St Mary's Calne
A return to the ESSA (English Schools’ Swimming Association) Relays after three years of disruption was a fantastic opportunity for St Mary’s swimmers to experience an incredibly busy competition, attended by some of the best age-group swimmers in the country. With what seemed like a 1,000 swimmers from the South West taking part (it was slightly less), Millfield pool in Somerset was literally awash with excitement.
To cope with the sheer volume of swimmers, the warm up was split into age groups. It was still, however, an eye opener for those who hadn’t experienced such a huge event, with lots of hustle, bustle and jostling for position. 'Just keep swimming!' was the best advice I could give.
The Junior girls opened the event with the 4 x 50 Freestyle Relay. Florence led off with an excellent personal best. Lucy, Ava and Ailey followed, also swimming PBs. Later in the day, the Medley Relay followed with a similar pattern. Florence led out with a very quick 50m Backstoke, Lucy - Breaststroke, Ailey - Butterfly and Georgia - Freestyle. Again PBs in abundance!
The Intermediate girls' team of Sophia, Rachel, Clemmie, Florence and Halia also had great swims. Even with a couple of unfortunate goggle malfunctions, they beat their entry times in both relays. Two highlights of this age group were Sophia narrowly missing the 50m Backstroke school record by a tenth of a second and Florence nearly going sub-29 seconds in the 50m Freestyle. These are aspirational targets for them both to aim for this year, which could easily be achieved with continued hard work.
The Seniors also excelled themselves. Sophie had an excellent 50m Backstroke, breaking St Mary's school record. Honor has to be awarded best team player for stepping in to swim the Breaststroke, certainly not her preferred stroke. She also had an excellent freestyle time along with Sophie, Hilary and Molly, beating their Freestyle Relay entry time by over two seconds. Noise levels definitely cranked up for the last few races which the girls watched in awe. There was a large amount of displaced water from some of the fastest national teenage swimmers.
The largest error of the day was leaving team photos to the end. After finding the perfect spot outside for a great shot the heavens opened! Needless to say we all got soaked on our dash to the coach.
All in all it was a long but enjoyable day, with everyone competing to the best of their abilities, producing many well deserved PBs.
Mrs Nikki Harris (Swimming Coach)