and Mikeala Gore into 2nd & 3rd places and Val Kostiuk, who beat Jordan Brice and Casey Reed for his 1st skins title.

President Gibson

At the AGM last weekend, our Chairman, Colin Flight was pleased to announce that our most famous Dolphin (so far), James Gibson MBE, had accepted the invitation to become Club President. James said he was delighted to be offered and he would be honoured to hold the position. James takes over from Roger Alexander who has held the position since it was introduced in 2007. Roger, who said he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather hand over to than James, has accepted the position as Life Vice President, saying he would be proud to accept the role.

Details of the committee voted in can be found here and the new fee structure agreed at the AGM, click here

Clubs Records broken...

2011 has seen no less than 8 Club Records being beaten. An updated chart of all the Club Records can be seen by clicking here. More details will be announced at the BBQ.

Masters National Success

Two of Witham Dolphins Masters’ swimmers had great success, competing in the British Gas ASA National Masters Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield. Hannah Ueckermann came away with Gold and Silver medals, recording three personal bests along the way. Hannah won silver in the 800m freestyle improving her time by three seconds and setting a new Eastern region masters’ record. She then went one better in the 1500m freestyle, winning gold and improving her time by over 30 seconds, also setting another eastern region record.

To top off a great weekend Hannah also recorded her best time for the 400m freestyle event in yet another eastern region record. To add to Witham Dolphins’ success Sarah Berry also made the final of the 200m Butterfly event where she went on to win a silver medal.

16/11/10 Braintree Open Gala

Three young Witham Dolphins took part in the long distance events in the Braintree Open gala at Freeport which took place last weekend. The Trio each swam at all 5 200m events. Young Emily Easton (10y) achieved an Essex Qualifying time in her 200m Individual Medley and gained a fourth place medal. She also had an excellent swim in the 200m Butterfly event, finishing second with a personal best time and came home with a silver medal. Twins Lauren and Abby Colton (11y), both did PB times in all of their events. Lauren won a bronze medal in the 200m Butterfly and a 4th place medal in the 200m Breaststroke. Sister Abby won 4 medals for being in the Top Six.

9/11/10 Lauren Baker at the East Region Short Course Championships

Fifteen year old Lauren Baker is the starlet of the Witham Dolphins swimming club. She qualified to take part in 5 events in the East Regional short course championships in Norwich last weekend. After swimming four events, making two finals and swimming a magnificent PB in the 100m IM, she surprised herself and the coaches, when she knocked 7 seconds off her recent personal best time in the 200m Breaststroke event.
Not only did she win a bronze medal for the OPEN girls age group, she also won the silver medal for finishing second in the under 15y girls age group. With that excellent swim Lauren became the first Dolphin for many years to achieve a National Qualifying time for her current age group and only a fraction of a second away from the 16y age group she needs to qualify for next August’s Nationals - which we are certain she will achieve in the coming weeks. Lauren is certainly a role model for all the youngsters in the Witham Dolphins swimming club. The committee and coaches as well as her fellow swimmers are very proud of her achievement.

Hannah Ueckermann grabs Gold and National Title in Sheffield

Maldon resident and World masters' swimmer Hannah Ueckermann competed in the Amateur Swimming Association's Masters Championships in Sheffield last weekend. Not only did she came home with a gold medal in her favourite event, the 200m Breaststroke, and retained her title of British champion in her 45+ year age group, she also improved on her 400m Freestyle event time with a personal best time of more than 5 seconds. Earlier this summer, Hannah took part in the World Masters Championships in Gothenburgh , Sweden and achieved a TOP 5 place in the 200m Breaststroke and a Top 6 place in the 400m Freestyle. Hannah has featured in the World Top Ten rankings for the past 4 years. To reach this level of competitive swimming, a great deal of commitment is needed. Hannah trains regularly at the Bramston Sport Centre in Witham.

2/10/10 Blackshotts Season opener

Six Witham Dolphins represented the club at the Season Opener Gala at the BlackShotts Pool in Grays last weekend. Every one of them came home with at least one medal and plenty of PB times! Top of the crop was fifteen year old Lauren Baker who competed in 9 events and won 8 of them! Not only did she swim PB times in most of her events, but she re-wrote the club's record books in the 200m Breaststroke event. The 12 year old record was broken by Lauren in a Regional Qualifying time of 2:46.11.

Lauren qualified for the Essex and East Region championships in all 3 of the breaststroke events, plus also swam an Essex time in the shorter 50m Freestyle. Meg Vaughan (11), was in excellent form and broke the club record in the gruelling 400m IM event. She swam it in a time of 6:36.81. Meg competed in a phenomenal amount of 10 events over the weekend- and was in the Top 10 in 6 of them. Her bronze medal came from the 100m Butterfly event.
Lauren Flight (16), was very pleased with her Backstroke events- the swam PB's in the 50m, 100m and 200m distance and got her gold medal for her 200m Backstroke time of 2:39.47. Lauren also qualified for a number Essex events.
Mikaela Gore (13), got a silver medal in the 50m Breaststroke, and swam a number of PB's in her 7 events over the weekend.
For the young boys, it was Matt Holland (13) who swam an excellent 100m race in a PB time of 1:03.88. He got two bronze medals for his freestyle events. Matt Stoker (15), was in the top 5 in of all five of his events, including a brilliant 28.15 seconds time in the 50m Freestyle race.
The Witham Dolphin club's coaches are proud of the clubs' swimmers who took part in the open event and swam such a magnificent number of PB's, Essex and Regional qualifying times.

2/10/10 Mini League Success

Our U11 Freestyle race winner, Jaymee Cuthill

The last of this year’s Essex Mini League galas was held at Saffron Walden last Saturday.
Once again the Witham Dolphins swimming team finished as runners up with 145 points. Romford won with 159 points, Maldon Sharks were third with 135 points, Dunmow fourth with 128 and Saffron Walden 5th with 94 points.

Witham Dolphins had a number of excellent first places- young Jaymee Cuthill won the girls under 11y Freestyle event. Val Kostuik won the boys over 14y Freestyle event. Two Breaststoke events were won by Matt Stoker and Lauren Flight in the 14+ age group and our Backstroke first places came from Hannah Flight and Casey Read. The Fly events were won by Rhona James (13 and under), Josh Fowles (11 and under) and Matt Holland in the 14+ age group.
Our U11 Freestyle race winner, Jaymee Cuthill

27/09/10 Mini League Success

Two of our winners - Jasmine Holland and Zak Mainwaring

The Witham Dolphins swim team came second in the Essex Mini League Competition last Saturday. The Dolphins had 164 points, only a small number behind Maldon Sharks who won the event with 176 points. Third were Harwich with 137 and fourth, Havering Dolphins with 129 points.
The Dolphins achieved many first places, but special mention should be made to the under 10 year boys Breaststroke relay team of Josh Downes, Todd Shepherd, David Shreeve and Chris Stott - who all swam very well to win their event and three under 11 swimmers, Jasmine Holland (33m fly) , Zak Mainwaring (33m freestyle) and Nicole Hull (33m backstroke) - all won their individual events.
Other first places were obtained by Sarah Beasley, Casey Read, James Dickson, Josh Fowles and Lauren Flight.
The girls under 11 years freestyle relay swam their hearts out to get to the end first - Jessica Cradock, Jasmine Holland, Jaymee Cuthill and Nicole Hull. The other 3 winning relays were the male and female 6 x 1 breaststroke teams, the boys 14+ freestyle team and the boys under 13 freestyle team.
Two of our winners - Jasmine Holland and Zak Mainwaring

31/10/09 Photos from the James Gibson Development Gala

19/07/09 Summer BBQ and Presentation Evening.

A great evening for all Dolphins and the weather was kind to us. Below are some pictures from the presentations but if anyone has some photos from the fun and games outside then please send them in.

22/03/09 James Gibson Visit.

James Gibson MBE visited the club on Sunday for the evening training session. James spent several hours at the club during which he raced many Dolphins even losing to some (having first given a 12m headstart!!), he then led an informative question and answer session before signing autographs and having photos taken with club members. Everyone at the club was extremely grateful for James to find time in his busy training schedule to pay us such a wonderful visit. Thanks James.

Essex County Age Group Championships 2009

Eleven Dolphins qualified this year for the Championships and all performed at their very best. Lauren Flight achieved two regional times for backstroke and freestyle and was also a reserve finalist for backstroke. Abbey Colton finished sixth in the butterfly final. Grace Hellier achieved a regional time for the 200m freestyle. Lauren Baker was 5^th in the breaststroke and was a reserve finalist in the freestyle setting a regional time. Jenn Stott was a fantastic 3^rd in the breaststroke again setting a regional time. Lauren Colton, Cameron Crozier, Hannah Flight, Mikaela Gore, Joe Hellier and Meg Vaughan all had great swims. The teams success is featured in the Wednesday 4^th February edition of the Witham and Braintree Times.

James Gibson Development Gala 22^nd Nov 2008

The A Team was on top form and we certainly weren’t disappointed with no less than 21 first places, nine 2^nd places and 15 PBs. A fantastic result by any measure.

Our B Team had many swimmers who were competing as a Dolphin for the first time and a number who have only swum in 1 or 2 events so far. Again there was no disappointment with everyone swimming really well and actually beating other established teams in about half of the races on the night and achieving no less than an outstanding 22 PBs in the 32 non relay races. Absolutely amazing.

17/1/09 New Website Launched.

If you are reading this then you may well have noticed that the club now has a new website. The intent is to have a site that is easier to navigate with a theme in line with the clubs' aims. The background picture is designed to portray exactly what the club is about far more than any words could. The new website has been developed with the help of Mark Martin. For more of Marks work checkout his website at www.actiontactic.com

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