City of Sheffield Swim Squad Summer Meet

We're off to the City of Sheffield Summer Meet this weekend at Ponds Forge for a 2 day open meet, it'll be an interesting one especially at the end of a busy year/season.

Here's a random picture of me at the Farnborough Air Show last Sunday. We won tickets from FIAT on twitter and spent the whole day there...it was awesome (more pictures to come)

Sorry, back to the swimming ;) I'm hoping to finish off the season with some new PB's.

Below are the events that i'll be competing in.

Saturday am (session1)

Warm-up 8am, Start 9am

100m F/C (1.02.74)

200m B/S (2.51.60)

Saturday pm (session2)

Warm-up 1.30pm, Start 2.30pm

200m IM (2.33.03)

400m F/C (4.37.81)

Sunday am (session3)

Warm-up 8am, Start 9pm

200m F/C (2.12.92)

200m B/C (2.33.16)

Have a good weekend watching the Commonwealth Games...the swimming has been amazing to watch #bringiton!

100 miles for a regional qualifying time !

Me and my family took a 100 mile journey to Leeds today with the hope of me getting a regional qualifying time in the 1500m free....no pressure then !

A great result...I got my Midlands QT with a 18.09.52s and a silver medal for my trouble, so the journey was worth it after all...I was so relieved.

It was a quiet meet but that's OK as I was focused and could concentrate. I was beginning to feel the pain with 500m to go but I knew I was slightly quicker than last time I swam it. 

I actually quite fancy the 5000m open water swim now...gotta look into that a little more

;)

Good Result at Derventio Open Meet

A belated Happy New Year to all!

In my last post I was preparing to go to the Derventio meet at Ponds Forge. I had a great weekend and got good pb's on 6 out of 7 races, I was really pleased, as it was Christmas it was a great atmosphere and most of the squad swam really well. It was one of our targeted meets so results had to be good as it would prove that we'd been training right for the last couple of months!

This Saturday i'll be at Sheffield once again, just competing in a few races at the

City of Derby Open Meet. These are my events

Session 1: 200m IM, 200m Freestyle

Session 2: 400m Freestyle

Once I've finished my 400m Freestyle, it's a quick change and off to the first round of the Leicester Winter League at Corby International Pool....it's gonna be a busy day ;)

Corby International Pool

Follow me on twitter swimmerjd ;)

Derventio Open Meet

This weekend see's the start of the 3 day Derventio open meet at Ponds Forge Sheffield. I'll be there from Saturday morning until Sunday evening. It's usually a tough meet with a high caliber of swimmers. I'm not in the best place at the minute, I'm training well but when it comes to competitions, I just can't seem to pull it out of the bag. I'm having a lot of pain during the day and feel the need to stretch out and warm up all the time? I've been told that it's growing pains and some suffer more than others.

To help me during the weekend, my mum and dad have let me have one of my christmas presents early!....a new pair of Speedo Fastskin Elite 2's. It's given me a boost in confidence and I know there's nothing more I can do except swim as fast as I can :)

Have a fantastic Christmas where ever and what ever you are up to :)

Leicester Sharks Club Championships and City of Leicester Distance Meet

It was the final round of Leicester Sharks internal club championships over the last couple of weekends. I gained slight PB's on all 12 events and took 10 golds and 2 silver medals for my age group. It was a nice relaxed club atmosphere and it was good to see my teammates that I don't get to see very often.

Below is the customised programme cover that my dad produced for last weekend of the championships ;)

It's also the weekend of the City of Leicester distance meet, where we'll be competing as a quite a large squad, i'm in for 5 events over the 2 days.

My events are:

200m Freestyle

400m Freestyle

200m Backstroke

200m Breaststroke

200m I.M

Lincoln Vulcans Open Meet Result

Had a good day on Saturday at the Vulcan's open meet, spaced my swims out over the day, had a good laugh with my mates, all was good :)

Because of how and what we are doing in our training at the moment, I didn't expect to make any huge headway on any of my times. I got slight pb's on most of the events with a good 6 sec one on my 400 free which gives me my first regional qualifying time for next year as a 14 year old (i'm 13). I've never had a regional qt in the first month of the new season with over 6 months before the closing date of the Midlands.

I just pb'd on my 200 breaststroke and managed to get a bronze which was a nice surprise!. My mum +Sue Davies video'd the race with the iPad and did some fancy graphics (which is below). It was nice that I won my heat for a change....lane 9 is horrible place to swim with all of the style and  turn judges watching me!

Below is the little medal I won for the 200 breast in my last event of the day :)

Had a great day yesterday with my mate Simon (who's also a swimmer). We played golf and went to the gym at night. I was back at training this morning at 5.15am and i'll be going later on this evening at 5.30pm, can't wait!

National Arena Swimming League and Lincoln Vulcans Open Meet

I swam with the Leicester Sharks in the National Arena League last Saturday. We went to Birmingham knowing full well it was going to be a tough meet, we were against City of Coventry, City of Derby and City of Hereford amongst others. We only had 23 swimmers in our squad but we showed even though we aren't a City squad we could still compete with the best. I swam in 3 individuals and 3 relays...I was pleased at how I swam. We came 3rd with Coventry and Derby in front of us and Hereford behind us in 4th place, it was a great night, it felt like a win...the atmosphere on the coach was fantastic on the way back :)

National Arena Swimming League

This Saturday i'm at the Lincoln Vulcans open meet, Ponds Forge Sheffield. It's the first long course meet of the season and one of my targeted meets. There are 3 sessions and i'm taking part in all 3 so it'll be a long day. I'm hoping to get some new PB's to continue good start.

On the day, i'll be competing in:

Session One

200m Backstroke

200m Freestyle

Session Two

400m Freestyle

Session Three

200m Breaststroke

Ponds Forge Sheffield

Have a good weekend all

James ;)

Good result at Penguins Open Meet

After swimming in an early season open meet, it's nice to see a little improvement this early on, it's encouraging and makes the 5.15am starts all worth while.

I got first place for 100m breaststroke, and 3rd places for 200m and 400m freestyle.....I missed out on 3rd place for my 200m medley by 0.40 sec.

Got some really nice, laser etched trophies, think these are my favourite one's so far :)

These are my new short course times:

100 Breast 1:20.73

200 IM 2:33.52

400 Free 4:38.66

200 Free 2:13.80

James :)

Leicester Penguins Open Meet

It's been a great start back to High School, i've been made a Sport's Ambassador at school which means I'll be part of a group travelling to primary schools encouraging and teaching younger children about sports, taking part and leadership....can't wait to get started!

I'm taking part in my first open meet of the season, this early on, it's only going to be a paddle!

The Leicester Penguins open meet is on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October but I'll only be going to the afternoon sessions on each day. I'll be going as a Leicester Shark which'll be different as I usually do all my open meets as the City of Leicester.

On Saturday i'll be doing 200 I.M & 100 B/S on the Sunday I'll be doing 200 & 400 F/C. Going on 2013's Regional Midlands qualifying times, I'm only 3.5 secs off my 200 F/C and 4.4 secs 400 F/C 14 year old qualifying times (i'm 13 years old). This meet is only to see where i am after a few weeks aerobic training which is always the case this early on a season....i'm really looking forward to the 200 F/C

Thanks for reading and I'll catch-up with you guys after the weekend

James :)