Tigers Open Oct 2011

Just been competing in the Tigers, Jersey Open, very pleased with my results this early on in the season.

4 personal best times and very close to others plus 5 Island records,  3 of them were already mine, the other two were 50 back which was held by Gail Strobridge and the 200 back was previously held by Lotte Parfit.  I was really pleased with these two events seeing as backstroke is one of my least favourites, but after some coaching from Cate Jackson I have improved, so I must drop her an email to say thanks for her help!

Also a lot of my times were inside National times, so that was good.

Now I’m the holder of 12 out of 18 Island records for short course.

At the very end we had the fun events called “Skins” starts with 8 swimmers and then it’s process of elimination until you have 2 remaining for which I won this!! Very fast and furious.

When I met Cate!

  

Cate Jackson is a name that I had heard of since I was a very young age, I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would meet her one day.  I was told how nice she was and that she was a wonderful swimmer especially when she was beating Guernsey Swimming Club Records as well as Island Records but I never had a face to put to the name, so you can imagine how excited I was when I had a call to ask if she could meet me!  We had a really good chat and she told me about the times when she was swimming and how things have changed over the years, we had a swim together and she even gave me a few tips on my backstroke and I can’t wait until I try them out even though this is not my favourite stroke!

Pictures supplied by Guernsey Press.

Up and Coming

My next competition I’m going to is the Sainsbury’s UK School Games which is held this year in Sheffield this includes 12 sports and over 1600 elite school age athletes including disability events.  This is held from 1^st – 4^th September.  The multi sport event is delivered by youth sports trust and designed to replicate a major championship with opening and closing ceremonies and an athlete’s village.

The swimming will take place at Ponds Forge which I’m pleased about and you can only enter 2 individual events and relays. 

Straight from this I will be off to Isle of Man for the Youth Commonwealths, it’s a shame that this is only short course!

My Summer so far

Since Easter been flat out, up and down the UK, my feet haven’t touched the ground since County Champs.  I have been to Cyprus with ASA England National Talent Team for intense week of training, came back from that straight into South East Summer Champs, I was pleased with my performances, where I medalled in 11 events, 6 golds, and some Island and South East records, and also broke into the magic 8min mark for the 800m freestyle.

Then I did the Manchester Open again where I really enjoyed myself in which I was awarded the best girl for my age group, again I was pleased with my designated races.

Since I was going to participate in the Island Games my coach team decided I should do some races on the short course so I then entered Barracudas Open Meet and this was the end of May, so it gives you a picture how busy I have been since end of Easter and beginning of May, so after this it was quite nice to have a bit of rest before heading off to Isle of Wight.

Then I did my first Island Games where I came away with 13 medals, 6 golds and also 6 Games records.

My first Youth Nationals which was a bit different where I had to swim in heats, semi-finals and finals.  We were pleased with all the results, I medalled in 3 events, 400free, 800free and 200 fly and came away with 10 new Island Records, and also I beat the long standing record in the 200IM since 1984 which was held by Cate Jackson.

I was shocked when I was presented with an award from the ASA/Speedo with a waterproof mp3 player this was in recognition of my performances for the 400free and 800free for last 4 years.

I have also been invited to the ASA National Talent Programme, which includes the best 18 youth girls and 18 boys.

At this time I would like to thank all my sponsors, Rothschild Bank International, Rising Stars, (ASA, Lloyds TSB Local Heroes and Kellogg’s) Fletcher Sports Guernsey.

Specsavers 50m Sprint Gala 2011

Hi,

I have just competed in the GASA 50m Sprints on Saturday held at St Sampson’s High.

It was a fast and furious afternoon!

Sprinting is not my cup of tea! But I did quite well, winning all four events in my age group and all of them were records, I was pleased with my breastroke where I broke into the 35seconds for the first time so pleased with that! But my best event was the butterfly where this was an Island record in a time of 29.44

Hampshire County 2011

Hi Everyone,

Not updated my blog in a while as been up and down lately with my health, just recovered from flu a few weeks ago and didn’t train for a while, thankfully feeling much better now and have just finished competing in Portsmouth for Hampshire County Championships, which was long course this year, where I entered 12 races which counted for youth and senior championships.  I was quite pleased with my performance and came away overall with 17 titles , consisting of 9 youth and 8 seniors, 2 of my times were South East age group long course records , but I saved my best one for last which was 50m fly in a time of 29.53 and was also a new Island long course record.