Swimming Times October 2015

RING OF CONFIDENCETHE SECRETS OFSUCCESSFUL COACHING

ONE IN A MILLIONBBC SPORT’S UNSUNGHERO TELLS HER STORY

SWIMMING > DIVING > WATER POLO > SYNCHRO

WIN A PAIR OF BEATS BY DR DRE HEADPHONES WORTH £329!

OCTOBER 2015£3.20

SWIM

MIN

G TIM

ESO

CTOBER 2015

SWIM

MIN

G > DIVIN

G > W

ATER POLO

>SYN

CHRO

times

GOLDEN HAT-TRICK AS PEATY LEADS BEST-EVER GB WORLDS

KAZAN DIVING GOLDFOR GARY, TOM & BECKY

>

TREBLE CHANCE

Swimming

+WORLDMASTERS

>

GB SUCCESS ATSPECIAL GAMES

WORLD JUNIOR TITLEFOR RUDIN

>

HEADY HEIGHTS ROSIE BLOOMS

ASASUMMERCHAMPS

SPECIAL DAYS

Cover OCT15 B RGph.qxd_Cover 04/09/2015 12:19 Page 1

* Standard delivery, to a UK Mainland address

Goggles | Swimwear | EquipmentEverything you need to relax, train or compete

BEAT . YOUR . GOAL

October - Speedo General and Free Delivery.indd 1 8/7/2015 3:48:17 PM

Funding Partner Official Partner Official Suppliers

1Swimming TimesOctober 2015

Editorial

>

Adam Peaty joins the select band to havefeatured on our cover more than onceafter his outstanding performances atthe world championships in Russia

COVER: Adam Peaty with his world champs medals

Swimming Times editorial officePavilion 3, SportPark, 3 Oakwood Drive, Loughborough,Leicestershire LE11 3QFphone 01509 640230, email [email protected]

Editor Peter HassallDeputy editor Roger Guttridge Art editor Melanie PollardSubscriptions/editorial Keely Downend, Laura DennisPhotographers Simon Wilkinson, Alex WhiteheadAlex Broadway @SWpix.com Advertising sales Maxine Smith 01509 640231 email [email protected]

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE Annual UK subscription £29.00;£26.00 by Direct Debit; Club rate (min three copies)£22.00; Europe £45.00; Rest of the world £50.00. Singlecopy £3.20 plus p&p. Contact ST office as above or viaweb: swimming.org/swimmingtimes

For the ASA:Chief Executive Adam PakerASA HQ phone 01509 618700 web www.swimming.orgInstitute of Swimming website www.swimming.org/ios phone 01509 618746

Order ASA books and awards ASA Distribution Centre,42 Brisco Ave, Loughborough, Leics, LE11 5HBfreephone 0800 220292 web www.swimgb.comemail [email protected]

October 2015, Volume XCII, Number 10. The officialmagazine of the Amateur Swimming Association andthe Institute of Swimming. Views expressed in articlesare those of the authors and do not necessarily reflectthose of the editor, the Board of Directors of SwimmingTimes or the ASA or IoS. ISSN 1750-581X

Printed by Warners Midlands plc, Bourne, Lincs

Editorial

ndeed, Adam, closely followed by James Guy, led a tremendous British success story inKazan, the best-ever at a world championship, with nine medals, but particularlypleasing was the tally of five golds. There were also a few fourth places, with Dan Wallace

desperately close to the bronze in the 200m IM, but it was so good to see the Brits winningsome close battles and marvellous to see the world records from Adam Peaty and the mixedmedley team of Chris Walker-Hebborn, Peaty, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and Fran Halsall. But it is important not to get carried away. Peaty’s current coach Mel Marshall is well

aware what happened to her in 2004 at the Athens Games when she was one of the leadingcontenders for the 200m free and yet did not make the final. And I well remember a certainJames Gibson and Katy Sexton winning world titles back in 2003 in Barcelona (50m breastand 200m back) and yet at the Olympics the following year, neither of them medalled.James also won bronze in 2003 in the 100m breast in a time that would have won himOlympic bronze the following year, while Katy’s 2003 time of 2:08.74 would have won herthe 200m back gold in Athens in 2004. She also won silver in the 100m in 2003 in a timethat would have won her bronze the following year.No matter, I am sure the current performance director, Chris Spice, and head coach, Bill

Furniss, will be looking for furtherimprovements as the build-up to Riointensifies. You can read more oftheir thoughts on page 30.The Brits apart, one had to admire

the USA’s incredible Katie Ledecky –an acknowledged distance swimmerwinning the 200m (to add to the400, 800 and 1500m titles!) andSun Yang, who won the 400m andthe 800m for the third consecutivetime. And Ryan Lochte became afour-time 200m IM winner, joiningGrant Hackett as the only swimmersto have won an event four times.

I must also mention diving, where our athletes continue to impress and Tom Daley andRebecca Gallantree’s gold in the mixed team event put a nice gloss on his and JackLaugher’s individual bronzes and the synchro bronze of Laugher and Chris Mears. Don’tforget high diving and the incredible twisting, tumbling, hurtle water-wards from 27m ofBritain’s Gary Hunt. Even his fellow competitors bowed to his overall dominance, though that event is not yet

an Olympic discipline. And mentioning Olympics…promising to see that

Keri-anne Payne won the open water test event overthe Rio course… and we have a new world juniorchampion in Rosie Rudin. Well done, Britain’s swimmers and divers.

Peter Hassall, editor

I

Adam Peaty:outstanding atthe world champs

Editorial Oct RGph.qxd_Editorial 04/09/2015 15:43 Page 1

Contents OCTOBER 2015

2 Swimming Times October 2015

Britain’s mixed medley relay worldchampions (l-r) Fran Halsall, ChrisWalker-Hebborn, Adam Peaty andSiobhan-Marie O’Connor

FROM RUSSIA WITH GOLD

Five gold and four other medalsmade Kazan Britain’s best-ever

long-course world championships.Roger Guttridge reports. Picturesby Alex Whitehead of SWpix.com28

60

64

News, Opinions, ReviewsTHIS LIFE 4Some of Britain’s glorious Kazan momentscaptured in pictures

LETTERS 8New-look summer nationals, para-swimmingpioneers and a world champ of yesteryear

NEWS ROUND-UP 11World junior water polo, world junior swimming,diving medals in Rome, synchro’s Med Cup

TOOLS OF THE TRADE 20Many athletes listen to music before theycompete - but what music and what equipment?

TEACHING POOL 24Dave Jarvis continues his offbeat observationsfrom many different angles

SUPPORTING THE CHARTER 26How the IoS is actively supporting a charter tobring about change in disability swimming

Final FiveREFLECTIONS 76Back in the USSR part 4: tracking down more ofthe British medallists from Moscow 1980

MASTER BLOGGER 78She calls it the Gulag but Verity Dobbie finds the Kazan experience not so bad after all

EXTREME READING 80Swimming Times finds its way to a wedding inCyprus, a British beach and a London garden

FeaturesFROM RUSSIA WITH GOLD 28Five gold and four other medals made KazanBritain’s best-ever world championships

SPRINGBOARD TO RIO 39A gold and three bronze medals put Britainsecond behind China in the diving pool

HUNT ON A HIGH 42Britain’s high diving star Gary Hunt topped hisdream year with gold off the 27m platform

ENGLISH SUMMER 46Romford Town and Guildford City won male andfemale top club titles at the ASA summer champs

LEARN TO SWIM DOWN UNDER 56Julia Wood describes the learn-to-swim set-up at a major new swimming centre in Australia

UNSUNG HERO 60BBC Sport’s 2014 Unsung Hero Jill Stidever isdescribed as ‘one in a million’ by colleagues

CONFIDENCE IN COACHING 64Good coaching comes from knowing you aredoing things correctly, says an ex-GB head coach

RegularsAWARD & CELEBRATIONS 68Swimming, synchro, diving, coaching and sub-aqua are all covered in our awards photo section

HONESTY BOX 70City of Oxford coach Amanda Booth reveals thatshe once went off the 10m board with Tom Daley

Contents Oct15 RG_Contents 07/09/2015 10:49 Page 1

46 22 76


REACH FOR THE SKYBritain’s Gary Hunt reaches a pinnacle of success in thehigh diving at the Kazan world champs

42

Contents Oct15 RG_Contents 07/09/2015 10:50 Page 2

this

lifeGB medal trailSome of Britain’s swimmers celebratetheir best-ever world championshipmedal haul in style. Report and morepictures starts on page 30

Feature - This life Oct15 RGph.qxd_Feature layout suggestion 1 04/09/2015 12:03 Page 1

This life

This picture: l-r Adam Peaty, Chris Walker-Hebborn and Siobhan-Marie O’Connorcelebrate as Fran Halsall seals a worldrecord-breaking victory in the inauguralmixed medley relay; opposite (bottom):O’Connor on her way to bronze in the 200mIM; opposite (top): the men’s 4x200mfreestyle team celebrate their historic win(l-r) Calum Jarvis, Dan Wallace, RobbieRenwick and (in pool) James Guy





This life

James Guy with his gold medalsfrom the men’s 200m freestyle

and 4x200m freestyle relay andhis 400m freestyle silver


CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to Charlotte Turnbull on herSwimtastic award-winning swim school as detailed inthe September issue.

I particularly liked the way she credited PatsyColeman of Splash Academy with the quality of theswimming teachers she employs. One small point:Patsy runs her swim school from HinchingbrookeSchool in Huntingdon and not from Peterborough.

Before I retired, I attended most of Patsy’s CPDdays, listening to both Patsy and her guest speakers,including the late, great Helen Elkington.

These CPD days are highly informative while beingincredibly enjoyable and essential to maintaining thestandards to which we all aspire.Christine GleaveBy email

WORLD CHAMP OF YESTERYEARAt the time of writing this letter, the greatestswimmer Stalybridge Swimming and Water Polo Clubhas ever had is Joey Nuttall. The club has had somebrilliant swimmers, an Olympic swimmer, Channelswimmers and water polo players but no others havebeen crowned ‘Champion Swimmer of the World’.

At the age of nine, Joey won his first race atStalybridge, for which he won a pencil case. He waselected captain by popular vote and went on to bechampion of Britain.

By the age of 18, he was amateur world championat five distances. He was so good, he would often waitat the end of the lane for other swimmers to catchhim up before setting off to beat them easily.Thousands would go to a gala to watch him swim.

Joey turned professional in 1888, continuing totake on allcomers, and beat them, becoming the‘Champion of the World’. He won many, many trophiesand medals, gifting his beautiful medal for ‘Championof the World’ to Stalybridge.

Joey was 5ft 4ins tall, weighed 10st and, in 1893,swam 100 yards in 1 minute and 1.5 seconds. Thestroke accepted as the fastest back then was thetrudgeon, which consisted of frontcrawl arms andbreaststroke legs.

What times might he have produced with today’sstroke drills and advances? Joey swam withoutgoggles, in a full bodysuit (which created drag), noSpeedos, no anti-wave lane ropes, no trainingschedules, no diet and no understanding of cramp.These days, would his times compare with Mark Spitz,Ian Thorpe or Michael Phelps?

Joey was not allowed to compete in the Olympicsbecause he swam for money, strictly against the rules,no full-time swimmers then.

He swam his last race at Stalybridge at the age of

68, in the old pool, covering two lengths in 44seconds.

In this day and age, the holder of 14 world titles andChampion of the World would be hailed as a supersportsman. Instead he lies in an unmarked grave inBlackpool, with his young son.

We are trying to persuade Stalybridge councillorsto put up a blue plaque to this amazing swimmer. Thissmall tribute does not cover the magic of thisincredible swimmer of which all members of this clubshould be very, very proud. Yvonne KelleyOldham

MISSING OUTThe recent English Summer Nationals (ESN) andassociated British Summer Nationals managed toprovide some excellent performances. However, dueto their structure, many deserving 16-year-oldsmissed out. The points I make below are obviously

my own but they were echoed in many of theconversations I had at Ponds Forge.

The inclusion of the 18+ age group in this event wasinappropriate. The 18-24 senior age group was createdalongside masters to provide the opportunity for non-elite swimmers in this age band to compete.

Many of the winners of the 18+ finals at the ESNwere slower than the winners at the long-coursemasters in June. Removing these swimmers from theESN would encourage them to compete in the masterssystem enabling them to see that competitiveswimming can be a lifelong sport.

The amalgamation of the 16 and 17 years agegroups had a detrimental effect on the 16-year-olds. This is the age group whose swimmers have justsat their first external examinations, the results ofwhich they will be including on job applications forthe rest of their lives. Competing against the 17-year-old group has possibly had a demotivating effect onthem at a time when we need to do the opposite.

The qualifying window immediately preceding the

Dear Sir!Mark letters ‘Sir!’ and address to Swimming Times, SportPark, 3 Oakwood Drive, Loughborough,Leicestershire LE11 3QF or email to [email protected]. The Letter of the Monthwriter willreceive a Speedo Aquabeat 2 MP3 player, while every letter printed gets a pair of MARU goggles

D I V E I N T O C O L O U R

BACKSTROKE CLEAN SWEEP

I read with interest the report on British SummerNationals in the September 2015 edition ofSwimming Times. As someone who regularlywrites articles summarising swim meets, I know it

is not an easy job to reflect the achievements ofall swimmers and still make the article interestingand exciting for the reader.

However, I was surprised to find that a swimmerwho won three gold medals across all distances inthe same discipline did not warrant a mention. Iknow it’s a big task to collate the whole week’sevents into one report and therefore someachievements can be overlooked in the process.

Bethany (Beth) Newton was the champion in the16yrs age group in the 50, 100 and 200mbackstroke. It appears that there were few otherswho achieved this feat.Paul Chillingworth Chairman,Street and District Swim ClubBy email

Reply from editorIt is, of course, impossible to mention all medalwinners in a summary report such as ours but weacknowledge the excellence of Beth’s achievement– and the fact that she ought to have beenmentioned. Perhaps she and Paul can ‘share’ theprize for letter of the month?


LETTER OF THE MONTH

Beth Newton with one of herthree backstroke gold medals

Letters with advert OCT15 RGph_Letters 04/09/2015 13:31 Page 1

GCSE and A level examination period has also placedadditional demands on the aspirational child, whowants to excel in both education and sport.

The selection of a fixed number of qualifiers hasagain made it harder for the 16-year-olds, as theycould not guarantee qualification for ESN, ease backon training to concentrate on academic work, andthen step up their training post exams.

In my opinion, these difficulties could be negatedby the following small changes, thus retaining manyof the benefits of the new system:

• in the Home Nations Summer Nationals (HNSN), the maximum age should be 17 (18 and over can compete in masters)

• have single year age groups: 12-13, 14, 15, 16, and17

• reintroduce qualifying times for the HNSN. Thiswould ensure that swimmers knew they weregoing to a national championships

• retain the fastest 24 going to the British SNWe need to organise swimming so that children can

excel in both swimming and academically. Very few swimmers will earn a good living through

swimming. However, many masters swimmers havehigh status occupations. It should be possible toenable swimmers to achieve in all aspects of theirlives.Graham PearsonBy email

For another opinion, see Honesty Box on page 70 – Ed


PIONEERS OF PARA-SWIMMING

I read the report of the British swimmers in Moscow1980 with interest. Another GB swim team achievinggood things in 1980 was at the International Gamesheld annually at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium andstarted by the late Sir Ludwig Guttman.

This team won a number of medals, many of whichwere gold. Margaret Price and Mike Kenny were, Ibelieve, both world record holders. The girls’ team atthis meet did fantastically well.

Disabled swimming stood on its own at the time.The ASA, it seemed, were reluctant to becomeinvolved. I should say there was a lot of politicshappening in disabled sport and this may havecontributed to this reluctance.

I, too, had the pleasure of being a member of thatteam and one of my coaches was the late AllanLawrence, a former GB junior team manager. TonySainsbury, GB disabled team manager, had just beenappointed and the swim team coach was Sheila Dobie.

In swimming terms, there were only six categories.An example of the standard I can highlight is thefreestyle world record for the class 6, 1min 4sec, andheld by the Israeli swimmer Uri Bergman.

I should add that no dives were allowed and thedistances were limited to 100m. A full complement ofBritish swimming officials was always appointed.

British swimming records at the time unfortunatelytended to be a bit sketchy although many of us hadwon national titles.

I feel these swimmers were among the pioneers ofdisabled swimming, which has now flourished into thespectacular achievements of today.

For myself, I am an ASA teacher and coach and aBritish Swimming official.Mel BuckleyBy email

INSPIRATIONAL SYLVIA I have just read the article in the September issue bythe incredibly brave Sylvia Platt-Rogers.

I was struck by her honesty – she acknowledgedthe full range of emotions that she experienced, notsimply glossing over them or pretending it’s been nobig deal. Her quote ‘Fronting up to something whenyour head is crying out to back away is a trait thatnever really leaves you and comes from years ofcompeting’ is inspirational.

When we take the decision to teach our children toswim, most of us do so in the hope that they are safein water. Sylvia reminds us that swimming teaches usso much more – it is truly character-building,empowering young people to become determined,hardworking and resilient individuals and equippingthem with skills that may be called upon in theirfuture when life presents some of its toughestchallenges. Thank you, Sylvia, and best wishes for the future.Jo Mitchinson By email

Letters

Letters with advert OCT15 RGph_Letters 04/09/2015 13:31 Page 2

Your vacancy could be targeting an aquatics audience of over 500,000!

Advertising a job vacancy?

Top Google ranking on huge range of keywords

Simple online vacancy submissions

Discounts for ASA Swim School members and multiple bookings

Silver Package

Bronze Package

Gold Package

£150pm +VAT

£75pm +VAT

£199pm +VAT

Applications to your inbox

Home page logo

Low cost/high value Free to ASA

affiliated clubs

Priority placement Keyword search Social media promotion

Reach over 500,000 people Full detailed listing

Include your logo

swimming.org/careers

To discuss this and other advertising opportunities

call Maxine on 01509 640231

Freeto affiliated clubs

Packages

From

£75per month

+VAT

Visit Careers in Aquatics to find out what great

offers are available

Now £169for affiliated clubs

+VAT

careers in aquatics ad for clubs.indd 1 07/05/2015 15:13

18

The ASA has welcomed a wide-ranging public consultation,launched by the Government, tohelp increase the number ofpeople taking part in sport andphysical activity.

Sports minister Tracey Crouchsays she wants to ‘rip up’ the UK’s‘severely outdated’ sportsstrategy and shape a new one.‘The current strategy has gone

as far as it can and things need tochange,’ she says in her DCMSblog. ‘I think everyone can seethat. I want more peopleparticipating in sport. I want to see

more people getting active. I wantsport participation to become partof our country’s DNA.’Ms Crouch says the consultation

was the first of its kind for morethan a decade and would help tocreate a new vision for sport.‘To achieve that aim, I want your

input,’ she writes. ‘I want you to tellme how we can improve sport forthe better in this country. We willuse this consultation to considerevery level of sport: fromgrassroots to elite andprofessional sport. We will look atequality, at safety and wellbeing,at coaching and at good

governance. We will consider howsport and technology can workhand-in-hand.‘But most importantly, we will

consider how we can encouragemore people to get active and reapall the benefits that come withparticipating. We want to create aculture of sport for everybody.Together, we can do that.’ASA chief executive Adam

Paker welcomed the opportunityto be involved in the consultation.‘The consultation is a good

opportunity for a public debate onthe value of sport and physicalactivity in the country,’ he said ‘Welook forward to working with theGovernment to ensure morepeople have access to high quality,affordable swimming experiences.’The consultation, which runs

until October 2, sets out 10 broadthemes on which the Governmentwants to engage with the public:participation; physical activity;children and young people;financial sustainability; coaching,workforce and good governance;elite and professional sport;infrastructure; fairness andequality; safety and wellbeing;international influence and majorsport events.To take part, google ‘DCMS

sport strategy consultation’ andfollow the links.Meanwhile, GLL has become the

latest pool operator to report atrend-bucking 10 per cent increasein swimming participation levelsover the last year.


KEEPING YOU INFORMED OF ALL THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

Tools

20

> Coach fundingguide updatedSportsCoach UK has updated itsFunding Opportunities for CoachingGuide, which provides informationon the funding that is available tosupport coaches and coachingacross England. Funding opportunities are

available to both individuals andorganisations to enable clubs togrow their coaching staff andincrease membership numbers.The interactive PDF can be

downloaded from the websitewww.sportscoachuk.org. It includesinteractive ‘Top Tips’, where to findfunding and live funding updates.

> ASA’s snorkellingpartnershipThe ASA and British Sub-Aqua Club(BSAC) are working in partnershipto introduce snorkelling to childrenwho are learning to swim.As part of the partnership, a new

snorkeller CPD is available for ASAqualified level 2 teachers throughthe IoS. The BSAC DolphinSnorkeller course provides childrenwith a fun new water skill, which itis hoped will encourage them tocontinue swimming once they havecompleted their learning journey.The course will also be a new

addition to the national ASAAquatic Skills Framework. It willcombine online and face-to-facelearning and candidates will acquirethe additional skills needed todeliver snorkelling lessons tochildren in their local pools.The CPD course is available at

the following places:Oct 3: Luton Sports Village, BedsOct 18: Alton Leisure Centre, Hants Nov 6: Cottingley Leisure, YorksFor more information or to book

a place, phone 01509 640 640.

> London 2016schedule announcedThe schedule for next year’sEuropean Aquatics Championshipsfrom May 9-22 is available ateuroaquatics2016. london/elite-schedule. • Ticket offer: page 19.

DEBUTEmma’s worldmasters records

News

16News

GB ONE-TWORosie leads worldjunior double

Club woos learn-to-swimmers through galaLearn-to-swim youngsters in Bristolhave been given a taste of competitiveswimming in a special gala funded bythe ASA South West.The event, at Hengrove Park

Leisure Centre, was run in partnershipwith Bishopsworth SC and the pooloperator, Parkwood Leisure, to try andinspire more children to join the club.It was targeted at learn-to-swim

children in stages 5–7 and includedindividual swimming races, relays andsome fun races.

Plymouth Leander’s Olympicbutterfly swimmer Antony James wasalso there to demonstrate the strokes,describe his experiences at London2012 and present medals at the end.Swimmers also received

certificates for performing skills suchas streamlining and dolphin kick offthe wall.Bishopsworth SC coach Mark

Williams said: ‘The event was a hugesuccess and we had lots of parents andswimmers giving us very positive

feedback. There was a fun atmosphereand all the youngsters really enjoyedtheir first taste of competitiveswimming. We’re hoping to run theseevents a couple of times a year andreally start to grow as a club whileproviding more children with thesporting habit for life.’The ASA South West is keen to

encourage strong relationshipsbetween clubs and operators and tohelp get more children involved in club swimming.

PRIZE CANSMusic to anathlete’s ears

In DepthTracey Crouch

Sports ministerconsults public

In Depth News Oct15 RGph.qxd_In Depth News 04/09/2015 11:15 Page 1

Great Britain’s women’s under20 team achieved 14th place in achallenging FINA World JuniorChampionships in Volos, Greece.

The team suffered heavy defeatsin four of their five games,conceding 97 goals while scoring35, but salvaged some pride with avictory over South Africa.A competition featuring most of

the world’s leading water polonations, and won by the USA, wasalways going to be tough for theBritish women.But things got even tougher on

the eve of the tournament whencentre back Rhianne Oscroft wasforced to pull out of the openingmatch with an injury. She stayedwith the team amid hopes of arecovery but remained unavailablefor most of the tournament.With FINA testing new rules that

restricted squads to 11 instead of 13players and only six instead of

seven in the water, Oscroft’s injuryeffectively reduced the GB squadto 10.Assistant coach Chloe Wilcox

said: ‘I won’t say it wasdisappointing but it was harderthan anticipated. The new rulesfavoured the Japanese, a team ofswimmers, who were smaller andlighter. Because there is lots ofroom in the new game, you canjump around and steal the ballmore easily.’ Britain went down 27-4 to hosts

Greece in their opening matchwith City of Manchester’s HonorGrimes scoring all four goals.They then lost 22-8 to Japan

with Grimes and Rosie Huck bothnetting twice and a goal apiece forcaptain Lauren Tasker, IsobelHowe, Kate Parkin and KathyRogers.Russia, world junior champions

in 2009, were Britain’s final groupopponents and the former winners

won by 22-6. Grimes again top-scored with three whilst the otherGB goals came from Huck, BrookeTafazolli and Katy Andrew.The result took Britain into the

13th-16th place classificationmatches, where they initially facedgroup B wooden spoonists SouthAfrica, who had lost to Hungary,Brazil and New Zealand.This, at last, gave British

supporters something to cheer asthe team won all four quarters toclose the match with a scoreline of 10-4.Tasker was the top scorer this

time with five. Other scorers wereHuck, Rogers, Tafazolli, Howe andGrimes.This pitched Britain against

European big guns, theNetherlands and they went down22-7. Scorers were Tasker (three),Grimes (two), who was alsoBritain’s tournament top scorerwith 12, Huck and Parkin.


In Depth News

Tough world challengefor GB under 20s

> Cracknell and son’striple rescueOlympic rowing gold medallistJames Cracknell and his swimmerson, Croyde, have been praisedafter saving a seven-year-old boy,his mum and his granddad fromdrowning off the north Devon coast.Father and son swam out to

rescue the family as they struggledin a riptide at Croyde Bay.Croyde was named after the

location because his parents gotengaged there 15 years ago.The 11-year-old, who swims for

Ealing SC in west London, wasbodyboarding with his father whenhe noticed seven-year-old EmersonFairclough flailing about in the sea75 metres from shore.The youngster had been

paddling with his brother, Josh,when he was swept away by thecurrent.Croyde alerted his father but by

this time Emerson’s grandfather,Jim Greatorex, 67, was also introuble and shouting for help aftertrying to swim out to the boy.As Croyde dragged his

bodyboard to Jim to keep himafloat, the double Olympic goldmedallist swam to Emerson.The youngster was already

vomiting and shouting: ‘I’m seven.I’m too young to die.’After rescuing Emerson, James

assisted the boy’s mother, LauraGeoghegan, 43, who was also introuble after making her ownrescue attempt.He then teamed up with Croyde

to drag the grandfather to safety.Mr Greatorex’s first comment

was: ‘Bloody hell! You’re therower!’Mrs Geoghegan, who was on

holiday from Stratford-on-Avon,said: ‘Emerson got out of his depth.I dropped everything and ran in.The current was awful. Emersonheld on to me so I just went under.’When Cracknell appeared, Mrs

Geoghegan recognised him butthought he might be an actor.‘He saved us and once he had

made sure we were safe, he wentback to help my dad. Both he andCroyde were remarkable. Wordscan’t say how grateful we are.’Croyde’s mum, Beverley Turner,

the writer, broadcaster, formerSalford Triple S swimmer and sisterof Olympic swimmer Adrian Turner,said of her son: ‘He was amazing –so cool. He thought on his feet,masterminded the communicationsand told his dad what to do.’

Buller and Dunsbee to lead u/19 teamsNick Buller and Tim Dunsbee have beenappointed as head coaches of theEngland women’s and men’s under 19water polo squads respectively for the2016 season.Both teams will be aiming to qualify

for the European Under 19 Water PoloChampionships in the Netherlands.The women’s tournament will be at

Gouda and the men’s at Alphen nextsummer.Buller guided the Great Britain

under 17 women’s squad throughqualification for the inauguralEuropean Games and to 11th place inBaku in June.‘I’m pleased to have been given the

opportunity to show what this squad

can achieve,’ said Buller.‘This is an exciting time to be

involved with the national team as thelevel of players is improving all thetime.‘The European Games was a good

starting point and future teams willonly learn and build from thatexperience.‘I’ll be looking closely at not only

those who went to Baku and to Greecefor the under 20 world championshipsbut the many emerging talents comingthrough and the players who maybeonly just missed out on selectionpreviously.‘Our goal is to build a strong outfit

and perform well at next year’s

championships, and with the talentavailable I’m confident we can achievethat.’Dunsbee will lead the men’s squad

after working within the junior nationalset-up for some years and previouslyserving as team manager for thesenior men’s team.‘I’m very honoured to be appointed,’

said Dunsbee. ‘We will work as hard aspossible to try to deliver a competitiveteam.‘We have a lot of work to do with this

group but there is a lot of talent thereand they will need to apply themselvesover the coming months in a positiveway if we are to achieve our goals. I amexcited for the future.’

The GB under 20 team


Star Diving’s Alfie Brown andCity of Bradford Esprit’s HollyWaxman won three medals eachas young English divers madethe podium 14 times at theTrofeo Niccolo Campointernational meet in Rome.

Brown, the British Elite juniorchampion, was the only diver tomake the podium in all threeevents in the boys’ C group. The 13-year-old scored 315.90 to win theplatform gold with England team-mate Tyler Humphreys (SouthendDiving) taking the silver medalwith 288.05.Brown went on to win silver in

both springboard events, scoring328.00 in the 1m and 341.75 in the3m, finishing behind Spain’sAdrián Abadía García both times.Waxman, meanwhile, won a

medal of each colour in the girls’ C group. Her gold came in the 3mspringboard with a score of299.90, and she was joined on thepodium by Crystal Palace’s LouiseBradley, who took the bronze on284.65. Waxman won silver in the1m springboard on 276.10 andbronze in the platform (231.50) in which Bradley took the silverwith 250.75.City of Leeds’ Phoebe Banks

won the group B 10m platformwith a score of 318.60, whichwould have won bronze at theEuropean Junior Championshipsearlier in the summer.The 14-year-old sealed the gold

with 64.80 for her last dive, anoutstanding forward 3.5somersaults with tuck.City of Sheffield’s Owen

Harrison also struck gold, scoring

392.05 to win the group Bplatform. In the same age group,Oliver Crompton (City of Leeds)won silver in the 3m springboardwith 385.75 and bronze in the 1mspringboard (337.35).Fifteen-year-old Yasmin Harper

(City of Sheffield) was just 0.35points from gold as she took silverin the group B 3m springboard.The City of Sheffield diver

scored consistently but wasnarrowly denied the top spot inthe final round by Italy’s ChiaraPellacani, who scored 306.15 toHarper’s 305.80.Sheffield team-mate Richelle

Houlden, 11, underlined herpotential with fourth place in the3m and fifth in both 1m andplatform against older divers inthe C group competition. Her ownage group is D.


> Man fightslifeguards asdaughter drownsA 20-year-old woman was allowedto drown in a seaside swimmingaccident in Dubai because herfather fought with lifeguardstrying to save her.The father, an Asian expatriate,

told them he would rather shedied than be ‘dishonoured’ bybeing touched by unknown men.The man, described as ‘tall and

strong’, wrestled with thelifeguards as his daughterscreamed for help before goingunder the water for the last time.The father, who had taken his

wife and children for a picnic atthe beach, has been arrested andprosecuted.

> Beach guardmoved for kingFrench president FrancoisHollande’s government has beenaccused of an attack on hiscountry’s principles after a femalemember of a beach surveillanceteam guarding Saudi Arabia’s KingSalman was moved.

The government had alreadygone to great lengths to help theking, closing off public access tothe beach next to his villa on theFrench Riviera, allowing him toinstall a lift between house andseashore and posting officers tosee off unwanted visitors.

But when one of his aidesspotted a woman among thesurveillance team, he said herpresence was an ‘affront’ and shewas moved to guard a car park outof sight of the villa. Critics said thewoman’s removal amounted to anattack on French principles.

> Physio drownstrying to save sonA physiotherapist died in thehospital where he worked afterdrowning while trying to rescuehis nine-year-old son off the coastof South Wales.A&E staff at Swansea’s Morriston

Hospital were shocked when theyrecognised the unconsciouspatient as their popular colleagueBenny Collins, who had workedthere for 17 years. They wereunable to save him.Mr Collins, 40, whose wife is a

nurse at the hospital, got intodifficulty while trying to save hisson, Harry, from a powerful riptidein Three Cliffs Bay, Gower. The boy survived.

Medal hat-tricks for Alfie and Holly

London 2012OlympianHannah Starling(pictured left)has announcedher retirementafter aninternationaldiving career

spanning 11 years.The 3m springboard bronze

medallist at Glasgow 2014 describesher decision as a ‘huge thing’ andsomething she is ‘very sad about’.

‘I still can’t quite believe it myself,’she says. ‘Diving has been my identityfor the past 11 years. I’ve lived andbreathed for the sport but life changes

and I must accept that.’The injuries that have affected

Starling’s career over the last coupleof years appear to have contributed toher decision.

But in an emotional blog on theswimming.org website, she makes itclear she has also lost her love for thesport – or at least for the training. Shedescribes her involvement in a trainingcamp in Rio as the ‘most unhappy andtearful days of my life’, and after threedays asked to be flown home.

After a five-month break thatincluded nine weeks on a remote islandin Fiji, she returned to diving on June 1.

‘The first week of training wasawesome,’ she says. ‘However, the

next two weeks brought no joy to mylife. My dives were surprisingly goodbut I was standing on the boardwondering why I was there.

‘I had no goals left and realised myheart wasn't in it any more. After threeweeks of really giving it another go, itdawned on me that this was the end. Itruly wish that I would love it again: tobe fired up and train for Rio like neverbefore. My heart yearns to feel how Idid in 2013 – motivated and happy. But Idon’t feel that way any more.’

She adds: ‘I’ve had a good career,which I will be ever thankful for. Now itis time to gain new experiences andapply to medical school, like I havealways wanted.’

The England divers in Rome: (l-r) Tyler Humphreys, Alfie Brown, Raffa Benitez, Owen Harrison,Oliver Crompton, Phoebe Banks, Yasmin Harper, Holly Waxman, Louise Bradley, Richelle Houlden

Starling flies the nest


The ASA England Talent squadfinished fifth overall at the 2015Mediterranean Cup in Ostia aftersome impressive performancesacross the four events.

The England duet of KateShortman and Isabelle Thorpecame eighth in both the prelimsand the final, where they improvedtheir routine score by more thantwo points to 73.6667.‘Kate and Isabelle impressed

with such convincing figure scoresthat they overtook the Ukrainianduet to qualify for the duet freefinal,’ said team manager SarahClarke.‘They pulled out all the stops

with excellent height and precisionto increase their routine total bytwo marks from the prelims.‘This gave them an excellent

final placing of eighth, closing thegap to seventh from five points totwo. All the squad and staff were

extremely proud of theirperformance.’Shortman and Thorpe were also

complimented on their swim bythe Russian team.Britain also improved their

performance for the team final,finishing with the seventh bestroutine score of 71.2333 andeighth overall.Kate Shortman was unlucky not

to progress to the solo final aftercoming 10th in the prelims and 11thoverall.The finalists comprised the top

six swimmers from Mediterraneancountries and the top six fromnon-Mediterranean nations.‘The team executed their lifts

well and showed goodpresentation through their PeterPan routine,’ said Clarke.‘Both routines showed

improvement from this year’sCroatia competition in June andalso from last year’s

Mediterranean Cup.‘Kate’s solo showed good

technical skill and height. Shereally showed she owned theroutine with her control andpresence throughout.’Having already secured sixth

place in the free combination witha score of 68.8333, the Englishgirls began the third and final daywith the figures event.Shortman was the highest

scoring of the English swimmers,placing 32nd on 73.4800.Thorpe was 36th with 72.9200.Sophie Freeman was the third

best English performer in figures,finishing 101st on 67.3778.‘The free combination final was

a clean swim with an improvementin lifts from their swim in Croatia,’said Clarke.‘They gained sixth position,

which was the result we werehoping for, just behind some bigsynchro countries.’


> Durban to host2022 GamesDurban has been confirmed as thehost city for the 2022Commonwealth Games.

The South African city was theonly remaining candidate followingthe withdrawal of Edmonton,Canada, in February due to theglobal decline in oil prices.

It will be the first major multi-sport games to be held on theAfrican continent.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles hasofficially launched its bid to hostthe 2024 Olympic and ParalympicGames. Other confirmed biddersare Budapest, Hamburg, Paris andRome.

> Club stalwart RayBossons diesRay Bossons, former president,chairman, secretary and treasurerof Eccles ASC in GreaterManchester, has died in a carehome aged 84.

Mr Bossons, a window cleanerby trade, lived for most of his life inCromwell Road, Eccles, close to theoriginal swimming pool complex.

He devoted much of his sparetime to the club and played waterpolo with such legendary playersas Tommy Parker, Harry Sirrett andEddie Taylor.

‘He was always jovial and willingto help and he played a part in theearly progress of whizzkid BillyO’Donnell,’ said Manchester andDistrict Swimming and Water PoloAssociation PRO Joan Gardner. ‘Hewas a great enthusiast for hisswimming club, attending galas,prizegivings and many meetingsuntil a couple of years ago.’

Mr Bossons was the club’spresident in 1977 and secretaryfrom 1973-76 and 1978-80.

He was married to the lateSheila and leaves three children.

> Coach dies in surfaccidentRugby coach Rob Walton, 36, hasdrowned in a surfing accident inFrance. The father of four and headcoach to Rugby Lions club inWarwickshire was found floatingunconscious in the sea off Labennebeach on the Landes coast, wherehe was holidaying with his family.

He is believed to have sustainedspinal injuries after a wave threwhim from his bodyboard in shallowwater.

England squad fifth overall insynchro’s Mediterranean CupThe England Talent team in Ostia (l-r) Rosie Gunn, Harriette Smith,Graccia Gardner, Sophie Freeman, Kate Shortman, Isabelle Thorpe,Victoria Usher, Greta Hampson, Zoe James, Olivia Sissons

Germany were the overall winners asthe European Life SavingChampionships came to the UK for thefirst time – but there were also medalsaplenty for Great Britain, who camefourth overall out of 15 nations.

Swansea Bay provided the perfectsetting for two weeks of competitionwith an athletes’ village at SwanseaUniversity, pool events in the WalesNational Pool and beach and oceanevents at Aberavon Beach.

Aberavon Surf Life Saving Club’sChris Parry said: ‘I’m really pleasedthat Aberavon was able to host thechampionships. It’s good to see thelocals come down and give Team GBRthe boost they needed with all theirsupport. It was great to race the best in

Europe at home with all the familywatching.’

British team members won 11 gold,13 silver and three bronze medals withZara Williams and Charlie Haynesrespectively breaking world and worldyouth records.

British medallists: George Haynes (2gold, 1 silver), Chris Parry (2 gold), ZaraWilliams (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze), DanHumble (1 gold), Tarryn Brown (1 gold),Mali James (1 silver, 1 bronze), LilyNichols (1 silver), Mesha Wardman (1 silver), Charlie Haynes (1 bronze).

Team medals: 1 gold, 3 silver.The week-long championships were

followed by a week of inter-clubcompetition between 50 clubs, 24 ofthem from various parts of Britain.

Swansea hosts Euro Life Saving Champs

In Depth News

Brothers George (right) and CharlieHaynes from Cornwall won gold andbronze in the oceanman event



Keri-anne Payne returned towinning ways with victory on thecourse that will next year hostthe Olympic 10k marathon swim.

Britain’s Olympic silver medallistand two-time world champion wonthe test event off Rio’sCopacabana beach – anddescribed it as the experience of alifetime.Payne completed the course in

2hr 12min 18.7sec, 1.2sec ahead ofBrazil’s world championship 10kbronze medallist and 25kchampion Ana Marcela Cunha and4.3sec in front of Isabelle Harle ofGermany.Only 13 of the 26 starters

completed the course and four of

those were over the time limit.World champion Aurelie Muller

of France was among the 12 non-finishers.Payne, who won her Olympic

silver medal in Beijing beforecoming fourth at London 2012,said: ‘Rio is one of my mostfavourite cities in the world.‘Copacabana has all the

qualities necessary for a good venue. For an Olympic venue,it could not be more iconic,historical and fun.‘Swimming here is so good that

there was one moment in the racewhen I stopped to appreciatewhere I was.‘Seeing Christ the Redeemer

with his arms open while

competing is incredible.‘We’ll be able to tell people in the

future: “I competed atCopacabana beach.”’Payne has yet to qualify for Rio

2016 after coming 15th in the 10kevent at the FINA WorldChampionships in Kazan.Jack Burnell, who guaranteed a

British berth in Rio by coming fifthin Kazan, placed seventh in themen’s test event in 2:12:22.0.Brazil’s Allan Do Carmo came

first in 2:03:53.9, half-a-secondahead of Yasunari Hirai of Japanwith Canada’s Richard Weinberger,the bronze medallist at London2012, third in 2:03.57.7.Only nine of the 22 starters

completed the three-lap course.

Payne wins Rio 10k test swim

Persistence paid off forseven Scottish swimmers,who became the first toswim from St Kilda to theIsle of Harris in Scotland’sWestern Isles.It was their fifth attempt

to make the 56-milecrossing but the previousfour were called off due tobad weather.They also originally

planned to swim fromHarris to St Kilda but

reversed the route afterconsidering the prevailingweather.When they finally did get

into the water, the relayteam completed thejourney from Village Bay onthe abandoned St Kilda in35 hours – seven hoursquicker than expected.They also raised at least

£14,500 for four charities –the Leanne Fund, theFishermen’s Mission, the

Yorkhill Children’s Charityand the Aberlour Child CareTrust.The swimmers,

sponsored by TalkTalk, sawan abundance of wildlifeduring the swim includingdolphins and minke whales.But they also faced

strong currents that pulledthem backwards and forcedthem to shorten their relaylegs at times.Team leader Colin

Macleod told The Herald:‘Everybody is buzzing - thiswas a fantastic whole-teameffort.‘It’s magnificent that

were are the first people tohave done this.’Eilidh Whiteford added:

‘It’s awesome. The wholechallenge was glorious andso much fun. The bestmoment was just swimmingin the ocean in thesunshine.’

Keri-anne Payne on the podium withsilver and bronze medallists AnaMarcela Cunha (left) and Isabelle Harle

> Unique record for island to island swimmers

>QUICKDIP> Syrian refugee HeshamMoadamani, 24, is seeking asylum inGermany after a three-and-a-half-year journey that took him through11 countries and included a six-hourswim from Turkey to Greece.Hesham, who had no money to paysmugglers for a place on a boat,wrapped his passport, laser pen andmobile phone in plastic bags,dropped into the Mediterranean atnight and set off on only the thirdsea swim of his life. He intended toreach a Greek island three milesaway, only to find that its sheer cliffsmade landing impossible. So heswam on until picked up by a ship.

> Tali Lennox-Fruchtmann, 22-year-old artist daughter of Scottishsinger-songwriter Annie Lennox,was rescued after a kayakingaccident on the Hudson River in NewYork State that claimed the life ofher boyfriend. The body of modeland photographer Ian Jones, 32, wasfound two days later.

>Hopes that Britain’s obesityproblem can be tackled lookincreasingly slim after news that thenumber of kebab, pizza and friedchicken outlets has risen by 50 percent since 1997 – especially indeprived areas.

> A swimmer had her arm torn offafter a 10ft alligator dragged herunderwater and tried to drown her ina death roll in a river in Florida. The37-year-old woman, who hadignored warning signs, was rescuedminus her arm after kayakersthrashed the alligator with theirpaddles to force it to release her.

> Tokyo’s 2020 executive havescrapped their Olympic andParalympic emblem after thedesigner admitted his staff stoledesigns from a beverage company’spromotional campaign.

> A record 3.3 million tickets for 23sports at the Rio 2016 ParalympicGames went on sale on September7 – a year to the day before theopening ceremony. Prices rangefrom £2 to £215 for the mostexpensive seats at the openingceremony. The authorised ticketresellers for each country were dueto be announced on the rio2016.comwebsite around September 7 or 8with the first purchase window openuntil September 18.


Rosie Rudin broke the worldjunior record to lead a Britishone-two in the 400m IM at theWorld Junior Championships inSingapore.

The 17-year-old from NovaCenturion recorded a winning timeof 4:39.01 to knock more than asecond off the previous record, setby Ella Eastin of the USA in 2013.City of Leeds’ Georgia Coates,

who had qualified fastest from theheats, was also inside the oldrecord as she took the silver in4:39.44. It is the second time the pair

have stood side by side on aninternational podium – Rudin wonsilver and Coates bronze in theEuropean Junior Championshipslast year.In the Singapore final, Rudin

turned eighth after the fly leg butthen used her superior backstroketo storm through the field and wasleading by the 150m turn. Her splitfor the backstroke was 1:08.35.It was a lead she never lost.Coates moved from fifth to

second in the second 200m.Rudin, who also made the 200m

backstroke final and finishedseventh, said: ‘It hasn’t really sunkin yet. My aim here was to get a PBand I did that by nearly threeseconds. It was the first time in arace that I’ve heard the crowd andit got my adrenaline going andhelped me to race.‘Breaking the world junior

record was quite a shock. I didn’trealise until I heard the announcer.My face as I heard that is just sofunny. My smile has never been so wide.‘Georgia and I know each other

quite well now and it was nice toboth get a medal and be in theceremony room together.’Rudin and Coates are now

fourth and fifth on the British all-time list behind internationalmedallists Hannah Miley, AimeeWillmott and Keri-anne Payne.Rudin was thrilled to receive

congratulations on Twitter andFacebook from Miley and Willmott.The next challenge for the rising

stars is to close the gap on them.

‘I just need to continue mydevelopment and improve mytimes. But next year’s Olympictrials are in the back of my mindnow,’ said Rudin.Coates, 16, went on to win

bronze in the 200m IM in 2:12.74.This was one of five bronze

medals for Britain.Two of these went to Stockport

Metro’s Katie Matts, who was thirdin the 50m and 100m breaststrokein 31.66 and 1:07.96 as well as sixthin the 200m.Luke Greenbank and Holly

Hibbott were the other medallists.Greenbank, already a Youth

Olympics, European junior andEuropean Games medallist, addedto his collection with third place inthe 100m backstroke in 54.81. Hewas also fourth in the 200m back.Hibbott, the European Games

champion over 800m freestyle,won bronze over the samedistance in Singapore in 8:31.56, achampionship record.She was also fifth, sixth and

seventh in the 400 and 200mfreestyle and 200m butterflyrespectively.Charlie Attwood made all three

men’s breaststroke finals, comingfifth in the 50 and 100m andseventh over 200m.Other finalists included

Cameron Kurle with fifth and sixthin the 400 and 200m freestyle,Martyn Walton with sixth in the200m IM and Chloe Finch witheighth in the 400m freestyle.Kurle was just 0.03sec outside

the medals in the 400m as heclocked 3:51.02.Tim Jones, Britain’s head of

performance pathway, said: ‘Weare pleased with this set of results.The European Games was our[junior] priority this year so wetook a smaller, slicker team toSingapore and focussed onindividual events while notentering relays.’


In Depth News

World junior one-twofor Rosie and Georgia

???

Phelps posts world-beating timesMichael Phelps has said he is excitedabout the upcoming Olympic year aftersensationally posting times in the USnationals that would have won himthree gold medals in the worldchampionships in Kazan.

His 200m IM time of 1:54.75 in SanAntonio, Texas, was comfortably thefastest in the world this year, thefourth fastest of his career and just0.75sec outside Ryan Lochte’s worldrecord.

In the 100m fly, he went 50.45,almost a second quicker than hiswinning time at the London Olympicsand 0.11sec faster than Chad le Clos’winning time in Kazan.

He also clocked the world’s fastesttime of 2015 in the 200m butterfly,1:52.94, not to mention a lifetime best2:11.30 in the 200m breaststroke, hisweakest stroke.

Phelps, who was excluded from theUS team in Russia after a drink-driving

offence, tweeted from the USnationals: ‘Pumped up for the last twonights! Had great swims. Excited forthe next two days and next year!’

Coach Bob Bowman toldSwimvortex: ‘We’re ahead of schedule.Just seeing him put up those kind oftimes, it probably does change what Ithought might be possible in a year. I thought he could get near his toplevel. I wasn’t sure it would happen this quickly.’

> New five-year dealfor Arena LeagueThe National Arena SwimmingLeague’s 2015 season getsunderway on October 10 withconfirmation that Arena haverenewed their sponsorship deal foranother five years.

The deal, announced by theswimwear company’s UKdistributors Solo Sports Brands Ltd,runs to 2020 and will include the50th anniversary of the cup final inApril 2019.

It will also allow the League tocontinue holding the B final and cupfinal at noon on consecutive daysrather than morning and afternoonon the same day, thus removing theneed for an overnight journey or acostly overnight stay for many ofthe 20 competing clubs.

‘Splitting the two finals, althoughbenefiting the clubs, has increasedthe cost to the League but this hasbeen made possible due to thegenerosity of the Arena support,’said a spokesperson.

League secretary Ian Mackenziesaid: ‘This is great news for clubsand athletes, ensuring thecontinuance of the Arena League inthe format we now recognise andthat is accepted across England andWales. It is really encouraging thatthe sponsorship is making a realdifference to the Arena brand,justifying giving us their support.’

Luca Belogi, Arena’s generalmanager of international businessdevelopment, said the partnership –which began in 2009 – had ‘provedan important medium’ for thebrand’s visibility in the UK. ‘As thebreeding ground for Britain’s futurechampions, the NASL representsthe bedrock of swimming in the UKand to be able to support the sportat the local level gives us both greatsatisfaction and exposure,’ headded.

The NASL involves 16,000swimmers in 400 teams competingin seven leagues across Englandand Wales between October andDecember and culminating in the Bfinal and cup final in April.

This year all the local rounds willbe short-course to dovetail withBritish Swimming’s talentguidelines. The national finals inCardiff on April 23-24 will remainlong-course.

Reigning champions PlymouthLeander will begin the defence oftheir seventh title against Exeter,Bridgend, Swansea, West WiltsForce 5 A and Swindon in theWestern League’s Premier Division.

Rosie Rudin (right) and GeorgiaCoates with their medals



A thrilling relay victory on thefinal day topped a successfulcampaign for Britain’s swimmersat the Special Olympics WorldGames in Los Angeles.

The mixed 4x25m freestyle teamof Matt Allen, Corinna Beckett,Michelle Moran and JonathanTaylour were lying fifth at the thirdtake-over but stormed home tovictory.

‘The team kept us on the edge ofour seats,’ said aquatics teamcoach Emma Inglis.

‘The final two swimmers reallypicked up the pace and swam fortheir lives.

‘We ended up winning the raceand knocking another two secondsoff their personal best as a team.’

All four of the relay swimmersalso won at least one individualmedal.

Lothian’s Moran provided theteam’s first swimming medal ofthe Games, a silver in the 50mbreaststroke.

She followed up later withbronze in the 50m freestyle.

Beckett, from Sharks SC, alsowon a silver medal, coming secondin the 100m freestyle as well assixth in the 100m backstroke.

Taylour, from Teesdale, wonsilver in the 25m backstroke andbronze in the 25m freestyle.

Allen, who swims for SwanseaStingrays, won bronze in the 50mbackstroke and came fourth in the100m freestyle.

‘It was an incredible andbrilliantly emotional World Gamesfor our swimmers and wascrowned by the relay gold on the

final day,’ said Inglis.‘We had an amazing time and all

the swimmers have excelled inevery event.

‘Both I and Yvonne Anderson[aquatics head coach] are so veryproud of each and every one ofthem.

‘They have all grown inconfidence and have been able toimprove their communicationskills and their life skills as well astheir swimming ability.’

Distance swimmers JamesWright and Jamie Kelly addedthree medals to the tally betweenthem.

Both won silver in theirrespective 1500m open waterevents at Long Beach with Wright,from Essex, also collecting abronze in the 800m freestyle inthe pool.

Kelly, from Cheshire Penguins,was fifth in his 800m freestyleevent.

Open water head coach ChrisGourdji said: ‘James and Jamiehave made significant history bytaking part, as this was the firsttime open water has been anofficial medal competition at world level.

‘The ambition was to grabwhatever opportunity there was.

‘They excelled themselves byfacing challenges, well out of their

comfort zones, and winningdouble silver.

‘These two guys are highperforming individuals of thesport and serve as greatambassadors.’

Last-day relay goldtops GB medal spreeat World Games

Cerebral palsy swimmersfrom six countrieschristened Nottingham’snew 50m pool at the HarveyHadden Sports Village.England’s Will Holland-

Leavens led the way at theCPISRA World Games withsix gold medals in the S6category, a tally matchedonly by Australia’s RachelStaines, also S6.Holland-Leavens, a

swimming teacher fromSalford, won his medalsacross all four strokes andthe IM.England’s 15-year-old

Maya Brisco made severaltrips to the podium in the S9classification, as did S5swimmer Neil Smith.Isaac Dunning of

Greenock’s successes

included wins in the S9100m backstroke and 50mfreestyle.Sixteen-year-old Grace

Harvey from Ware inHertfordshire produced twooutstanding performancesin the SM7 IM, improving herown British record to 3:18.2in the heats before loweringit again to 3:16.73sec in thefinal.She later won the SB6

100m breaststroke.Other England successes

included wins by RyanCrouch of Essex in the S9400m freestyle and SB8100m breaststroke, HayleyMilnes, Megan Short andBen Rees and Scotland’s 39-year-old Kirsty Brunton inthe S8 400m freestyle.Ella Cooper-Holmes, 15,

showed her promise with agood swim in the S7 100mfreestyle.Cllr Dave Trimble,

Nottingham City Council’sportfolio holder for leisureand culture, said: ‘We weredelighted to play our part insupporting thisinternational event ahead of

our official opening onSeptember 1. The 50m poolis an iconic facility that willfurther enhance ourreputation as a sportingcity. The council haspledged to become thefastest growing UK city fordisability sportparticipation.’

CPISRA Games christen 50m pool

The winning relay team with their coaches

Matt Allen starts the 50m backstroke

Team CP England’s Benn Lunnin the men’s backstroke

Epic A

ction Im

agery

Open watermedallists James

Wright (left) andJamie Kelly


From a place you’ve never heardof, a championship you’ll neverforget. Kazan 2016 was the firstattempt by FINA at conjoiningthe elite and the masters worldchampionships and, from themasters point of view, it was araging success. I’ll offer morethoughts on this experimentnext month.

From Britain, only about 50competitors made the trip to theFINA World MastersChampionships but we were stillable to command some impressiveresults. The tally of 16 gold, 20silver and 14 bronze medalscompares favourably with the 19gold, 19 silver and 22 bronze fromMontreal last year, where we hadabout three times as manyswimmers, and Riccione’s tally of14 gold and 68 medals in total withabout 300 swimmers in 2102.Trafford Metro’s Emma Gage

was the standout Britishperformer on her debut on theworld masters stage. She had themeet of her life, winning fivemedals – three gold and two silver.It was not that remarkable a medalcount but her performances toachieve these results werebreathtaking. Swimming in the 25-29 age

group, Emma won both the 100mfreestyle and the 50m fly in worldrecord times with 56.96 and 27.10,which were personal bests by overa second and 0.99sec respectively. She added the 50m freestyle

title in a European record time of25.73, a PB by half-a-second. The200m IM brought her a silvermedal and a fourth PB.

But her 100m fly was perhapsthe most astonishing swim of theweek. Although it produced only asilver medal, her 1:01.93 was a PBby almost 2.5 seconds – almost asecond under the previous worldrecord. The winner, AnnaPokliakova, had representedRussia in the elite championshipsthe previous week. This was simply staggering

swimming from someone whogave up at the age of 15 and wastempted back into the water lastNovember to swim the mastersinter-county.Emma credits her success to

her CrossFit training in the gymwhere she works, QDos Fitness inManchester, and to Trafford MetroMasters. Vying for top British swimmer

was Di Ford of Spencer. Di hasattended and medalled in all 15 ofthe previous world championships,and was undecided as to whetheror not she would compete this

year. The clinching factor was thathaving won all three breaststrokeevents in Montreal last year, shefelt cheated that she could onlycall herself world champion for amere 12 months. Di easilydefended her three titles in the 70-74 age group and added a fourthgold as member of Spencer’s280yrs mixed freestyle team.Another defending champion

was Eastbourne’s David Cumming.Not one to let the small matter of abroken rib five weeks before theevent spoil his chances, Davidsuccessfully retained the 75-79yrs400 IM title and a win in the 100 flyand a silver medal in the 50 flyhopefully made up for a crueldisqualification in the 200 fly.Truro’s Graeme Milne won his

first world titles in the 60-64yrs50 and 100 fly and was runner-upin the 50 back. He was joined onthe podium for his presentation inthe 100 fly by Teddington’s SteveFolsom, who secured the bronze.FINA journalist Derek Parr,

swimming for Broomfield Park,won gold in the 70-74yrs 100 fly,silver in the 50 and 200 fly andbronze in the 400 IM.Swimming for Spencer, Ivan

Nechunaev celebrated a worldtitle in the 25-29yrs 400 IM andbronze medals in the 50 and 100fly before flying off to visit hisfamily in Siberia.Other men’s podium places

came in the 50 fly through MasaiJahbari Zebe-Chaka of PlymouthLeander in the 35-39 age groupand Spyrakis Georgallides fromBirmingham Masters in the 50-59age group.Spencer’s Amanda Heath was

another swimmer who completeda world championship double,winning the 55-59yrs 100 breast

and narrowly pipping her team-mate Esther Iseppi for a Britishone-two in the 200 breast. Esther went on to win two more

silver medals in the 100 fly and the400 IM and took a bronze behindyours truly, swimming for Consett,in the 50 breaststroke.Jean Howard-Jones (Spencer)

won at least one medal of eachcolour – gold in the 70-74yrs 50free, silver in the 100 and 200 freeand a bronze medal in the 400m.Claire Willison of Bognor Regis

won medals in all five of herevents – silver in the 60-64yrs 50and 100 free, 50 fly and 200 IMand bronze in the 200 back. There were some questionable

refereeing decisions and Clairewas extremely unlucky in the 50butterfly. After a flyer in her event,she eventually followed the rest ofthe swimmers into the water,popped up to see if there had beena recall, swam a couple of strokesof freestyle, then set off like arocket closing a three-metre leadto a matter of centimetres. While technically she was right

to have been DQ’d, it’s hard to saythat she gained any advantagefrom that.

In the 75-79 age group, JanetMasters of South BedfordshireMasters won bronze medals in the50 and 100 fly and silver in the 100back and the 200 IM.In the same age group, Sandra

Lea from Inverness took a bronzemedal in the 50 back. Jade Perry of Rochford and

District won double bronze in the30-34yrs 50 and 100 back and theSpencer women’s 240 years teammade it two silver medals in bothof their relays.

Verity Dobbie

Debutant Emma setspace in world masters


In Depth NewsMasters world record-breaker

Emma Gage with her five medals

Many of the British medallists in Kazan


> Historic pools bodylaunchedA national organisation representingthe interests of Britain’s historicswimming pools and lidos will belaunched in London on September 30.Historic Pools of Britain will offer a

shared voice for the hundreds ofindoor and outdoor pools in the UK,mostly pre-dating 1939. It aims to helpindividuals, community groups andorganisations involved in theprotection, restoration and operationof heritage baths across the country.It also sets out to celebrate these

buildings – to put the spotlight on theircontribution to the nation’s social andarchitectural history and to recognisethe important roles they continue toplay in our communities today.Members also plan to create a

central database documenting thehundreds of historic swimming poolbuildings in the UK.Gill Wright, founder member and

spokesperson for Historic Pools ofBritain, says: ‘This is an opportunityabove all else to share our knowledgeand experience through betterconnectivity between everyoneinvolved in the rescue, restoration andrunning of historic swimming pools,from small community groups throughto larger operating companies andlocal authorities.’Many of the country’s heritage

baths are in a fragile state. Of 116 thatare listed buildings, only 52 areoperational or in the process of beingrefurbished. The efforts to save andpreserve them are often in the handsof a few dedicated individuals, whosevoices struggle to be heard.For more information or to join

Historic Pools of Britain, [email protected].

> ASA priority ticketoffer for Euro 2016The ASA is offering affiliated clubs andtheir members priority access totickets for the LEN European AquaticsChampionships at the London AquaticsCentre from May 9-22 next year.Most of Europe’s aquatic athletes –

including the whole of Britain’sOlympic swimming team – areexpected to use the championships aspart of their preparations for Rio 2016later in the year.GB head coach, Bill Furniss, said:

‘We are going to take the Olympic teamthere and that’ll be a good preparationmeet for us.’People can register their interest at

www.euroaquatics2016.london/register. Tickets go on sale duringSeptember.

Work is underway onconstruction of an eight-lane50m pool at Mount Kelly, theschool at Tavistock, Devon,formerly known as Kelly College.

Work is expected to take a year andthe pool should be open at thestart of the school term inSeptember next year.This £5m to £6m project has

been made possible by SportEngland National Lottery fundingof over £700,000.Sport England are also

contributing the pool tank andinfrastructure. It will be the fifth 50m pool in the

South West following the openingof Millfield, Bath University,Plymouth and Bristol over the last25 years.Headmaster Mark Semmence

said: ‘This significant investment inthe future of the school and forsport regionally would not havebeen possible without the supportof Sport England. ‘Sport is, of course, very

important for the school,especially swimming, and thisproject means we can attract thevery best swimming talentnationally and internationally.‘I expect our pool to become a

hub in the South West fornurturing outstanding talent.’ The pool, which has been subject

to years of discussion andplanning, will be used for long-course training for Mount Kellypupils, local and regional stateschools and swimming clubs fromaround the UK.It will also provide access to ASA-

accredited swim schoolprogrammes for learnerswimmers. The successful programme of

visits by primary schools to theexisting Mount Kelly pool will begreatly expanded.Currently, almost 350 local

children enjoy swimming lessonsat the school and this number isexpected to increase significantly.‘Here at Mount Kelly, our

sporting programmes form anintegral part of the overalleducational experience, creating aculture in which the level ofcommitment and dedicationrequired to excel are notconsidered out of the ordinary butare qualities to which everyone canaspire,’ said Mr Semmence. ‘I am particularly delighted that

the new pool will enable MountKelly to work more closely with thelocal and regional community, as60 per cent of the usage of thepool is designated for local stateschools and swimming clubs.’Mount Kelly has a long tradition

of shaping the careers of eliteswimmers, including 60internationals and the winners ofsix Olympic and nine

Commonwealth medals.It also has a good track record in

para-swimming with Kellyswimmers winning five medals atboth the Beijing and LondonParalympics.The school’s director of

swimming and performance, RobinBrew, himself an Olympian, said:‘The addition of a 50m pool on-siteis transformational. ‘It will allow us to make an

increasingly significantcontribution to high performanceswimming in the UK. ‘We provide a launchpad for

swimmers and offer a progressiveand individually tailoredprogramme allowing each pupil toreach their true potential at theright time for them while alsocontributing to the collective goalof national, international andOlympic success.’ High-profile ex-pupils include

Sharron Davies and AndyJameson, both Olympic medallistsand now members of BBC TV’sswimming commentary team.Davies said: ‘I am thrilled. This is

a big step forward for Britishswimming and will be an importantpart of the Olympic legacy.’


Mount Kelly to get 50m pool at lastMount Kelly swimmers celebrate thenews that they’re to get a 50m pool

An artist’s impression of the newpool complex at Mount Kelly


In Depth Reviews

Tools of the trade


We all know how noisyand chaotic it can be onpoolside. No wonder weoften see athletesadopting personalheadphones, especiallyprior to competition. But is it just aboutblocking out externalnoise or is more at stake?

Soundtrack to success

Choosing what to listen to ahead of that all-important event can depend on the state ofmind you are hoping to reach just prior to thestart. For some, it is about keeping nervousenergy under control and getting on top ofpre-event jitters whereas, for others, it is ameans of getting themselves into the rightmode, psyching-up, and creating high levelsof self-confidence.

TempoThis, of course, can determine the tempo ofmusic choice – a higher tempo is more likelyto be useful for psyching-up athletes. A lowertempo may have a calming effect, helpingsome to control the nerves. But we allapproach situations differently. For synchronised swimmers, it is a slightly

different scenario as the music is part of thesport itself. Seventeen-year-old Britishathlete Genevieve Randall reveals: ‘Prior tocompeting, I spend a lot of time listening toand walking through my routine music sooften can’t indulge myself and listen to what Iwant. Often before and during a figures

To be in with a chance of winning a pair of Beats by Dreheadphones retailing at £329, and a £50 iTunes gift card, emailus as indicated opposite to: [email protected]

Or send a letter to: Swimming Times, Pavilion 3, SportPark, 3 Oakwood Drive, Loughborough, Leics LE11 3QF

Closing date: October 19, 2015

WINIT!

competition, I will listen to my own choice ofmusic. I like Jay Z and Beyoncé, Catfish andthe Bottlemen and a bit of Birdy.’

Standout songFrom a team perspective and in the lead-upto the European Games in Baku, we askedmembers of Great Britain’s under-17 girls’water polo team (pictured above) to sharetheir dressing room soundtrack. The problemwith playlists in team sports is pleasingeveryone but there was one standout songamong the water polo girls. ‘As a team we liketo listen to Eye of the Tiger (by Survivor)before a match. That gets us really pumpedup,’ says Devonport Royal’s Bethany Ward.

Pumped up Menzieshill and Whitehall club playerHannah Edwards explains: ‘We all put songson a speaker and listen together before agame and then put on a song each – that’show we all get pumped up.’

Danica BrazierAge: 16Club: ChelmsfordPre-match music: ‘Anything by Shakira. Justloads of upbeat songs to get us in the zone.’

Kathy RogersAge: 16Clubs: Christchurch Seagulls, London Otter,SouthamptonPre-match music: ‘A bit of Eminem – upbeatstuff.’

Lara PartridgeAge: 17Club: CrawleyPre-match music: ‘More Than Anything byRudimental featuring Emeli Sande and I alsoquite like Changing by Sigma featuringPaloma Faith.’

Lucy ShawAge: 16Club: LiverpoolPre-match music: ‘I like David Guettafeaturing Emeli Sande and What I Did forLove.’

Mhairi NurthenAge: 17Club: London OtterPre-match music: ‘I’m into pop and rock oranything quite alternative, so my song ofchoice before a competition would be Art ofWar by We the Kings.’

In Depth Tools of trade Oct15EDITED2 RGph_Tools of the trade 04/09/2015 11:12 Page 1


Sennheiser MOMENTUM Wireless (M2 AEBT)

Need to get inspiredand motivated foryour next sportingencounter? Our top prize this month is a pair ofBeats by Dr Dre headphones and a£50 iTunes gift card to spend on themusic that inspires you the most. Two runners-up will each win aniTunes gift card worth £50!To enter, simply email your name

and address and the words ‘let themusic motivate me’ by October 19, [email protected].*Winners will be drawn at randomfrom entries received.*Style/colour may differ from image.

WINIT!

Studio Wireless Over-EarHeadphones‘Feel The Music, Not The Wires’Experts from Beats say ‘the BeatsAcoustic Engine gives you an intimate,real encounter with your music’. Itdelivers music the way artists want it tobe heard.

Features• Bluetooth and wireless • Adaptive noise cancelling (ANC)battery: rechargeable battery lasting12 hours when using wirelessly and 20hours when plugged in • Streamlined design with fast curves,smooth surfaces and no visible screws.Ear cups are soft and there’s anergonomic bellow to create a flexible,custom fit for every head shape

Available in a range of colours

Price and availability:£329.95 Beats by Dr Dreis available through the Apple store.

FAVOURITE OFWATER POLO

GIRLS

✔

Bose® QuietComfort® 25Acoustic NoiseCancelling® headphonesAround-ear, noise cancelling headphone

Bose engineers placed microphones insideand outside the earcup to better sense andmeasure unwanted sounds. Measurementsare then sent to a digital electronic chip,exclusive to Bose, that calculates a moreprecise equal and opposite noisecancellation signal. Experts at Bose say:‘Distractions instantly fade away, even in themost demanding environments.’

Features • Lightweight around-ear fit • Inline mic and remote • Single AAA battery for up to 35 hrs

Available in black or white, each with blueaccents

Price and availability:£269.95 at Boseretail stores and www.bose.co.uk

Around-ear headset offering optimum noise isolation Described by Sennheiser as the ‘ultimate way to experiencesuperior audio with effortless style’. Experts say this new headset lets you experience crystal-

clear sound without being attached to a cable. It combineshigh-resolution sound with a lightweight, puristic designand exclusive materials like stainless steel and real leather.

Features• Wireless freedom with Bluetooth® 4.0• NoiseGardTM hybrid active noise cancellation technology• VoiceMaxTM technology for crystal clear voicecommunication�• 22 hours battery life

High-resolution audio BluetoothheadphonesEnables high quality wireless listening viaBluetooth. Sony say that by ‘transmittingthree times the data of ordinary Bluetoothlinks, this efficient new codec lets youstream pristine, lag-free high-quality audiowirelessly from compatible devices’.

Features• Ultra-wide frequency• Up to 30 hours battery life: listen all daylong with Bluetooth on• Connect in an instant with NFC One-touch• Hands-free calls• Touch sensor control on the earpads • With ergonomic 3D earpads, seals musicin and keeps sound distractions out • Pressure-relieving earpads: soft leatherearpads rise and shape around your earsfor a snug, comfortable fit• Take your music anywhere: a sliding metalheadband and swivel-folding earcupsmake it easy to store your headphones ina suitcase or bag

Price: £299.00 www.sony.co.uk

Sony MDR-1ABT

Beats by Dr Dre

Discover the headphones Are you convinced that it is a pair of headphones and a playlist of motivationalmusic that is missing from your pre-swim routine? If so, discover the featuresbehind some of the most popular headphones available for purchase.

Available in black and ivory

Price: £379.99www.sennheiser.com

In Depth Tools of trade Oct15EDITED2 RGph_Tools of the trade 04/09/2015 11:12 Page 2

In Depth Reviews

Tools of the trade


Parents: are your nine- to 15-year-olds ASA category 2 members? Clubs: does yourclub include these competing young athletes? Do they know about ‘AquaZone’,the free secure online social network just for them?

Are your young athletes AquaZoners yet?

What is AquaZone?It’s an interactive online magazine andcommunity exclusively for nine- to 15-year-old ASA category 2 athletes at English clubs.Packed with news, interviews, features,readers’ letters and competitions, it hasevolved from the paper-based Aqua Zonethat used to be posted out every threemonths to members.

How do youngsters access the site?They will need to go towww.swimming.org/aquazone and register.Once registered, they will use a usernameand password for subsequent visits.

During registration, kids will be asked toenter a parental email address. Parents willthen be able to click a link in the email if theydo not wish their child to use the site.

What’s in it for young athletes?Regular swimming, diving, synchro and waterpolo stories, monthly competitions, theirletters published on the site, the opportunityto comment on and ‘like’ stories, andinterviews with their favourite athletes.

They will be part of their own club hub andhave the ability to shout about PBs andmedals, unlock and earn achievement badgesfor their profile, post status updates forfriends, follow friends and get friends’recommendations in a timeline.

Is it safe?Security is taken extremely seriously. Accessis linked to the ASA membership database, aparental email is required for registrationwith the option of clicking a link if parentswould prefer their child not to use the site.

AquaZone has a full-time moderatorcontinually monitoring the site as well as a

report button accessible from all areas. The moderator also spot-tests accounts to

ensure the community is safe.AquaZone works with the Child Protection

in Sport Unit (CPSU) and ASA childsafeguarding experts to ensure the rightsafeguards are in place.

The site has been highlighted in a recentnews story by the CPSU and shared as anexample of good practice. (Visitwww.thecpsu.org.uk and search for‘aquazone’ to read more)

Head to the AquaZone parents’ page formore information including a video and thesite’s Acceptable Use Policy (known as ‘PoolRules’).

If you have any questions for the AquaZoneteam: use the form on the contact page atswimming.org/aquazone or [email protected].

Amazing autumn competition for clubs AquaZone is giving away a fantastic prize for ASA clubs.

Encourage 50 per cent or more of your young athletes to sign up to AquaZone and yourclub will be automatically entered into the autumn prize draw.Your young athletes could even win themselves an iPad!More details will be released soon - but don’t delay, and encourage your young athletes to sign up now.

PRIZEDRAW

Tools of trade Aquazone OCT15 RG 2p.qxd_Tools of the trade 04/09/2015 10:44 Page 1

ARE YOUR YOUNG ATHLETES AQUAZONERS YET?

SAFE AND SECURE

AquaZone is the ASA’s free online network for category 2 athletes aged 9-15• Access – members can read exclusive interviews,

articles and news, plus enter great competitions.

• Get social – they can chat with club friends, share PB stories and support each other.

• Safe and secure – parents have the ability to control access.

for category 2 athletes aged 9-15ad exclusive interviews,

articles and news, plus enter great competitions.

– they can chat with club friends, share PB stories and support each other.

ents have the ability to

SWIMMING.ORG/AQUAZONE

Encourage 50% or more of your young athletes to sign up to AquaZone and your club will automatically be entered into our autumn prize draw. Your young athletes could even win an iPad for themselves!

PASS IT ON!

WIN PRIZES FOR YOUR CLUB

AZ ad A4.indd 1 04/09/2015 10:02

Teaching pool

Ihave always worked on thetheory that if you are teaching50 pupils frontcrawl breathing,

you must have 50 gimmicks atyour disposal. Not everyone willgrasp or be physically capable ofdoing them all, let alone 49 ofthem. But if one works for onepupil, then you’ve achieved yourgoal and theirs. Similarly, not every method will

work for every instructor or forevery individual but if one worksfor one of the 50, then you aredoing your job successfully. It hasall been worthwhile. You have jobsatisfaction and each individualyou spend time with will alwaysappreciate your interest in them. I have always concentrated on

teaching techniques and carryingthem through, revising them oftenand mostly using games, stories,expressions and anecdotes thatwill make them easier toremember and more natural toaccomplish. For me, swimminghundreds of lengths is noaccomplishment if the technique isnot correct, not legal or is hardwork rather than enjoyable. That’snot swimming. It’s not Newton’sthird law – action to reaction;whichever way you push the wateryou will move in the oppositedirection. If techniques are not

continued or the swimmerbecomes lazy, bad habits developand are difficult to get rid of. When teaching, I tend to stress

points with verbal pictures, such ascrocodile, monkey-mouse(breaststroke arms), open yourmouth wide to breath in like a bighippopotamus. Periodically, I comeacross adults that I taught asyoungsters and they remind me:‘50p between the knees’, Newton’sthird law ‘action to reaction’ and so on.

Swimming: why? Swimming is not the be-all andend-all of the world. There areother things in life. But it should bea fun activity. The deep friendshipsthat develop in the pool alwaysastound me. These athletes areworking their hearts out in trainingsessions with very short stops toget some breath in their lungs,then they’re off again – and yet inthose few seconds (and they areonly seconds, 30 at most) they getto know each other, discuss school,home, homework, pop songs andbuild strong friendships. It can be extremely boring

ploughing up and down the poolwhen the only things to be seenare the tiles and the swim channelso it is up to the coach to fill

swimmers minds with challenges,goals and ambitions. Someswimmers are reduced to recitingpop songs, poetry, kings andqueens of England and dates. I have found, during the 40-plus

years of my teaching/coachingcareer, that all the many thousandsof swimmers I have been involvedwith have all been special people –polite, unselfish, moral and loyalpeople, virtues not often found inother sporting activities. Chlorinedoes have its good side after all.

What is a swimmer? A squad swimmer is a drip-drychild with chlorine in his eyes,water in her ears, a coach on hisback and butterflies in her belly. Aswimmer is a constantcontradiction of many moods.When they swim and win, they arejubilant; when they lose, they aredejected and ready to give up. A swimmer likes warm water,

cold chicken, slow stop-watches,fast pools, short-course races, longrests, large portions of chips,coaches (sometimes) and winningat all times. A swimmer hates extra laps,

school hours, shaving down, badsports, stroke and turn judges, coldshowers and losing. A swimmer is highly susceptible

to victory parades, eye and earinfections, countless varieties ofviruses not yet discovered, peprallies and to being psyched out. On the blocks, the swimmer is a

coward besieged by buzzingbutterflies; in the pool, he or shecan be a conquering hero. This is a squad swimmer. You

may take them out of the race, orout of a pool, but you can nevertake out of their heart and mindthe great lessons of life that boththe sport of swimming and theircoach give them. You can get themout of your sight but you can neverget them out of your hair, nor outof their bed on Sunday morningafter a gala.

A coach’s psychology When I was coach to a swimmingclub, I would compile a list ofchallenges depending on age,gender, distance, strokes. When aswimmer achieved the requiredstandard, they would be presentedwith a cloth star to sew on theirtracksuit top or towel. They would,in this way, collect a galaxy of stars.And then as coach, I would givethem a small galaxy chocolate bar. At galas, it was always

interesting to see the envy andadoration of the other clubswimmers towards the star-studded opposition. One of the challenges was to

swim the Channel during trainingsessions, to encourage them toturn up for training. I would alsorun time trials prior to galas; if youdidn’t turn up for the time trial, youdidn’t compete in the gala. Thisgave a chance to those who turnedup regularly for practice sessionsas opposed to those who thoughtthey would be automaticallychosen. Not by me they wouldn’t!At away galas, I would even take

a plastic bottle of water from ourhome pool and ceremoniouslypour it along the lane we would beusing so the club would beswimming comfortably in waterthey were used to!


Teaching Pool Dave Jarvis continues his offbeat observations onswimming from many different angles

Teaching Pool Oct15 RGph.qxd_Teaching Pool 03/09/2015 10:25 Page 1

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE ASA AND BRITISH SWIMMING

READ IT > LOVE IT > LIVE IT

ONE MAGAZINE ALL THE DISCIPLINESOnly £26 per year by Direct Debit£29 per year by cash/chequeBut it’s cheaper to subscribe through your club!

Only £22 per person per year(Minimum three copies to one address)

Web: www.swimming.org/swimmingtimesEmail: [email protected]: 01509 640230

SUBSCRIBE TODAY

DOWNLOAD IT!

>Digital SubscriptionFree App download and sample issue

Available from the App Store, Google Play orwww.pocketmags.com

he English Federation ofDisability Sport (EFDS)launched its Charter forChange to help make an

active lifestyle not just apossibility but a part of theeveryday lives of disabledpeople.

The IoS share the same viewas EFDS, that disabled peopleshould have exactly the sameopportunities as non-disabledpeople to lead a healthy andhappy, physically active life.

Physical activity changespeople’s lives for the better,regardless of their age, ability,impairment or social or culturalbackground. For those who havean impairment, it can increaseindependence, confidence andhelp to counter things likeloneliness and depression.

Swimming is one of the bestforms of activity for people withphysical or mental impairments.Water supports up to 90 per centof your bodyweight, so noadditional aids or supports arenecessary to start swimming.

Each week over 400,000disabled adults take to the waterfor at least 30 minutes andconsistently say that swimmingis their sport of choice. This iswhy the ASA and the IoS are fullysupporting EFDS in all three aimsof its A Charter for Change.

For the IoS, perhaps the mostpoignant aim is the first in the

EFDS Charter: ‘Everyone involved in

providing sport or physicalactivity will support disabledpeople to participate.’

This is why the IoS not onlyencourages all its teachers andtutors to upskill so they candeliver the best quality teachingprovision to people withimpairments but is alwaysimproving its CPD courses toensure they are at the forefrontof the industry.

We want a fully inclusiveworkforce that can support andencourage any swimmer from ayoung age right through theirswimming career, and all thosepeople of any age who are takingto the water for the first time. Weneed to ensure that all learn-to-swim programmes and affiliatedclubs are providing the bestpossible service by having fullytrained staff.

The first course in our suite ofdisability CPDs is the newVisually Impaired FriendlySwimming CPD. The online i-Learn course has beendeveloped by the IoS inpartnership with British BlindSport, Action for Blind Peopleand New College Worcester.

The i-Learn course will provideguidance and ideas forfacilitating swimming sessionsthat are fully accessible forpeople with a visual impairment.

It contains a series ofinteractive activities that willenable coaches, teachers,parents and carers to develop abetter understanding of theneeds of people with a visualimpairment, and how to use theircurrent skills and knowledge tomeet those individual needs.

The i-Learn will also give thelearner an understanding of thedifferent classifications of visualimpairment and where they cango to get further support.

The IoS have ensured that thei-Learn works with a screenreader and is fully accessible forusers with a visual impairment.

Tim Reddish, chair of theBritish Paralympic Associationand Paralympic swimmingmedallist, said: ‘It is hugelyimportant to have a resourceavailable that develops, mentorsand educates teachers and

coaches to deliver a positiveexperience for visually impairedswimmers. While swimmingteachers and coaches have thetechnical skills to enable them toboth teach and coach swimming,this CPD will enable them tocommunicate, engage and adapttheir technical skills to facilitatethe visually impaired swimmer.

‘The content of the CPD isdelivered through an easy-to-usee-learning module with a numberof activities to enable positivelearning. It was also great that Iwas able to access it through myscreen reader on my PC.’

Find out more and book yourplace at:http://j.mp/VISwimmingCPD

The Visually Impaired FriendlySwimming i-Learn is the first inan upcoming series exploringdisability in swimming which also includes:• Deaf Friendly Swimmingwww.theiosonline.com• Introduction to Para-swimming (coming soon)

The Institute of Swimming has been setting the standard for professionaltraining and development in the leisure and aquatics industry for morethan 30 years. In this regular feature, we share some useful tips, practicalinsights and advice to support you as a teacher or coach


IoS Training & MembershipIoS Training

TSupporting the Charter

Feature - IoS OCT15 RGph.qxd_Final Five inside out 03/09/2015 10:21 Page 1

Visually Impaired Friendly SwimmingA new interactive online CPD (i-Learn) has been developed by the IoS in partnership with British Blind Sport, Action for Blind People and New College Worcester. This i-Learn aims to provide support, ideas and guidance for anyone involved with swimming on how to include people with a visual impairment more effectively.

Book now at www.theiosonline.com

The Visually Impaired Friendly Swimming i-Learn is one of three in the Disability Suite, which also includes:• Deaf Friendly Swimming• Introduction to Para-swimming

(coming soon)

AVAILABLE NOW

The i-Learn contains a series of interactive activities that will enable coaches, teachers, parents and carers to:• Have a better understanding of

the needs of people with a visual impairment

• Apply their skills and knowledge to meet the needs of people with a visual impairment

• Understand the various classifications of visual impairment

• Understand where they can obtain further support

Scan here to view a sample

or contact our customer service team for more information: call 01509 640 640 or email [email protected]

IoS full page ad.indd 1 04/09/2015 10:07

Britain’s mixed medley relay worldchampions (l-r) Fran Halsall, ChrisWalker-Hebborn, Adam Peaty andSiobhan-Marie O’Connor

FROM RUSSI Feature - KAZAN RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 04/09/2015 16:00 Page 1

I A WITH GOLD

Five gold and four other medalsmade Kazan Britain’s best-ever

long-course world championships.Roger Guttridge reports. Picturesby Alex Whitehead of SWpix.com

Feature - KAZAN RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 04/09/2015 16:01 Page 2

Britain’s swimmers leftKazan with a recordnumber of worldchampionship medalsin their swimbags, thesweet sounds of

success still ringing in their earsand, perhaps most important, thescent of future glory implanted intheir nostrils. With more events inthe programme these days andmore nations in a position tocontest them, comparisons aredifficult but, by any definition, thiswas the finest British performanceat a world championships. Ninemedals was a record, topping thetallies of eight in Colombia in 1975and Barcelona in 2003. Both thosecompetitions yielded only twogolds for Britain; this time therewere five, putting them fourth onthe medals table behind the USA,Australia and China. There werealso two world records, both

bringing substantial cash rewardsfor their breakers. And all this justtwo years after the last worldchampionships, from which Britainemerged battered and bruised withonly Fran Halsall’s last-day bronzeto show for their efforts.

TurnaroundBarcelona 2013 was the first meetfor national performance directorChris Spice and head coach BillFurniss and even they have beensurprised by the speed and extentof the turnaround, which cannot allbe put down to the natural ebb andflow of sport.‘It’s been a great week. Nine

medals and five golds istremendous,’ said Furniss. ‘It’s a bigmove forwards. Chris and I had awatching brief in Barcelona. Weknew after that there were quite afew things we needed to address.We’ve raised the bar in terms of

selection for the team and in whatwe expect and in terms ofperformances. We have changedthe whole culture of our team. Thelast night was a tougher session forus. We got a couple of fourthplaces and we’re disappointed withthem and that shows the progresswe’ve made. There are positives allround but lots of work still to doahead of Rio but we’re moving inthe right direction.’Furniss said early medal success

in Kazan from Adam Peaty andJames Guy helped to set the tonefor the meet. ‘The mentality is

infectious, success is infectiousand so is belief,’ he said. ‘The wholeteam is sharing this. They areracing more and getting harder tobeat. I don’t want to worry aboutthe opposition – I want them toworry about us. What I would urge,though, is that it’s going to be moredifficult. We’ve seen just howdifficult it is and I think we can add10 to 15 per cent to that next yearin Rio. We have to move on. Wehave to have a break and thenstraight back to it on the front footand we have to improve in the next12 months leading into Rio. If we


‘He is like a soldier going over thetop of the trench. You can shoot athim but you won’t stop him’

SWIMMING

Adam Peaty (right) andRoss Murdoch withtheir gold and bronzemedals from the 100m breaststroke


don’t do that, we’ll have problemsnext year.‘We hit most of our targets in

Kazan and some would say we arein front of where we need to be. Wehave a hard year of training andracing ahead of us. We’ve got theEuropean Championships inLondon next May. We are going totake the Olympic team there andthat’ll be a good preparation meetfor us.’

Olympic eventsAn encouraging statistic thatFurniss did not mention is thatseven of the British medals inRussia came in Olympic events, theexceptions being the golds won byAdam Peaty in the 50mbreaststroke and the mixed medleyrelay team. But if the head coachneeds statistics to support his noteof caution ahead of Rio 2016, hewill not have to look far. AtColombia 1975, Britain’s eightmedals – won from a programme ofonly 29 events (there were 42 inKazan) – converted into three (oneof each colour) in the MontrealOlympics the following year. Andafter winning two gold, three silverand three bronze at Barcelona2003, the team collected just two


FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS | KAZAN

Adam Peatyacknowledges thecrowd after receivinghis 50m breaststrokegold medal

Adam Peaty confirms hisworld ranking after winningthe 50m breaststroke

Ten-year-old sets age recordA 10-year-old girl from Bahrain swamthe 50m butterfly in Kazan, makingher the youngest competitor in thehistory of the FINA WorldChampionships.

Tareq, whose mother is Scottish,came last out of 64 with a time of41.13sec. But she managed to get herpicture taken with her idol SarahSjostrom and shared a warm-up lanewith Missy Franklin.

‘I was a bit nervous walking out –I’ve never swum in front of so manyspectators,’ she said.

‘The other swimmers are oftensurprised. They ask me my name andhow old I am and then they are like,“Are you swimming here?”’

She added: ‘I feel so happy. I wantto learn the techniques and how theyswim.’

Britain’s Fran Halsall describedTareq as ‘dinky’.

‘Good on her for having a go,’ shesaid.

The USA’s Franklin added: ‘She’s thecutest thing I’ve seen in my life. Everytime she sees me, she gives me thebiggest smile.’

Golden romanceWhen Chris Walker-Hebborn andSiobhan-Marie O’Connor contributedto Britain’s historic win in theinaugural mixed 4x100m medley relay,they became the first boyfriend andgirlfriend to win a major internationalswimming medal in the same event.

Sisters in armsWhen Australian sisters Bronte andCate Campbell (above) respectivelywon gold and bronze in the 100mfreestyle, they became the firstsiblings in the championships’ 42-yearhistory to stand side by side on thepodium. Cate was the previous winnerof the title in 2013.

>



Three’s a crowdKazan produced the worldchampionships’ first three-way tie fora medal when Rikki Moller Pedersen ofDenmark, Jessica Vall of Spain and ShiJinglin of China came joint third in the200m breaststroke in 2:22.76.

Gold went to Kanake Watanabe ofJapan in 2:21.15 and silver to MicahLawrence of the USA in 2:22.44.

Ryan’s runRyan Lochte’s 200m IM victory madehim only the second man to win thesame long-course worldchampionship title four times running.

The American (above) first won theevent in Rome in 2009 and followedup with second and third gold medalsat Shanghai 2011 and Barcelona 2013.

The feat matches Australian GrantHackett’s four successive victories inthe 1500m freestyle between 1998 and 2005.

But Hungary’s Daniel Gyurta,winner of the 200m breaststroke in2009, 2011 and 2013, had to settle forbronze in Kazan behind Marco Koch ofGermany and American Kevin Cordes.

Katie’s fab fourKatie Ledecky’s (pictured) worldrecord-shattering victory in the 800mfreestyle was not only her fifth gold ofthe championships but made her thefirst swimmer of either gender to winthe four longest freestyle titles –200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m. Shewas also named female swimmer ofthe meet.

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor,Adam Peaty (centre) andChris Walker-Hebbornembrace after Fran Halsallcompletes their mixedmedley relay victory

SWIMMING




bronze medals in Athens 12 monthslater – won by Steve Parry andDavid Davies, neither of whom hadmedalled in Spain.Another interesting statistic

across the championships of 1975,2003 and 2015 is that, in each case,three of Britain’s medals came inthe men’s breaststroke. DavidWilkie won the 100 and 200m inColombia with David Leigh takingthe 100m bronze. In Barcelona2003, James Gibson won 50m goldand 100m bronze while IanEdmond took the 200m silver. Butwhile Wilkie went on to follow uphis 1975 winnings with gold and

silver in the Montreal Olympics thefollowing year, Gibson and Edmondwere unable to convert theirBarcelona success to the podium inAthens. The hope for the men’sbreaststroke this time is thatBritain has not only the world’sfastest sprinter but strength indepth like never before. You can bein the world top five in any of thethree distances and still not makethe team.

Breaststroke depthThe world was given a glimpse ofthat depth in the 100m final inKazan, where gold medallist Peaty

was joined on the podium by RossMurdoch, who took the bronzebehind Cameron van der Burgh. For a while it looked as if the

pressure might have got to Peaty,who made a painfully slow startand was 0.41sec behind the SouthAfrican at the turn and evenfurther outside world record pace. But the 20-year-old has

phenomenal speed through thewater and he caught the Olympicchampion on the second lengthbefore edging ahead on the finalstroke to win by 0.07sec in 58.52,0.6sec outside the world record heset in London in April. Murdoch,the Commonwealth champion over200m, was half-a-second behindvan der Burgh in 59.09.‘I turned and saw his feet and I

was like, “Right, I’ve got somecatching up to do,”’ said Peaty.‘About 25 metres out, he was still infront so I was a bit sceptical but Iremember what I had trained for –it was for moments like this and Imanaged to come out on top,thankfully.’Coach Mel Marshall colourfully

commented: ‘He is like a soldiergoing over the top of the trench.You can shoot at him but you won’tstop him moving forward. He isfearless.’Murdoch said: ‘I’m a back-end

swimmer, a 200m swimmer. I can’tfollow those boys out in the first50m so I have to work to mystrength tonight and play it downthe back end. I’ve had illness thisyear, which meant I didn’t qualifyfor the 200m, and that was a littleupsetting. But I’ve had the focus onthe 100m to try and develop thefront end for the 200m next yearand, as much as I’m pleased with a world bronze medal here,

this isn’t the end.’Peaty’s win was the first of five

gold medals for Britain and thefirst of three in three days for theCity of Derby swimmer. He wasback in the water the following daywhen, having lost his 50mbreaststroke world record to vander Burgh’s 26.62 in the heats, heregained it in style with 26.42 inthe semi-finals. Twenty-four hourslater, he became the first man toachieve the 50m-100mbreaststroke double at a worldchampionships, going under theold world records again to win theone-length dash in 26.51, 0.15secahead of van der Burgh.

InnovationBarely an hour after adding thejam to his bread and butter, Peatyjoined Chris Walker-Hebborn,Siobhan-Marie O’Connor and FranHalsall to make toast of theopposition in the inaugural mixed4x100m medley relay. Certainpurists have looked down theirnoses at this latest FINA innovation(Australia didn’t even enter a team)but sport at this level is aboutentertainment, and this is arguablythe most entertaining event in theprogramme. It’s even more funwhen you win and Britain are nowthe first world and Europeanchampions, having taking theinaugural LEN title in Berlin lastyear, when Jemma Lowe swam thefly leg. In Kazan, Walker-Hebborn gave

the team a good start with abackstroke split of 52.94 to handover second to Peaty. Thebreaststroke world champion thensped past early leaders China,recording a split of 57.98, thequickest by 0.65sec. Russia andItaly had men on the fly leg butO’Connor’s 57.02 was the quickestof the six women while Halsall’s53.77 was the equal quickest of theseven female freestylers. A worldrecord time of 3:41.71 made Britainworld champions by 1.56sec fromsilver medallists, the USA. RossMurdoch and Rachael Kelly alsocollected gold medals afterswimming the breaststroke and flyin the heats.‘Some of the big countries

entered really strong teamstonight and it was a big fight,’ said

‘I never thought I’d race Ryanhead-to-head like that – he’s oneof my heroes. I’m so happy’

<

>

James Guy celebrateshis 200m freestylewin in style and (right)on the podium


Walker-Hebborn, who swamquicker than for his fifth place inthe individual 100m backstroke.‘It’s great to be sat in the call-roomwith familiar male faces andfamiliar female faces. It definitelybrings a different aspect to thecompetition.‘I think it’s an event which should

keep on going and, while we mightnot see it next year, I’d love it to bepart of the [Olympic] programmein 2020.’Halsall – sixth in the individual

50m fly three days later – added:‘That was Chris’ fifth 100mbackstroke in three days so to stepup and swim faster than in hisindividual is a credit and showshow much it means to beswimming together for the team. I think we all stepped up and did agreat swim. To swim a world recordand be world champions isincredible – it’s a nice way to startmy week.’


<

L-r Dan Wallace, Calum Jarvisand Robbie Renwick celebrate

as James Guy completes afirst-ever men’s 4x200mfreestyle win for Britain

The 4x200m freestyle team with their gold medals (back, l-r) CalumJarvis, Robbie Renwick and Dan Wallace and (front) James Guy

SWIMMING


Magnificent effortIf Peaty was the brightest star inthe British firmament, 19-year-oldJames Guy was a very closesecond. After launching Britain onthe medal trail with silver behindOlympic champion Sun Yang and aBritish record of 3:43.75 in the400m freestyle on day one, hewent on to trump even thismagnificent effort with memorablevictories in the 200m freestyle and4x200m freestyle relay. And thisfrom a young man who declaredthe 400m his main target.

‘I never thought I’d even makethe 200m final,’ said Guy, the firstBriton to win this title and the firston the podium since BrianBrinkley’s bronze in 1975. ‘Themain focus for me was the 400m

and I was so happy with silver.Obviously, I never thought I’d winthe 200m as well so it’s a nicefeeling. There’s more there for me,though. You look at Ryan Lochte’sunderwater phases and he’s like adolphin. So if I had them, I could goeven faster.’

Lochte was one of three Olympicgold medallists in a line-up of200m finalists that also includedworld record holder PaulBiedermann. The Millfield teenagerbeat the lot of them, turning first atthe halfway mark in 50.99 andthird at 150m before overtakingSun and Lochte on the final lengthto win by 0.06sec in 1:45.14 –another British record. Sun Yangtook the silver and Biedermann the bronze.



‘I really wanted to come here andwin a medal so I’m chuffed to bitsto come away with one’

>

Jazz Carlin shows offher bronze medal afterthe 800m freestyle

Siobhan-Marie O’Connor withher 200m IM bronze medal



‘I never thought I’d race Ryanhead-to-head like that – he’s one ofmy heroes,’ Guy added after aspectacular celebration atop thelane rope. ‘Chad, Paul Biedermann,Sun, Ryan and me on top – it’s justgreat. I’m so happy.’

Relay firstLochte and Biedermann wereagain involved in the relay,respectively swimming the firstand last legs for the USA andGermany. The Americans swamtheir fastest swimmers first butBritain bucked recent trends bysaving the best to last. Smartmove. After a solid opening legfrom IM specialist Dan Wallace forfifth place in 1:47.04, the hugelyexperienced Robbie Renwick tookthem up to third (1:45.98) andCalum Jarvis held on to that(1:46.57). Enter Guy. The new kidon the podium went through 100min 50.63, the fastest split of therace, passing Russia before youcould say ‘Vladimir Putin’ andclosing the two-second gap to theAmericans. He touched in 7:04.33,0.42sec ahead of the US with apersonal split of 1:44.74, again thefastest of the 32 swimmers in therace with only Biedermann under1:45. The result ended a run of fivestraight wins for the US in thisevent and was the first relay gold

for a British men’s team in theworld championships – though not,as widely reported on radio andtelevision, the first medal, since GBwon silver in the men’s 4x200mfreestyle and bronze in the4x100m medley in 1975. (They alsowent on to win the Olympic4x200m bronze in Montreal.)‘It was a huge team effort,’ said

Guy. ‘The guys set it up nice andgood and I knew if I was top three Ihad a chance of bringing it backbut I never thought we’d get thegold. It was all about staying calmand not getting too tense in the

first 100m. You’ve just got to enjoyit. It’s the best British team we’veever had and this relay is definitelysomething we’re going to look outfor next year.’Heat swimmers Nick Grainger

and Duncan Scott also collectedrelay gold medals on their worldchampionship debuts.

Bronze medalsBronze medals from SiobhanO’Connor and Jazz Carlincompleted the British tally. In the200m IM, 19-year-old O’Connor didher best to stay with the hot

Sun shines but then goes inChina’s Sun Yang (above) was namedmale swimmer of the meet despite hislate withdrawal from the 1500mfreestyle final.The 23-year-old had already won

gold in the 400m and 800m freestyleand finished second to Britain’s JamesGuy over 200m.Sun’s late withdrawal came too late

to enable first reserve Pal Joenson ofthe Faroe Islands to step in and thefinal went ahead with an empty lane.

The controversial defendingchampion later explained that heexperienced chest pains during thewarm-up after having a similarexperience in the 800m.Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri won the

1500m in a European record time of14:39.67.

Top fourFive gold, one silver and three bronzemedals put Great Britain fourth in theswimming medals table behind theUSA (eight, 10, five), Australia (seven,three, six) and China (five, one, seven).Only those three teams won moremedals in total than Britain althoughHungary also won nine – three gold,two silver and four bronze.

British medals (9)> MEN

Gold (4)Adam Peaty (2) 50m breaststroke

100m breaststroke James Guy 200m freestyle4x200m freestyle relayDan Wallace, Robbie Renwick, Calum Jarvis, James Guy(Nick Grainger and Duncan Scott - heat)

Silver (1)James Guy 400m freestyle

Bronze (1) Ross Murdoch 100m breaststroke

> WOMENBronze (2)

Jazz Carlin 800m freestyle Siobhan-Marie O'Connor 200m IM

> MIXEDGold (1)

Mixed 4x100m medley relayChris Walker-Hebborn, Adam Peaty, Siobhan O'Connor,Fran Halsall (Ross Murdoch and Rachael Kelly - heat)

<

Dan Wallace madethe 200m and 400mIM finals, justmissing a medal inthe shorter event

Andrew Willis before his third consecutiveworld championship 200m breaststrokefinal in which he came a close fourth

SWIMMING


favourite Katinka Hosszu, touchingjust 0.07sec behind after the fly in27.37. But the Hungarian was onher way to breaking a world recordthat had stood since the bodysuitera and turned almost a secondahead after the backstroke and1.3sec after the breast. As Hosszumarched on to a winning 2:06.12,shaving 0.03sec off Ariana Kukors’record from 2009, the Britishrecord holder battled to hold on fora medal. She could not resist thesurging Japanese KanakoWatanabe, who clocked the fastestbreaststroke and freestyle splits(36.04 and 30.11) to move fromeighth to second, but was delightedto cling on to the bronze in 2:08.77.Hannah Miley was fifth in 2:10.19.‘I’m so happy to win bronze,’ said

O’Connor, the Commonwealthchampion. ‘I really wanted to comehere and win a medal so I’m

chuffed to bits to come away withone. That last length really hurt butI just had to try and dig deep tohold on really.’Carlin’s 2015 world

championships began in almostidentical fashion to 2013, with anunwanted fourth place in the400m freestyle on day one. InBarcelona she went on to finishninth in both the 800m and1500m, missing a place in the800m final by 0.07sec. But not inKazan. After dropping the 30-length race to focus on theOlympic distance, she duly madethe final and finished strongly toreduce a three-second gap to NewZealand’s silver medallist LaurenBoyle to half-a-second and edgeahead of Australia’s JessicaAshwood. Carlin’s bronze-winningtime of 8:18.15 was 2.61sec outsideher Welsh record while at the sharp

end the amazing American KatieLedecky, 18, set an astonishingworld record time of 8:07.39. Thisrepresented a 3.61secimprovement on her old recordfrom Barcelona and a seven-second drop from the last-but-onerecord, set in the Beijing Olympicsby Britain’s Becky Adlington, whowas breathless in the studio justwatching it.‘This week really has been an

emotional rollercoaster,’ saidCarlin, who also helped 4x200mfreestyle team-mates O’Connor,Miley and Rebecca Turner to fifthplace. ‘I had to pick myself up afterfinishing fourth at the start of theweek. I was happy with my split inthe relay so really it was just aboutcoming in with my head down. ‘Obviously I would have liked to

finish higher and gone a bit quickerbut I’m over the moon to comeaway with a bronze medal.’

Young teamIt turned out to be the last ofBritain’s medals in Kazan, despitehopes of further riches on the lastday. The final session includedfourth place for the men’s 4x100mmedley team of Walker-Hebborn,

Peaty, Guy and Ben Proud, whomissed out by just 0.17sec. ‘If youlook how young this team is, I thinkit’s going to be really good over thenext few years,’ said Peaty. ‘We’vegot a lot of growth to do and I thinkwe’re going to improve.’In a busy final session for Britain,

Miley and Aimee Willmott camefourth and seventh respectively inthe 400m IM, Stephen Milne wasfifth in the 1500m freestyle, DanWallace and Roberto Pavoni sixthand seventh in the men’s 400m IMand Liam Tancock and Fran Halsallseventh in the men’s 50mbackstroke and women’s 50mfreestyle. The women’s medleyrelay team were disqualified. Thelast-day fourth places added toseveral others earlier in the week,including Wallace’s commendableresult in the 200m IM and AndrewWillis’ medal near-miss in his thirdconsecutive world championship200m breaststroke final.‘I’ve got guys coming out in

fourth place who are absolutelydevastated and that is music to myears,’ said Furniss, underlining theculture shift he and Spice arebringing about. We are abouttrying to get to the podium.’



‘It was a huge team effort. Theguys set it up nice and good andit was all about staying calm’

>

Hannah Miley on herway to fifth place in thewomen’s 400m IM final

Feature - KAZAN RGph_Honesty Box 04/09/2015 16:21 Page 10

Jack Burnell was narrowlydenied a first world medalafter a frantic finish in the10k open water. Competingat his second world champs,the 22-year-old was involved

with the leading pack throughoutthe race but lost out in a highlyphysical battle for the finish line ashe touched fifth – just 5.1sec off thepodium.USA’s Jordan Wilimovsky

sprinted clear in the final 100m toclinch gold with the Netherlands'European champion FerryWeertman and Greece’s 2011 and2013 world champion SpyridonGianniotis following for silver andbronze.

In contentionAnd while Burnell, who won back-to-back 10k World Cup golds earlierthis season, was disappointed tofinish out of the medals, his top 10finish puts him firmly in contentionfor selection to next year’s Rio2016 Olympic Games.

Burnell’s Loughborough trainingpartner Daniel Fogg, competing inhis fourth consecutive worldchampionship 10k, finished 14th.

Leading packOlympic silver medallist Keri-annePayne was part of the leading packfor the first two laps of the 10k racebefore slipping back to finish 15th. Payne’s GB team-mate Danielle

Huskisson finished 35th asFrance’s Aurelie Muller, theNetherlands’ European championSharon Van Rouwendaal andBrazil’s defending silver medallistAna Marcela Cunha took thepodium spots.While both Brits missed out on

the chance to guarantee a Rio spotfor Britain through a top 10 finish,they will have a second qualifyingopportunity in Portugal next June.Having secured two bronze

medals on the 10k World Cup tourthis season, Payne insists she cantake encouragement from herperformances since returning to

competition 12 months ago.‘To finish 15th in the world in

such a great field after only a yearback in the water is anachievement in itself,’ said Payne.‘Of all the races I’ve done this year,this is only the second where I’vefinished outside the top 10.’

Standout performanceMeanwhile, Britain’s Caleb Hughesmarked his worlds debut with astandout performance finishing

seventh in the 5k.The 19-year-old led the field for

much of the race and narrowlymissed out on the medals in thesprint for the finish, crossing just4.3 seconds behind South Africa’swinner Chad Ho.‘It was a good experience,’

Hughes said. ‘I did want more afterleading for much of the race and Idid think I might have snuck amedal. The course was prettystraightforward for me.‘It is good to get a top 10 finish

because it puts my name out thereand shows I can do it.’Only the photo finish helped the

judges to identify the winner, bothHo and Rob Muffels of Germanyhitting the touchpad at 55:17.6.Bronze went to Italy’s Matteo

Furlan (55:20.0). GB’s Tom Allen was also part of

the leading pack throughout therace, ultimately finishing 14.4seconds behind Ho in 23rd.

Women’s 5kThe women’s 5k saw 18-year-oldAlice Dearing make her worlddebut, finishing 23rd with1:00:53.3. Gold went to the UnitedStates’ Haley Anderson (58:48.4),silver to Kalliopi Araouzou fromGreece (58:49.8) with Germany’sFinnia Wunrum taking bronze(58:51.0). Italy’s Simone Ruffini topped the

podium after outpacing US athleteAlex Meyer in the final lap of themen’s 25k. Ruffini hit the touchpadwith a narrow margin of 4.4seconds. A minute-and-a-half later,the newly crowned champion wasable to congratulate team-mateMatteo Furlan, who managed tojoin Ruffini on the podium in thethird spot.With 5k left to go in the women’s

25k race, Hungarian Anna Olaszwas leading the pack ahead ofBrazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha andGermany’s Angela Maurer. TheBrazilian swimmer eventuallygrabbed gold with Olasz takingsilver and Angela Maurer endingup in third place.Rob Muffels, Christian Reichert

and Isabelle Franziska Harle fromGermany won the 5k team event in55:14.4 with the teams from Braziland the Netherlands on the sametime in second place.


OPEN WATER SWIMMING

JACK BE QUICKJack Burnell’s fifth in the 10k guaranteed Britain aspot in the Rio 2016 marathon. Laura Dennis reports

Jack Burnell on hisway to fifth placein the men’s 10k

Caleb Hughes



FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS | KAZANDIVING

Tom Daley and BeckyGallantree made historyfor Britain and fordiving when they wonthe inaugural mixedteam event in Kazan.

The result made Daley – the 2009platform champion – the firstBriton to win multiple worldchampionship diving medals whileGallantree became the first Britishwoman to stand on a worldchampionship podium. The goldalso topped a best-ever medal haulfor Britain with Daley and JackLaugher both winning bronze intheir individual events and a 3msynchro bronze for Laugher andChris Mears. The team also bookedfive quota places for the RioOlympics including all fourindividual events.

Surprised The mixed team event requiredthree individual dives from the 10mand three from the 3m with bothdivers doing at least one from eachboard. Daley and Gallantree scored434.65 and were surprised by theirvictory.

‘We really don’t know whathappened there,’ said Daley, whoscored four 10s and 101.5 for hisarmstand back triple somersaultbefore sealing victory with 99 onhis final dive. ‘We went in to thecompetition as a bit of a warm-upfor our individual events. To comeaway with a result like that isamazing. I had my highest scoreever on the armstand. Becky didone of the best front dives she’sever done.

‘I was a little bit nervous doingthe dive from 3m because I’m notused to springboard diving. Iactually thought I was going to hitmy head on the board but I gotnines for that dive. I’ve never had10s before for my armstand and

then that happened which is apositive and then the back wentdown pretty nicely as well.’

For Gallantree, the result was thehigh point in a rollercoasterchampionships and helped to makeup for the disappointment ofcoming 10th in the 3m synchro withAlicia Blagg. Her scores included66.65 and 67.50 on her two divesfrom the springboard.

‘I can’t quite believe it,’ she said.‘It’s a little bit surreal at themoment. To be honest, I’m gutted Ididn’t do a front like that in thesynchro but obviously there’s lotsof positives to take out of it and I’mreally looking forward to myindividual now.’

Last-day bronze Four days later, Daley recovered

from an early setback to round offthe British effort with a last-daybronze medal in the men’s 10mplatform. The 21-year-old made ithard for himself by missing histwister dive in the second round.

But he hauled himself back intocontention and was tying in thirdplace with Mexico’s Ivan Garciagoing into the final round. He thenshowed the experience of almost adecade of diving at the highestlevel to hold his nerve and score102.60 – the highest score of thecompetition – while the Mexicanmanaged only 83.60.

‘I’m really happy with thatbronze because I did make it ashard as possible for myself with

‘I can’t quite believe it. Becoming aworld champion was something Ithought would never happen’

SPRINGBOARD TO RIOBritain’s divers are celebrating their best-ever world championshipswith four medals and five Olympic quota places

>

L-r Tom Daley, coach JaneFigueiredo, Becky Gallantreeand coach Edwin Jongejansafter their mixed team success

Gem

ma Field

Feature - KAZAN RGph_Honesty Box 04/09/2015 16:14 Page 12

that second dive,’ said Daley. ‘I’velearned to persevere, stick at it andkeep going because you neverknow what can happen incompetitions. It came down to thelast dive, when we were on thesame score, but I quite like thatcompetition pressure - I find it fun.I said to Jane [Figueiredo, coach]before the last dive that this iswhat I like and this is the fun bit forme. I just knew whatever he did, I’dhave to do it better.‘There was a lot more I could

have done points-wise today. Fivemore points on inward, 30 morepoints on twist and I could havescored another 10 on front. I thinkbecause the twister is so new andit’s such a hard dive to do, it’s justabout getting used to doing it incompetition and channelling thatenergy.’Daley (537.95) was beaten only

by China’s defending champion Qiu

Bo (587.00) and the USA’s DavidBoudia (560.20), the same pairwho finished ahead of him atLondon 2012, when the Americantook the gold. ‘It’s interesting tosee the same three people on thepodium today as at London 2012,’Daley added. ‘It looks like we’ve stillgot it and we just need to shufflearound for next year and hopefullyI can end up on top.’Britain’s Matty Lee was 18th in

the semi-finals (357.60).

First for Britain The championships were in theirfourth day when Commonwealthchampions Laugher and Mearsopened the GB team’s medalaccount with their bronze, whichwas also the first for Britain in the3m synchro since it was added tothe world championshipprogramme in 1998. And it wasachieved despite a niggling back

injury for Mears.The pair scored in the 80s for all

four of their high-tariff optionaldives, including 86.70 for theirinward 3.5 somersaults with tuck.Their score of 445.20 was a 12-point advance on their previousbest, which won them silver in theFINA World Series in Londonearlier in the year. Favourites Cao Yuan and Qin Kai

won the sixth consecutive title forChina in this event with 471.45.Russia’s Ilya Zakharov and EvgenyKuznetsov took silver for the thirdconsecutive world championships(459.18).‘It was a brilliant performance

and there were some absolutelyamazing dives from both of us,’said Laugher. ‘It’s a really specialfeeling and to have my best matestanding next to me as well is whatmakes it even sweeter. We couldn’tbe happier and to get the Rio spotis a huge weight off our shoulders.We’re very excited for next year.’Mears said: ‘My preparation

coming into the event wasn’t what Iwanted to be with my back. It’s a bittemperamental but I’m still able to

do my dives. I think it just provesthat when you’re in the rightmindset, you can achieve anything.It’s such a fantastic feeling to goout there and smash it like thatconsidering we’ve had such adifficult season and training hasbeen disrupted.’

Model of consistency Laugher was back on the 3mspringboard three days later forthe individual final and became thefirst Briton to win an individualspringboard medal at a worldchampionships and the first to winmore than one medal at a singleworld championships, althoughthat was soon to be matched byDaley. China again took the goldand silver respectively through HeChao (555.05) and Olympicchampion Zakharov (547.60). Laugher was a model of

consistency with two scores in themid-90s and none less than 81 anda total of 528.90, five more thanthe second Chinese, Cao Yuan.Mears was 15th in the semis with422.50.Laugher said: ‘It was a rock solid


‘It’s interesting to see the samethree on the podium as in 2012.We just need to shuffle in 2016’

<

Tom Daley was relievedto be in the medals inthe individual platform

Coach Adi Hinchliffe (left)and Jack Laugher with hishistoric 3m bronze medal

DIVING


competition. Everyone wasbouncing off each other and yousee those mad scores like we’vehad today. The past year-and-a-half has been absolutely fantastic. Igot a bronze at the World Cup inShanghai followed by twoCommonwealth medals and overallWorld Series champion. And now aworld championship bronze. I’mgetting more confident with everycompetition. I’m really proud ofwhat I’ve done this year.Everything has gone the way Iwanted it.’

Positives Platform specialists Tonia Couchand Sarah Barrow were sixth in the10m synchro with a score of308.40 – their third top six finish inas many world championships. Butthey were disappointed to miss outon the medals, especially as theyhave previously exceeded the325.26 that earned North Korea itsfirst-ever world championshipmedal – a bronze behind China(359.52) and Canada (339.99). ‘It’s disappointing for that to

happen today because it was just acouple of silly mistakes thathappened,’ said Couch, a veteranof six world championships. ‘Weboth could have dived well todayand we just didn’t. But you’ve gotto look at the positives – we had agood first two dives which we’vereally worked hard on.’Barrow added: ‘I am a little bit

gutted because I know I can dive alittle bit better. Even the last diveshould have been more upright.We’ve had a hard few weeksbecause I’ve had stress fractures inboth my shins. They’ve been sosore and it’s been hard to train butI’ve tried as hard as I can.’The duo had mixed fortunes in

the individual platform, Couchfinishing eighth to match herprevious world championship bestbut European champion Barrowcoming 18th after scoring in the40s in two of her semi-final dives.Couch – the first of four

Europeans in the final – said: ‘Toget into the final was the importantthing [for Olympic qualification] soI could just go out and enjoy thefinal. To finish as the top Europeanis great. I’ve had three steadyperformances here – in the prelims,

the semis and the final. I need tosharpen it up a bit more in the finalnext time.’

Rollercoaster Gallantree ended her rollercoasterchampionships by reaching theindividual 3m final to seal anotherOlympic quota place for Britain butwas disappointed to finish 10thwith a score of 289.00 aftercoming eighth in the semi-finals on305.10. Blagg was 26th in thepreliminaries (262.55). China wontheir eighth gold through ShiTingmao (383.55).‘The final didn’t go as I hoped,’

said Gallantree. ‘It’s been an up-and-down week withdisappointment in the synchro buta massive high in the mixed teamevent. Becoming a world championwas something I thought wouldnever happen. I also qualified anOlympic spot for Britain in theindividual. I was very close toretiring after London but I’ve been

getting better and better sincethen and achieved some things Inever thought I would, which isbrilliant.’

Debutants British champions and worldchampionship debutants JamesDenny and Matty Lee weredelighted with their ninth place inthe men’s 10m synchro with a scoreof 396.84, an improvement ofthree places and 17 points on theCity of Leeds pair’s preliminaryperformance. ‘The pressure was off a little for

us in the final,’ said Lee. ‘Wewanted to enjoy ourselves becausewe’d earned our spot there and itwas our first world championshipsso there were no expectations onus. We had fun and it obviouslyimproved our performance.’Denny added: ‘Matty and I have

only been diving together since thestart of this year so we've comereally far to finish ninth.’


Diver meets governmentexpectationsNorth Korea’s 16-year-old Kim Kuk-Hyang sprung the shock of thechampionships by winning hercountry’s first-ever worldchampionships gold medal in the 10m platform.Kuk-Hyang, whose earlier bronze

with Song Nam-Hyang in the platformsynchro was North Korea’s first medalof any colour, scored 397.05 in theindividual ahead of China’s 14-year-oldRen Qian (388.00) and Malaysia’sOlympic bronze medallist PandelelaRinong Pamg (385.05). A tearful Kuk-Hyang told the BBC: ‘It gives me greatpleasure to meet the expectations ofmy government and our great leader[Kim Jong-Un]. I hope when I go homethat people will come out onto thestreets to celebrate. I will doeverything I can to win an Olympicgold medal next year.’

British medalsGold (1)

Tom Daley and Rebecca Gallantree Mixed teamBronze (3)

Tom Daley 10m platformJack Laugher 3m springboardJack Laugher and Chris Mears 3m springboardsynchro

Britain second in medals tableThe mixed team gold won by TomDaley and Becky Gallantree plus thethree bronze medals took Britain tosecond place in the diving medalstable behind the rampant Chinese,whose 15 medals included 10 golds.Britain also tied with Canada for thesecond most medals in total.

1 China 10 3 2 15

2 Great Britain 1 0 3 4

3 Italy 1 0 2 3

4 N Korea 1 0 1 2

5 Canada 0 4 0 4

6 Russia 0 2 1 3

7 Ukraine 0 2 0 2

8 USA 0 1 1 2

9 Mexico 0 1 0 1

10 Australia 0 0 2 2

11 Malaysia 0 0 1 1

GOLD

SILVER

BRONZE

TOTAL

Medals table

>

Tonia Couch in the finalof the women’s platform



Britain’s high diving aceGary Hunt made up forthe disappointment of2013 by winning thesecond FINA worldtitle off the 27m

platform – and he is alreadyassured of his fifth Red Bull CliffDiving series victory.The 31-year-old from

Southampton scored achampionship record 629.30points across the five rounds inKazan, where no other diver made 600.Mexico’s Bernal Parades took the

silver with 596.45 and Russia’sArtem Silchenko the bronze on593.95.Hunt’s rivals showed their

appreciation by collectively bowingdown to the gold medallist.‘That was unexpected and very

flattering,’ he told SwimmingTimes. ‘A winning streak like I’vehad this year hasn’t happened inhigh diving before.

‘It’s one of the sports which havethe best atmosphere between theathletes.‘Obviously, we all want to win but

no-one wants to see anyone miss adive because it can be very painful.‘You want the best for your

friends. We travel around the worldtogether and often don’t have ourcoaches with us and find ourselvesasking other divers for kit or towatch our dives and suggest howwe can get better.’

RecoveryHunt’s 2015 success represents aspectacular recovery after 2013,when he not only lost a 38-pointlead to miss out on the inauguralworld championship gold medal inBarcelona but was also deposed asRed Bull series champion.‘Winning in Kazan was very

satisfying,’ he said. ‘This year Ihave had lots of success but thiswas the one that really would havebeen painful to miss knowing that

it only comes around every twoyears. I was very happy and veryrelieved.’He added: ‘Since Barcelona, I

have increased my training everyyear. I have put in a lot of work.‘In 2013, I started to realise that

as I’m getting older, the more time Itake off training, the harder it is toget back into the rhythm.‘So I decided not to take much

time off at the end of the seasonand to work as hard as possible andbe as good as I can be.’It’s clearly working. Hunt arrived

in Kazan on a roll after winning thefirst five Red Bull rounds bysignificant margins.He has since finished fifth in

round six from a 28m board inBosnia but that was down to aninjury which affected his legposition during his option dives.Despite this setback, Hunt heads

into the last two rounds in Italy andSpain on September 13 and 26 with1,090 points while none of his

rivals has more than 650.Britain’s Blake Aldridge is fourth

on 620 after second places behindHunt in France and Denmark.‘I’m told that I already have

enough points to win my fifthseries even if I don’t turn up,’ saidHunt.‘But I want to finish on a high and

won’t be taking my foot off theaccelerator.’Hunt, 2006 Commonwealth

Games bronze medallist withCallum Johnstone in the 10msynchro, is now hoping that highdiving will be added to the Olympicprogramme – preferably by 2020,which would give him a realisticchance of achieving his Olympicambitions.‘I am 100 per cent sure it will be

an Olympic event. The question iswhen,’ he said.‘It seems like the Olympics are

moving towards the events thatcatch the eye and high diving isone of those.‘Diving already gets one of the

best TV ratings from the Olympics.’


HIGH DIVING

HUNT ON A HIGHBritain’s high diving star Gary Hunt topped anamazing run of success in the Red Bull series with afirst world title in Kazan. He talks to Roger Guttridge

Blake’s heavenBritain’s Blake Aldridge raisedeyebrows in the high divingcompetition in Kazan by pulling out ofthe last two rounds – to celebrate hisgirlfriend’s birthday.

Aldridge, who famously partnereda 14-year-old Tom Daley in the Olympicplatform synchro final in Beijing, waslying in 15th place after the first threerounds in Kazan with no realisticchance of a medal.

FINA’s official news servicereported that Aldridge had ‘shockedthe high diving community with hisunexpected decision’ to withdrawfrom the final rounds two days later.

‘The athlete’s choice was not downto an injury but today was hisgirlfriend’s birthday and he chose tospend this day with her,’ said thereport.

‘It remained a secret from mostpeople why the priority was set thisway given that the event schedulehad been known long before that. Onthe other hand, only 12 high divers outof 20 advance to the last round afterthe fourth dive. Aldridge placedfifteenth after three dives, whichcould hardly motivate him to continuethe medal hunt.’

Gary Hunt on his way toworld championship gold



FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS | KAZANSYNCHRO

SYNCHRO MANS UPAs Britain’s synchro duet achieved two top 25 finishes, all eyes were onthe inaugural mixed duets as the sport welcomed men for the first time

‘I can’t believe this moment hasfinally happened. This is the futureof synchronised swimming’

>

The British duet pair GenevieveRandall and Jodie Cowie; below:

the victorious Russian free teamBritain’s GenevieveRandall and JodieCowie secured top 25finishes in both duetprelims in their firstworld championships

as a duet pair. The 17-year-olds scored 74.6512

for their technical routine,comprising of 22.1 for execution,22.6 for impression and 29.9512 fortheir performance of the requiredelements. Coach Katie Dawkinsdescribed it as a positive result. ‘There is an exceptionally high

standard at this competition,’ saidDawkins, who swam for Team GB atLondon 2012 as well as the 2009and 2011 world championships.

Daunting prospect‘It’s a daunting prospect swimmingafter Spain and Russia but the girlshandled the pressure well andpulled off a good performance.’The pair then scored 76.0333 for

their free routine, 22.6000 forexecution, 30.9333 for artisticimpression and 22.5000 fordifficulty. They fell just eight pointsshy of the top 12 and a final berth.Having improved on their

performances at this year’sEuropean Games and last year’sEuropean championships, wherethey received 75.3000 and75.1000 respectively, Randall saidthey had few complaints abouttheir result in Russia.‘That’s one of the best swims

we’ve done so we’re really happy,’said Randall. ‘It’s been really hardbecause we have no financialsupport for ourselves to help payfor training, physiotherapy orsports science so we’re behindeveryone else in that respect.‘But competing here makes us

really want to come back and showthat GB are still going and we arestill pushing.’

The girls are set to learn a newroutine as they aim to reach Riothrough next year’s qualificationcompetition.Overall, Russia seized eight of

the nine gold medals up for grabsand they made a striking finish,winning the combination routinewith more than 98 points(98.300). Solo winner NataliaIschenko ended with her 19th worldtitle while her duet partnerSvetlana Romashina has 18 worldtitles to her name.

Mixed synchroBut the United States preventedthe Russian team from making aclean sweep by getting the first-ever mixed synchro world gold with 88.5108 in the mixed duettechnical.Fourteen-time US champion Bill

May, 36, teamed up with ChristinaJones to score 88.5108 points,0.2122 ahead of silver medallistsRussia with Italy third.May and Jones are both

colleagues of former GB numberone Jenna Randall in the Cirque deSoleil show O at Las Vegas.Russia later reversed the first

two positions in the mixed freeduet in which May partneredKristina Lum Underwood to silverwith Italy again third.It was the first time male

synchro swimmers had beenallowed to compete at world level.May, who emerged from the

technical routine with an eyeinjured by Jones’ fingernails, said:‘I can’t believe this moment hasfinally happened. This is the futureof synchronised swimming. We’veseen such a strong calibre of maleathletes here, I really think it’sgoing to help the sport grow.’

China, considered the mainrivals to Russia’s dominance,achieved six silvers and a bronze.



>

>16th FINA WorldChampionshipsJuly 24 - August 9, 2015 Kazan, Russia

> SWIMMING>MEN50m Freestyle

1 F Manaudou FRA 21.192 N Adrian USA 21.523 B Fratus BRA 21.554 V Morozov RUS 21.565 A Govorov UKR 21.865 M Orsi ITA 21.867 K Gkolomeev GRE 21.988 B Proud GBR 22.04

100m Freestyle1 Z Ning CHN 47.842 C McEvoy AUS 47.953 F Grabich ARG 48.124 S Condorelli CAN 48.195 M Chierighini BRA 49.276 A Sukhorukov RUS 48.287 N Adrian USA 48.317 P Timmers BEL 48.31

HT 23 B Proud GBR 49.35HT 32 C Jarvis GBR 49.68200m Freestyle

1 J Guy GBR 1:45.142 Y Sun CHN 1:45.203 P Biedermann GER 1:45.384 R Lochte USA 1:45.835 S Verschuren NED 1:45.916 C Le Clos RSA 1:46.537 A Krasnykh RUS 1:46.888 C McEvoy AUS 1:47.26

SF 14 C Jarvis GBR 1:47.64400m Freestyle

1 Y Sun CHN 3:42.582 J Guy GBR 3:43.753 R Cochrane CAN 3:44.594 C Jaeger USA 3:44.815 P Bernek HUN 3:46.296 W Wojdak POL 3:46.817 C Rapp GER 3:48.528 M McBroom USA 3:51.94

800m Freestyle1 Y Sun CHN 7:39.962 G Paltrinieri ITA ER 7:40.813 M Horton AUS 7:44.024 C Jaeger USA 7:44.515 H Christiansen NOR 7:45.66

6 W Wojdak POL 7:45.907 S Milne GBR 7:49.868 M McBroom USA 7:55.30

1500m Freestyle1 G Paltrinieri ITA ER 14:39.672 C Jaeger USA 14:41.203 R Cochrane CAN 14:51.084 A Ahmed EGY 14:53.665 S Milne GBR 14:58.626 M McBroom USA 15:06.817 M Romanchuk UKR 15:09.77

DNS Y Sun CHN50m Backstroke

1 C Lacourt FRA 24.232 M Grevers USA 24.613 B Treffers AUS 24.694 M Larkin AUS 24.705 V Morozov RUS 24.736 L Solli NOR 24.847 L Tancock GBR 24.888 D Plummer USA 24.95

100m Backstroke1 M Larkin AUS 52.402 C Lacourt FRA 52.483 M Grevers USA 52.664 J Xu CHN 52.895 C Walker-Hebborn GBR 53.026 R Irie JPN 53.107 E Rylov RUS 53.238 L Tancock GBR 53.37

200m Backstroke1 M Larkin AUS 1:53.582 R Kawecki POL 1:54.553 E Rylov RUS 1:54.604 R Irie JPN 1:54.815 R Murphy USA 1:55.006 J Xu CHN 1:55.207 T Clary USA 1:56.268 G Li CHN WJ 1:56.79

50m Breaststroke1 A Peaty GBR 26.512 C Van der Burgh RSA 26.663 K Cordes USA 26.864 F Franca Silva BRA 26.875 D Dugonjic SLO 27.235 G Titenus LTU 27.237 G Snyders NZL 27.368 C Siladi SRB 27.45

100m Breaststroke1 A Peaty GBR 58.522 C Van der Burgh RSA 58.593 R Murdoch GBR 59.094 D Balandin KAZ 59.425 J Packard AUS 59.446 G Titenus LTU 59.567 K Prigoda RUS 59.848 H Feldwehr GER 1:00.16

200m Breaststroke1 M Koch GER 2:07.76

2 K Cordes USA 2:08.053 D Gyurta HUN 2:08.104 A Willis GBR 2:08.525 Y Koseki JPN 2:09.126 D Balandin KAZ 2:09.587 A Chupkov RUS 2:09.968 F Mao CHN 2:10.02

HT 26 A Peaty GBR 2:13.2450m Butterfly

1 F Manaudou FRA 22.972 N Santos BRA 23.093 L Cseh HUN 23.153 K Czerniak POL 23.155 A Govorov UKR 23.186 C Cielo Filho BRA 23.217 J Schooling SIN 23.258 B Proud GBR 23.39

100m Butterfly1 C Le Clos RSA 50.562 L Cseh HUN 50.873 J Schooling SIN 50.964 T Shields USA 51.065 M Metella FRA 51.246 K Czerniak POL 51.287 P Korzeniowski POL 51.468 Z Li CHN 51.66

HT 17 A Barrett GBR 52.33HT 19 T Laxton GBR 52.37200m Butterfly

1 L Cseh HUN 1:53.482 C Le Clos RSA 1:53.683 J Switkowski POL 1:54.104 M Sakai JPN 1:54.245 V Bromer DEN 1:54.666 D Seto JPN 1:55.167 L Croenen BEL 1:55.398 T Shields USA 1:56.17

200m IM1 R Lochte USA 1:55.812 T Pereira BRA 1:56.653 S Wang CHN 1:56.814 D Wallace GBR 1:57.595 C Dwyer USA 1:57.966 M Cieslak POL 1:58.147 H Rodrigues BRA 1:58.528 S Sjodin SWE 1:59.06

SF =8 R Pavoni GBR 1:58.54400m IM

1 D Seto JPN 4:08.502 D Verraszto HUN 4:09.903 C Kalisz USA 4:10.054 T Clary USA 4:11.715 J Heidtmann GER 4:12.086 D Wallace GBR 4:13.777 R Pavoni GBR 4:13.818 Z Yang CHN 4:16.74

4x100m Freestyle Relay1 France 3:10.742 Russia 3:11.19

3 Italy 3:12.534 Brazil 3:13.225 Poland 3:14.126 Japan 3:15.047 China 3:15.418 Canada 3:15.94

HT 10 Great Britain 3:15.70(C Jarvis, B Proud, R Renwick, D Scott)4x200m Freestyle Relay

1 Great Britain 7:04.33(D Wallace, R Renwick, C Jarvis, J Guy)

2 United States 7:04.753 Australia 7:05.344 Russia 7:06.895 Germany 7:09.016 Belgium 7:09.647 Netherlands 7:09.758 Poland 7:10.34

4x100m Medley Relay1 United States 3:29.932 Australia 3:30.083 France 3:30.504 Great Britain 3:30.67

(C Walker-Hebborn, A Peaty, J Guy, B Proud)5 Russia 3:30.906 Japan 3:31.107 Germany 3:32.168 Poland 3:34.34

> WOMEN50m Freestyle

1 B Campbell AUS 24.122 R Kromowidjojo NED 24.223 S Sjostrom SWE 24.314 C Campbell AUS 24.365 C Van Landeghem CAN 24.396 A Vanderpool-Wallace BAH 24.447 F Halsall GBR 24.518 S Manuel USA 24.57

HT 28 L Quigley GBR 25.53100m Freestyle

1 B Campbell AUS 52.522 S Sjostrom SWE 52.703 C Campbell AUS 52.824 R Kromowidjojo NED 53.175 F Heemskerk NED 53.586 S Manuel USA 53.937 M Franklin USA 54.008 D Shen CHN 54.76

200m Freestyle1 K Ledecky USA 1:55.162 F Pellegrini ITA 1:55.323 M Franklin USA 1:55.494 V Popova RUS 1:56.165 K Hosszu HUN 1:56.196 D Shen CHN 1:56.277 E McKeon AUS 1:56.418 F Heemskerk NED 1:56.79

SF 10 S O'Connor GBR 1:57.30

Results

WATER POLO

MENSerbia fell 2-0 behind early on inthe men’s gold medal match to2012 Olympic champions Croatia,but regained their composure toend the first quarter level at 2-2.Serbia, World League and WorldCup champs, went on to take fullcontrol and emerged 11-4 victors.

With Serbia having alreadybooked their spot at Rio 2016 priorto the tournament, the bronzemedal match between Greece andItaly had an added significance, asthey were bidding to seal thesecond berth available in Kazan.

Greece took the bronze, holdingtheir nerve to win 4-2 on penalties

after a tie at 7-7. It proved enoughto see them take the secondOlympic slot, with Croatia’sappearance in the final ensuringthey will be able to defend theirOlympic title next year.

WOMENThe United States came through a

closely fought gold medal matchagainst the Netherlands.

The London 2012 gold medallistsheld a 5-3 lead heading into thefinal quarter of the match and,although the Dutch team were able to reduce the deficit to justone goal during the dying minutes,the Americans held on to record a5-4 victory.

The bronze medal matchbetween Australia and Italy alsoproved to be a tight affair, theItalians eventually emerging as 5-3winners on penalties having beenlocked at 7-7 at the end of the fourquarters.

There was no Britishrepresentation in either men’s orwomen’s championship.

POLO CHAMPSSerbia recovered from an early deficit to win themen’s title while the US women won on penalties

Feature - Kazan - WP and Results RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 04/09/2015 16:16 Page 1


400m Freestyle1 K Ledecky USA CR 3:59.132 S Van Rouwendaal NED 4:03.023 J Ashwood AUS 4:03.344 J Carlin GBR 4:03.745 L Boyle NZL 4:04.386 M Costa ESP 4:06.507 D Carli ITA 4:07.308 B Kapas HUN 4:08.22

800m Freestyle1 K Ledecky USA WR 8:07.392 L Boyle NZL 8:17.653 J Carlin GBR 8:18.154 J Ashwood AUS 8:18.415 L Friis DEN 8:21.366 B Kapas HUN 8:22.937 S Kohler GER 8:23.678 S Van Rouwendaal NED 8:24.12

HT 15 J Thielmann GBR 8:36.881500m Freestyle1 K Ledecky USA WR 15:25.482 L Boyle NZL 15:40.143 B Kapas HUN 15:47.094 L Friis DEN 15:49.005 J Ashwood AUS 15:52.176 S Van Rouwendaal NED 16:03.747 K Kobrich CHI 16:06.558 A Ponsele ITA 16:09.57

HT 10 J Thielmann GBR 16:21.2150m Backstroke1 Y Fu CHN 27.112 E Medeiros BRA 27.263 X Liu CHN 27.584 E Seebohm AUS 27.665 M Nielsen DEN 27.736 M Wilson AUS 27.927 L Quigley GBR 27.998 T Drakou GRE 28.17

100m Backstroke1 E Seebohm AUS 58.262 M Wilson AUS 58.753 M Nielsen DEN 58.864 Y Fu CHN 59.025 M Franklin USA 59.406 A Fesikova RUS 59.667 L Quigley GBR 59.788 K Baker USA 59.99

SF13 E Simmonds GBR 1:00.40200m Backstroke1 E Seebohm AUS 2:05.812 M Franklin USA 2:06.343 K Hosszu HUN 2:06.844 D Ustinova RUS WJ 2:07.645 J Mensing GER 2:08.496 D Bouchard CAN 2:08.517 H Caldwell CAN 2:08.668 E Gustafsdottir ISL 2:09.53

SF 12 E Simmonds GBR 2:10.5750m Breaststroke1 J Johansson SWE 30.052 A Atkinson JAM 30.113 Y Efimova RUS 30.134 R Meilutyte LTU 30.145 J Hardy USA 30.206 R Suo CHN 30.747 H Luthersdottir ISL 31.128 M Liver UKR 31.14

100m Breaststroke1 Y Efimova RUS 1:05.662 R Meilutyte LTU 1:06.363 A Atkinson JAM 1:06.424 K Watanabe JPN 1:06.435 J Shi CHN 1:06.556 H Luthersdottir ISL 1:07.107 J Johansson SWE 1:07.178 A Castiglioni ITA 1:07.60

200m Breaststroke1 K Watanabe JPN 2:21.152 M Lawrence USA 2:22.443 J Vall ESP 2:22.763 R Pedersen DEN 2:22.763 J Shi CHN 2:22.766 R Kaneto JPN 2:23.197 V Simonova RUS 2:23.598 K Smith CAN 2:23.61

HT 18 M Renshaw GBR 2:26.3250m Butterfly1 S Sjostrom SWE CR 24.962 J Ottesen DEN 25.343 Y Lu CHN 25.374 I Dekker NED 25.645 F Osman EGY 25.786 F Halsall GBR 25.857 A Vanderpool-Wallace BAH 25.93

8 A Dowgiert POL 26.20100m Butterfly1 S Sjostrom SWE WR 55.642 J Ottesen DEN 57.053 Y Lu CHN 57.484 E McKeon AUS 57.675 K Savard CAN 57.696 X Chen CHN 57.857 A Wenk GER 57.948 N Thomas CAN 58.22

SF 12 R Kelly GBR 58.27HT 19 J Lowe GBR 58.74200m Butterfly1 N Hoshi JPN 2:05.562 C Adams USA 2:06.403 Y Zhang CHN 2:06.514 B Throssell AUS 2:06.784 F Hentke GER 2:06.786 K McLaughlin USA 2:06.957 L Szilagyi HUN 2:07.768 Y Zhou CHN 2:10.20

SF 14 H Miley GBR 2:09.21HT 19 A Willmott GBR 2:10.07200m IM1 K Hosszu HUN WR 2:06.122 K Watanabe JPN 2:08.453 S O'Connor GBR 2:08.774 M Di Rado USA 2:08.995 H Miley GBR 2:10.196 S Pickrem CAN 2:10.327 M Margalis USA 2:10.418 S Ye CHN 2:14.01

400m IM1 K Hosszu HUN 4:30.392 M Di Rado USA 4:31.713 E Overholt CAN 4:32.524 H Miley GBR 4:34.795 B Zavadova CZE 4:36.736 S Shimizu JPN 4:37.197 A Willmott GBR 4:38.758 L Grangeon FRA 4:40.98

4x100m Freestyle Relay1 Australia CR 3:31.482 Netherlands 3:33.673 United States 3:34.614 Sweden 3:35.715 Canada 3:36.446 Italy 3:37.167 China 3:37.648 France 3:38.46

4x200m Freestyle Relay1 United States 7:45.372 Italy 7:48.413 China 7:49.104 Sweden 7:50.245 Great Britain 7:50.60

(S O'Connor, J Carlin, R Turner, H Miley)6 Australia 7:51.027 Japan 7:54.628 France 7:55.98

4x100m Medley Relay1 China 3:54.412 Sweden ER 3:55.243 Australia 3:55.564 United States 3:56.765 Denmark 3:57.616 Canada 3:57.96

DSQ Great BritainDSQ Japan

> MIXED4x100m Freestyle Relay1 United States WR 3:23.052 Netherlands 3:23.103 Canada 3:23.594 Russia 3:24.215 Italy 3:25.266 Brazil 3:25.587 China 3:26.948 Sweden 3:27.09

4x100m Medley Relay1 Great Britain WR 3:41.71(C Walker-Hebborn, A Peaty, S O'Connor, F Halsall)

2 United States 3:43.273 Germany 3:44.134 China 3:44.655 Russia 3:44.836 Italy 3:45.597 Canada 3:46.238 Hungary 3:50.06

> OPEN WATER>MEN5km 1 Chad Ho RSA 55:17.62 Rob Muffels GER 55.17.63 Matteo Furlan ITA 55:20.07 Caleb Hughes GBR 55:21.923 Tom Allen GBR 55:32.0

10km1 Jordan Wilimovsky USA 1:49:48.22 Ferry Weertman NED 1:50:00.33 Spyridon Gianniotis GRE 1:50:00.75 Jack Burnell GBR 1:50:05.814 Daniel Fogg GBR 1:50:39.7

25km1 Simone Ruffini ITA 4:53:10.72 Alex Meyer USA 4:53:15.1 3 Matteo Furlan ITA 4:54:38.0

> WOMEN5km 1 Haley Anderson USA 58:48.4 2 Kalliopi Araozou GRE 58:49.83 Finnia Wunrum GER 58:51.023 Alice Dearing GBR 1:00:53.3

10km1 Aurelie Muller FRA 1:58:04.32 Sharon Van Rouwendaal NED 1:58:06.73 Ana Marcela Cunha BRA 1:58:26.515 Keri-anne Payne GBR 1:58:53.6 35 Danielle Huskisson GBR 2:00:57.3 25km 1 Ana Marcela Cunha BRA 5:13:47.32 Anna Olasz HUN 5:14:13.4 3 Angela Maurer GER 5:15:07.6

> TEAM5km 1 Germany 55:14.4(C Reichert, R Muffels, I F Harle)

= 2 Brazil 55:31.2(D Villarinho, A M Cunha, A Do Carmo)

= 2 Netherlands 55:31.2(M Schouten, S Van Rouwendaal, F Weertman)

> DIVING>MEN1m1 S Xie CHN 485.502 I Kvasha UKR 449.053 M Hixon USA 428.3026 (Prelim) J Denny GBR 309.60

3m 1 H Chao CHN 555.052 I Zakharov RUS 547.603 J Laugher GBR 528.9015 (Semi) C Mears GBR 422.50

3m Synchro 1 Y Cao / Q Kai CHN 471.452 E Kuznetsov / I Zakharov RUS 459.183 J Laugher / C Mears GBR 445.20

10m1 Q Bo CHN 587.002 D Boudia USA 560.203 T Daley GBR 537.9518 (Semi) M Lee GBR 357.60

10m Synchro1 A Chen / Y Lin CHN 495.722 I Garcia Navarro MEX 448.89

G Sanchez Sanchez3 R Izmailov / V Minibaev RUS 441.339 J Denny / M Lee GBR 396.84

> WOMEN1m1 T Cagnotto ITA 310.852 T Shi CHN 309.203 Z He CHN 300.30

3m 1 S Tingmao CHN 383.552 Z He CHN 377.453 T Cagnotto ITA 356.1510 R Gallantree GBR 289.0026 (Prelim) A Blagg GBR 262.553m Synchro 1 T Shi / M Wu CHN 351.302 J Abel / P Ware CAN 319.473 S Mills / E Qin AUS 304.2010 A Blagg / R Gallantree GBR 286.86

10m1 K Hyang PRK 397.052 R Qian CHN 388.00

3 P Pamg MAS 385.058 T Couch GBR 340.3018 (Semi) S Barrow GBR 283.10

10m Synchro1 R Chen / H Liu CHN 359.522 M Benfeito / R Filion CAN 339.993 U Kim / N Song PRK 325.266 S Barrow / T Couch GBR 308.40

> MIXED3m Synchro1 H Wang / H Yang CHN 339.902 J Abel / F Imbeau-Dulac CAN 317.013 T Cagnotto / M Verzotto ITA 315.30

10m Synchro1 Y Si / X Tai CHN 350.882 M Benfeito / V Riendeau CAN 309.663 D Bedggood / M Wu AUS 308.22

3m/10m team1 R Gallantree / T Daley GBR 434.652 O Gorshkovozov / I Prokopchuk UKR 426.453 S Xie / R Chen CHN 425.40

> HIGH DIVING>MEN27m1 G Hunt GBR 629.302 B Paredes MEX 596.453 A Silchenko RUS 593.95

> WOMEN20m1 R Simpson USA 258.702 C Carlton USA 237.353 Y Nestsiarava BLR 233.10

> SYNCHROSolo free 1 N Ishchenko RUS 97.23332 X Huang CHN 95.70003 O Carbonell ESP 94.9000

Solo technical 1 S Romashina RUS 96.26802 O Carbonell ESP 93.12843 W Sun CHN 91.5479

Duet free1 N Ishchenko / S Romashina RUS 98.20002 X Huang / W Sun CHN 95.90003 L Ananasova / A Voloshyna UKR 93.600024 (Prelim) J Cowie / G Randall GBR 76.0333

Duet technical 1 N Ishchenko / S Romashina RUS 95.46722 X Huang / W Sun CHN 93.32793 Y Inui / R Mitsui JPN 92.007924 (Prelim) J Cowie / G Randall GBR 74.6512

Team free 1 RUS 98.46672 CHN 96.13333 JPN 93.9000

Team technical 1 RUS 95.74572 CHN 94.46053 JPN 92.4133

Team combination 1 RUS 98.30002 CHN 96.20003 JPN 93.8000

> MIXEDDuet free 1 A Maltsev / D Valitova RUS 91.73332 K Lum-Underwood / B May USA 91.46673 G Minisini / M Perrupato ITA 89.3333

Duet technical 1 C Jones / B May USA 88.51082 A Maltsev / D Valitova RUS 88.29863 M Flamini / G Minisini ITA 86.3640

> WATER POLO>MENGold medal match Serbia 11 v 4 Croatia Bronze medal matchGreece 7 v 7 Italy Penalties Greece 4 v 2 Italy

> WOMENGold medal match USA 5 v 4 NetherlandsBronze medal match Italy 7 v 7 AustraliaPenalties Italy 5 v 3 Australia

FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS | KAZANRESULTS

Feature - Kazan - WP and Results RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 04/09/2015 16:16 Page 2

46 Swimming Times

ENGLISHSUMMER It was medals galore for GuildfordCity girls as they clinched the titleof top female club and overall topclub in the ASA Summer Nationalsat Ponds Forge, Sheffield. Meanwhile, Romford Town had 13-year-old James Cooper to thankfor their top male club crown dueto his contribution of six gold,three silver and one bronze medal.

The ASA NationalSummerChampionships hadover 1,400 youngathletes: part of anew swimming

structure in Great Britain in whichthe top-ranked swimmers in eachevent (18 for 800m / 1500mfreestyle, 24 for all other individualevents) were invited to compete atthe British Swimming SummerChampionships. Age groups were13-14, 15, 16, 17-18 and 19/o. The nextranked swimmers (15 for 800m /1500m free, 20 for all otherindividual events) at ASA affiliatedclubs – or who have chosen to beranked as English swimmers – wereinvited to compete at these ASAnationals. Age groups were 12-13,14, 15, 16-17 and 18/o.Grant Robins, England

Programmes team leader, said:‘This has been a good end ofseason summer meet, with somestrong swimming. One of the keyaims of the new structure is to givemore swimmers the opportunity to

compete, and this meet hascertainly done that. Across all thehome nation meets (British,Scotland, Wales), there has been 10per cent more swimmerscompeting than last year, whichcan only be positive for the futureof competitive swimming inEngland.’Lee Holland, Isle of Man head

coach, reinforced the importanceof these championships to thedevelopment of swimmers: ‘Wehad two swimmers at the BritishSummer Nationals and six at theASA Summer Champs. We’ve had agood week. Three of our swimmersare heading to Samoa for theCommonwealth Youth Games sothis has been a great trainingcamp for them. ‘It’s certainly provided an

opportunity for more swimmers tocompete and it’s great to see somany young swimmers makingfinals and swimming PBs. It’s reallyhelped to teach them to swim fastin the morning to make the final,and then to swim fast again to get

>

>

Feature - SUMMER NATS RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 04/09/2015 11:25 Page 1

ASA NATIONAL SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIPS 2015


the result because they haven’tbeen able to take anything forgranted.’

COOPER’S COUPMore than 280 clubs took part overthe six days with almost halfwinning at least one medal. Swimmers competed across five

age groups and in multi-classification races. RomfordTown’s James Cooper topped theindividual medal table while at theother end of the age spectrum,Jarvis Parkinson and GeorginaBoyle (16-17yrs) both looked ingreat form before heading out tothe Commonwealth Youth Gamesin Samoa, winning four goldmedals between them.

GUILDFORD’S GIRLSGuildford’s girls’ seven gold, sevensilver and two bronze medalssecured not only the female topspot but snatched the overall clubhonours from last year’s BritishGas ASA National Age Groupoverall club and female champions,City of Leeds. In total, Guildford claimed eight

gold, eight silver and four bronzemedals to sit on top, with City ofLeeds’ eight golds and three silverspushing them into second place inthe overall standings. Richard Garfield, Guildford City

head coach, said: ‘We had over 50individual qualifiers plus multiplerelays, which was great. Theswimmers have done really well,


‘WE’VE NEVER DONE BACK-T0-BACK MEETS BEFORE. BOTHEVENTS WERE WELL ORGANISED’

<


with a number of medals and PBs,so from a competitive point of viewit’s been very positive. As a club,we’ve also used the opportunity forprofessional development. We hadnine young coaches attend thechampionships, and four attendedthe British Summer Nationals theweek before. Both were reallygreat opportunities for them toexperience a competitiveenvironment and also mix withother coaches. We’ve never doneback-to-back weeks before. Bothevents were well run and wellorganised.’ One of Guildford’s top

performers was 12-year-oldIsabella Fakkel, who showed herdominance across the breaststrokeevents, taking gold in the 50m and200m and silver in the 100m.Rosanna Arnold also claimed

two golds, her strength showing inthe 15yrs 200m and 400m IM. Andit was one gold apiece for SophieDu Plessis (18+ 50m back), EllenorRixon (15yrs 400m free) and MollyRobinson (15yrs 50m free).Piers Bowden became top male

swimmer for the club when heswam to victory in the 14yrs 100mbutterfly and won silver in the 50mfreestyle. Twelve-year-old Tia Ward was

City of Leeds’ star performer,claiming all six of their golds andtwo of the three silver medals thatled them to second place withMount Kelly (four gold, five silverand one bronze) third in the femaleclub standings. The top male club was Romford

Town owing to the almost single-handed success of James Cooperin the 12-13 years age group. In total, their boys won six gold,

four silver and two bronze medals.Close behind were PlymouthLeander with five gold, three silverand four bronze medals in the maleevents. Other outstanding medal hauls

came from Luke Reeson(Cockermouth) with three gold andone silver, while Emily Cutler(Mount Kelly), Grace Harvey(Hoddesdon), Jarvis Parkinson(Doncaster Dartes) and NathanWells (West Norfolk) each wonthree golds.

RECORD-BREAKERSTwo MC records were broken.Worcester’s Rebecca Redfernlowered her SB13 British record to


Clockwise from near left:Hoddesdon’s GraceHarvey smashed herSM7 200m IM Britishrecord; Mount Kelly’sEmily Cutler celebratesone of her threevictories; Luke Reesonof Cockermouth in theMC 200m IM; GuildfordCity’s Isabella Fakkelwon two golds and asilver in the 12-13yrsbreaststroke events

>




Above: Preston’s KyoTanner (facing camera)and City of Liverpool’sTobey Rylandcongratulate each otherafter coming first andsecond respectively inthe 12-13yrs 100mfreestyle; right:Guildford’s Tilly Hansen-Hamilton won silver inthe 12-13yrs 200mbackstroke

win gold in 1:20.56 (877 BDP) inthe MC 100m breaststroke. Thesilver went to Richmond Dale’s LilyMacleod (SB13) in 1:29.30 (644BDP), her second silver of thecompetition. Basildon & Phoenix’sDanielle Hartin took bronze with atime of 1:28.07 (638 BDP).The following day saw a similarly

great swim when Grace Harvey(Hoddesdon) broke her own SM7British 200m IM record by overfive seconds, touching in a time of3:17.78 and finishing fourth overall.In the same race, Lily MacLeod

(SM13) added gold to the twosilvers she had already won. TheRichmond Dales’ swimmer scored664 BDP after touching in 2:48.33and topped the podium.Wellingborough’s Maisie Summers-Newton (SM6) scored 648 BDP(3:32.66) to take silver, whileBasildon & Phoenix’s DanielleHartin was third ( 641 BDP 2:27.24).

AMAZING WEEKAs the racing progressed,swimmers began to show the

importance of this event in theircalendar. Preston’s Kyo Tanner, 12-13yrs 100m freestyle winner,summed it up: ‘I’ve missed out on afew medal positions leading up totonight’s 100 free final and tonightI guess I’d had enough. I workedreally hard, accelerated as much asI could in the last 25 metres, and itfeels so great to finally have amedal – a gold medal.’ Tanner heldonto his early lead to win in 56.44ahead of City of Liverpool’s TobeyRyland (56.84) with thechampionships’ top swimmer,James Cooper, third (57.45). S10 swimmer Jack Bridge

(Preston SC) said: ‘It's been anamazing week. I have four medals:two golds, a silver and a bronze.I’ve come to Sheffield this weekjust to have some fun and to put asmile back on my face while I’mracing. I’ve had a tough year so far.I had ankle surgery 15 or 16 weeksago so I wasn’t looking to come tothis meet and smash the times I’vebeen putting out. All credit to mycoach for getting me in the right

‘I’VE MISSED OUT ON A FEWMEDAL POSITIONS LEADING UP TOTHIS SO I GUESS I’D HAD ENOUGH’

<



mental state to perform. It’s just areally good stepping-stone to getinto next year. I’m not really havinga summer break, I’m training rightthe way through to Rio andhopefully I can represent GB there’.

RULING THE RELAYSPlymouth Leander proved theirteam potential, and why they havewon the Arena League Cup Finalfor seven of the last eight years, bystepping onto the podium in nineout of 12 relay finals. On day one, the club reached the

relay podium three times. JohnSlater, Daniel Jones, Declan Dahill-Rowan and Reece Dunn completednear-perfect changeovers to takegold in the 17yrs+ 4x100mfreestyle final (3:28.34). They werejoined by City of Coventry(3:32.38) and Cockermouth(3:32.93).The men’s 14-16yrs 4x100m

freestyle saw Northampton(Matthew Richmond, Billy Pettit,Joshua Lloyd, Daniel Savage) takethe victory (3:40.71) with City ofDerby second (3:41.45) andPlymouth Leander third (3.43.11).And it was bronze again for thePlymouth girls in the 14-16yrs4x100m freestyle (4:02.19).Derventio Excel edged ahead totake gold in 3:58.78 with Thanetclaiming silver (4:00.13). Wigan (Jessica Sloan, Phoebe

Vaughan, Rachel Byrne, HollyJackson) took gold in the women’s17yrs+ in 4:02.12, followed byBeckenham (4:03.10) and Poole

(4:03.23). Plymouth Leander hadto settle for a fifth place finish(4:05.69) but they did get twomore golds in the final session’smedley relays. The 14-16yrs 400mmedley saw Oscar Brain, TomBeagley, Sam Dailley and IestynCole on top of the podium(4:05.47). Exeter were less thantwo seconds behind in 4:07.16 withPotters Bar following closely(4:08.44).The 17yrs+ 400m medley relay

saw Plymouth take gold again,touching in 3:50.27. Wycombe andHatfield battled it out to the end,finishing in 3:56.30 and 3:57.22respectively. There were two silvers for

Plymouth in the women’s 400mmedley races. In the 14-16yrs, earlyleaders Pioneer 79 (Eleanor Collin,Niamh Robinson, ElodieSmallwood, Meghann Leaver)claimed victory (4:27.73). Plymouthwere inched into second with4:27.75 and Wycombe District thirdin 4:27.98.

UNSTOPPABLEThe 17yrs+ race saw anunstoppable Woking (HannahBurvill, Abigail White, LucySessions, Hazel Ferguson) touch in4:23.64, seven seconds ahead ofPlymouth (4:30.49). Hatfield(4:31.18) took the bronze.Basildon & Phoenix were

victorious in the men’s 17yrs+800m freestyle, touching ahead ofPlymouth and Rushmoor Royals.The 14-16yrs equivalent race saw

Plymouth edged into third byBicester Blue Fins (Oliver Inness,Thomas Thornley, Kieran Bird,Joshua Rowland), who took goldwith Derventio in the silver medalposition. Plymouth’s women’s team in the

14-16yrs 800m freestyle relay werefifth in the final with City of Derby(Amy Grant, Krissy Tomlinson,Hannah Baldwin, Ellie Baldwin)hitting the top of the podiumfollowed by Weston-super-Mareand Wirral Metro. With only three teams

competing in the women’s 17yrsand over 800m freestyle relay, Cityof Peterborough (Chloe Hannam,Mollie Allen, Taylor Goodby, AislingRuff) dominated the race to takegold in 8:44.40. Hatfield touchedthe wall in 8:59.24 for silver withSevenoaks third in 9:18.20.


Top: Melton Mowbray’s William Graham celebrates victory in the 14yrs 50mbutterfly; middle: City of Peterborough’s victorious girls’ 17yrs+ 4x200m freestyleteam of Chloe Hannam, Mollie Allen, Taylor Goodby and Aisling Ruff; above: City of Derby’s winning 14-16yrs 4x200m team of Hannah Baldwin, KrissyTomlinson, Amy Grant and Ellie Baldwin

>



< OVERALL CLUB TABLE

Club Gold Silver Bronze

Guildford Ct 8 8 4

Co Leeds 8 3 -

Leinster IRL 7 2 2

Romford Town 6 4 2

Plymouth Lea 5 7 7

MEN’S CLUB


Romford Town 6 4 2

Plymouth Lea 5 3 4

Leinster IRL 5 2 2

Cockermouth 3 3 4

Preston 3 1 1

WOMEN’S CLUB


Guildford Ct 7 7 2

Co Leeds 6 3 -

Mt Kelly 4 5 1

Co Leicester 3 3 3

Co Milton K 3 1 2

FOR FULL RESULTS VISIT SWIMMINGRESULTS.ORG.UK

The boys’ 14yrs 100m freestylefinal gets underway



>


A FULL REPORT OF EACH DAY’S RACING CAN BE FOUNDAT WWW.SWIMMING.ORG/ASANATIONALS BUT HERE’SA SELECTION OF SOME SWIMMERS WHO DID WELL.

JAMES COOPER12-13yrs age group, Romford TownSix golds (200m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 200m IM,1500m freestyle, 100m backstroke, 400m freestyle),three silvers (200m freestyle, 50m backstroke, 50mbutterfly) and a bronze (100m freestyle)After winning gold in the 200m IM, James said: ‘It's

pretty amazing that I’m one of the leaders of themedal table right now. I really wasn’t expecting to do that well. I train eight sessions a week and it’s paying off. I prefer competition to training.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: I really enjoyed the 200 back...I did a good PB and I was in a neck-and-neck battle with the Irish swimmer Sean Scannell. He did beat me by a tiny bit in the end,however, as he was a commemorative medallist, I moved into the gold positionBook: I don’t enjoy reading, if I’m honest, I don’t like sitting stillAnimal: TigerTV show:Only Fools and HorsesMusic: Elvis Presley – I listen to him at night, it helps me fall asleepFood: A really good burgerPool: London Aquatic Centre rocks!Pizza topping: Bacon and sausage Person to meet:Mike Tyson – I like a good fighter

TIA WARD

JARVIS PARKINSON16-17yrs, Doncaster DartesThree golds (100m backstroke, 200m backstroke, 50mbreaststroke)Jarvis said after his 50m breaststroke gold: ‘I wasn’t

swimming so well last week so double golds and twoPBs feels good right now. I’m going to be training hardover the next three weeks in the lead-up to the Gamesin Samoa in early September. I’m also looking forward to a bit of timein New Zealand and being in that part of the world should be really fun.’ ‘I was panicking at the 50m mark (of the 100m backstroke) because I thought I had

gone out too slow. Everyone seemed to be next to me and I could see their armspropelling around me. I knew I needed to have a spectacular underwater phase to getahead of the pack, which went to plan. I could sort of relax a bit after that.’‘I kind of came looking for good times and good PBs (not so much winning medals),

particularly in the ones I missed out on at the British nationals. I’ve swum better than Ithought I would.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: 200 back, because I decided to go out fast, turned at 100m on a 1:01,and it felt easy, and then I just increased my lead from there and enjoyed the last part ofthe raceBook: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (brought a tear to my eye)Animal: If I were an animal, I’d want to be an eagle or a wolf. I’m torn between the two, awolf because you’d be in a pack of friends and an eagle because you’d be able to fly. TV show: Top GearMusic: Songs from the band 5 Seconds of Summer Food: It’s a pudding – raspberry sponge cake made by GrandmaPool: I’m stuck between two again. London Aquatics Centre and the pool/experience atBaku (Azerbaijan). There’s something about seeing an Azerbaijani waving a British flagthat makes you want to swim fastPizza topping: I like a basic Margherita. Is that boring?Person to meet:Neil Armstrong, the first person ever to set foot on the moon. Imaginethe things he could tell you

LILY MACLEODMC, Richmond Dales Two golds (200m IM, 50m free) and two silvers (100mfree, 100m breaststroke)After the MC 50m free gold medal: ‘It’s been really

fun, I’ve had a few PBs and two gold, two silvers. It’sjust been so exciting.‘It’s always exciting to see old friends, and compete

with them, this is my second year at nationals.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: I suppose it’s the one I’ve done the best in which is the 200IM. It was ahard race but the rewards were great. I took gold Book:My favourite genre of books is thrillersAnimal:Hippo TV show: I don’t watch much TV; to be honest I don’t have time. I am increasing mytraining to 22 hours this September, 19 hours in the pool and three on landMusic: I like so much it’s kind of hard to choose. I guess I like the stuff in the charts, poprock and indie Food: Chicken – I just love chickenPool: I prefer SC to LC but for sure my favourite pool is the London Aquatics CentrePizza topping: Chicken!Person to meet:Michael Phelps or Margaret Thatcher

12-13yrs age group, City of LeedsSix golds (200m IM, 200m fly, 200m back, 400m IM,400m free, 800m free) and two silvers (100m back,100m fly)On her 200 IM gold win, Tia said: ‘I’m ecstatic, it was

just an amazing swim. I haven’t PB’d in a while so I amhappy. I’m the youngest in the age group. Last year Icame joint first and this year I wanted to come back strong and win.‘This meet has been really good for me because Leeds has had quite a few swimmers

competing so I have a lot of my team-mates here. It’s also been really good becausewe’ve been doing so much preparation work – negative splits, converting the back half ofthe race, focussing on the importance of the underwater phase, descending work...allthat preparation has really paid off.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: It has to be the 800 free because I haven’t swum that in a while and asa result I got a really good PB. I also spent a fair bit of time preparing for this race inparticular, and that made the race easier – more fun in a way. I really realised after thatrace that I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love doing what I do so muchBook: Anything to do with Harry Potter Animal: A dog, in particular German shepherds. I used to have one named MerlinTV show: Dance MomsMusic: I like upbeat catchy pop tunes, singers like Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and EllieGouldingFood: Ice cream Pool:Where I train and compete – the John Charles Centre for Sport, which is near LeedsPizza topping:HamPerson to meet:Michael Phelps because of how well he has done in the Olympics




MILLIE SCOTCHBROOK 15yrs, City of LeicesterGold (50m butterfly) and two bronze (100m butterfly, 200m breaststroke)

‘It’s been really good because I haven’t swum a PB ina while so I’ve been getting good PBs and I love theatmosphere here.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: 50m fly because I’ve won. It was my first race and it was really excitingto get in the final Book: I don’t read much so it’s tough for me to think of one. This is a hard questionAnimal: I like dogs. I have a dog named Billy and he’s a lab. He misses me when I swimTV show: I don’t have time to watch TV either. Probably Britain’s Got TalentMusic: Ed SheeranFood: PizzaPool: Sheffield’s Ponds Forge – I come here quite often and I’m used to it.Pizza topping: ChickenPerson to meet: Michael Phelps

NATALIE COOGANS NATHAN WELLS 16-17 yrs, West NorfolkThree golds (400m IM, 200m free, 200m IM)

On his 200m freestyle gold: ‘It was unreal, I was notexpecting to win at all. I was seeded 14th into thequalifying heats, and so to take gold in the end is justincredible.’

On the event: ‘I don’t know what to say to behonest – it’s just all fallen into plan, my coaches, my parents allsupporting me, backing me and then to do so well, get so many PBs and gold medals. Ihonestly wasn’t expecting this level of success.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: Definitely the 200 free because it was so close and even when I wasracing, I was getting so excited. We were basically level and it just came down to thetouch....I was so happyBook: I’ve read Michael Phelps’ autobiography and that really helped me. To see his way ofswimming and his view of things – I guess it was just the best book.Animal: LionTV show: It’s a toss-up between Total Wipe Out and Top GearMusic: Calvin HarrisFood: I’ve got a lot. I like chocolate a lot (I guess I shouldn't say that), Jaffa Cakes, YumYums, bananasPool: The London Aquatics CentrePizza topping: Pepperoni, chicken strips, meatballsPerson to meet: I’d really like to meet Michael Phelps, who is legendary, and LiamTancock. I did meet Liam at a meet in Sheffield just before the 2012 Olympics and he soengaged with the crowd. He’s really my idol

ABIGAIL BURR16-17yrs, Lincoln Vulcans Gold (100m butterfly) and three bronze (200m freestyle,50m butterfly, 800m freestyle)

On the event: ‘Really good – lots of medals and PBsand a good experience overall.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: 100 fly and 200 free are in joint first, as they aremy best eventsBook: Faults in Our Stars by John GreenAnimal: ElephantTV show: EastendersMusic: Anything in the chartsFood: That’s a hard one – probably chicken and ricePool: Sheffield, by farPizza topping:MargheritaPerson to meet: Michael Phelps, because he’s the most amazing swimmer with the mostmedals at the Olympics

18yrs, West NorfolkGold (200m breaststroke)

‘I haven't actually had a PB in this race all season. I did a slight PB in the qualifying heat and then a nine-second PB tonight, so when I touched the wall and sawmy time, I burst into tears. I worked out a very specificpacing strategy with my coach. I had to be constantlyreminding myself throughout the race how important it was to stickto plan. I’m glad I did – she was right!’

On the event: ‘Really enjoyable, quite action-packed from our club. Between myselfand Nathan Wells, we have four golds in total, the most hardware the club has had in awhile.’

Favourite…Swim of the meet: 200m breaststrokeBook: I really like the Harry Potter seriesAnimal: Puppies – I wish I had one. Too much travelling around for swimming limits mefrom having oneTV show:How I Met Your MotherMusic: Bruno MarsFood: Green grapesPool: Ponds Forge in SheffieldPizza topping: I’m quite boring – I like Pizza MargheritaPerson to meet: Um, that’s a tough question. I’m not really sure. Probably Usain Bolt.Finding out what it’s like to be the fastest person in the world. That would be reallyinteresting

ON TRACK? YOU CAN READ TWO OPINIONS OF THE AGE GROUPS IN THIS EVENT (AND THE BRITISH SUMMERNATIONALS) ON PAGES 8 AND 70. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION? DID THE ORGANISERS GET IT RIGHT? EMAIL: [email protected]


Family Swim Holidays 2016

BEST Centre, MallorcaEnjoy a wonderful holiday in Mallorca while the kids train with

Olympic swimmers.The Swim Holiday will be at the outdoor Olympic pool at the BEST Centre, in a fantastic

resort, just minutes from some of the best beaches in the Mediterranean.

Over 550 people joined in the fun this year, so book your place now for 2016!May 28 – June 4, 2016July 13 – 23, 2016July 23 – 30, 2016

July 31 – August 10, 2016August 10 – 20, 2016August 20 – 30, 2016

[email protected] www.BESTswimCentre.com

GAP YEAR SWIM PROGRAMME see our website for information about spending your gap year with us. Live and train with us in Mallorca.

“At our first competition of the season, Oliver swam better than I have ever seen him swim and came away with some excellent PB’s. He really enjoyed the summer camp and we are already looking forward to visiting again next year!” Lisa, Manchester

Best AD A4 ST.indd 1 04/09/2015 16:05


Julia Wood describes the setting up and structure of the learn-to-swim system at a major leisure centre in Australia – andcompares it to the UK’s biggest swim teaching programme

Learn to swim Down

Feature - LTS down under RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 03/09/2015 11:17 Page 1

Iread Geoff Wade’s article ‘Learn To Swim:The Third Way?’ in the February edition ofSwimming Timeswith great interest –especially the part which stated ‘Theaquatics programme now numbers 4,800 –

the largest in the UK’.I am now the aquatics manager at a large

indoor facility in the bayside suburb ofFrankston, approximately 50km from the centreof Melbourne – Peninsula Aquatic RecreationCentre (PARC). The Centre opened inSeptember 2014 and boasts an indoor 50m poolwith a movable boom, learn-to-swim pool, an

aquatic playground, two water slides, a fullyequipped gym and two large exercise studios.Melbourne’s climate is very similar to the UK

but with different extremes. In the summer, itcan be as hot as 40 degrees and, in the winter,as low as zero. On average, there are 40swimming lessons a year that run alongside thefour school terms with a two-week break duringeach of the school holidays.Frankston has a population of about 130,000

and covers an area of 131 square kilometres.There are 24 primary schools and 12 secondaryschools in the immediate area.After many years of planning and

preparation, the Centre opened in September2014, the swim school a month later withapproximately 1,000 children already enrolled inswimming lessons. Competition in the local areais made up of several small swim schools, alloffering various programme and lesson options.The nearest large aquatic facility like ours is just18km away. In this article, I want to share with you

information about the PARC swim programme,how it was developed, how we manage it, how ithas been received and how we hope it will growin the future.Unlike in the UK, there is no single learn-to-

swim programme that operates Australia-wide.Royal Life Saving has a programme whichincorporates swimming and lifesaving andcaters for all ages. Most independent swimschools write their own programmes based onwhat their owners and managers deemappropriate and have their own names forclasses and levels. The larger organisations (egBelgravia Leisure and YMCA) have developedtheir own programmes that run at each of theircentres across Australia making the transitionfrom one centre to another easy. When I arrived at PARC in December, about

1,500 children were enrolled in the currentprogramme. My task was to write and design a


LTS in Australia

>

UnderJulia Wood

Feature - LTS down under RGph_Honesty Box 03/09/2015 11:20 Page 2


new, easy-to-follow and credible programmethat would see children through from sixmonths ‘parent and toddler’ classes to school-age swimming lessons as well as a schools’swimming programme. It seems that Australians are loathe to label

children. In swimming, children are veryobviously beginners, improvers or advancedswimmers but, for some reason, parents areloathe to call their child a beginner yet theylove to talk of their child being advanced. MostAustralian swim programmes use names suchas ‘starfish’, ‘seahorse’, ‘platypus’, ‘dolphin’ andevery other aquatic creature you can think of tolabel classes, which makes it incredibly difficultto know exactly what stage the child is at. Towrite the PARC swim programme, I needed tobe able to ‘call a spade a spade’ while at thesame time tagging the class with a fun namethat would relate to the age and ability of thechild within the programme. To introduce a new programme after a term

of a very different programme was a bravemove – especially as it was brand new and hadnever been seen trialled. Term 4 finished onSunday December 21, 2014; term 1 commencedon Monday February 2, 2015. That gave us sixweeks to communicate the programme,redesign the pool layout for swim classes, writeall the criteria and competencies for each leveland have all the collateral in place. Add to themix that January is when the highest numberof new children join any swim programme andwe anticipated an additional 500 children.

The programmeAfter several years of teaching swimming,training swim teachers, owning and operatingmy own swim school and consulting to otherswim schools, it became very evident thatchildren absolutely need to be grouped by age. It is possible to have both a five-year-old and

a 10-year-old with the same ability in swimmingbut, developmentally, the 10-year-old will be farmore advanced than the younger child. Theprogramme has three levels in each of thestages – Toddler, Beginner, Improver andSwimmer.

Under Three Programme – Tadpoles toToddlersThe programme recognises three stages ofdevelopment in this area and children aregrouped accordingly: six to 12 months, 12months to two years and two to three years.Each level works towards a set ofcompetencies, preparing them for when theyare ready to be in a lesson on their own oncethey turn three. Separating the children by agealso allows the teacher to focus on children ofsimilar abilities. While differentiation inteaching is expected with mixed ability groups,let’s make the job easier to start with.

Age Three to Five Programme – Pufferfish –Pre SchoolAs we go through the levels, you will notice that

while there is a continuum from beginner toadvanced, I have still worked in a friendly fishname to appease the parents. There are fivelevels here, which take a three-year-old frombeing a complete beginner to a level wherebreaststroke has been introduced and is beingrefined.

Age Five to Seven Programme – Flying Fishto FoundationThese children are now at school (we start atfive in Oz). If a child was already in ourprogramme prior to commencing school, theymove sideways from the Pufferfish stream intothe Flying Fish stream. Six levels in this streamtake the children to the end of the improverlevels.

Age Seven-plus - Snapper to School AgeFor a beginner who is seven and over (notuncommon), there are classes in this streamthey can join. Nine levels in this stream take thechild from beginner to swimmer and allow themto graduate from the programme.

Programme overviewThe programme allows us to recognise thatthere may be beginners of all ages wanting tojoin our programme. Every level in each streamhas the same criteria and competencies – thedifference being where the classes arepositioned in the pool to cater for height and size.

Our programme operates during the followingtimes:Monday–Friday: 9am– 11.30am, 4pm–6.30pmSaturday & Sunday: 8.30am– 12.30pm.

Currently, there are 2,300 children enrolledand we anticipate our capacity being around3,500 within the next couple of years.In order to cater for this number of students

each week, creative planning and use of poolspace has to be implemented. Our learn-to-swim pool can be divided into nine teachinglanes. The pool is a rectangle, 15m x 9m with adepth of 0.5m–0.9m. If we were greedy, wecould possibly have more but it maycompromise the efficacy of the programme.The Tadpole 1 and 2 classes are in the deepestpart of the pool. The Tadpole 3 class is in theshallowest part of the pool allowing the teacherto take more of a back seat while the parentslead the children. The teacher gives directionand guidance, and encourages them to beindependent in preparation for the transition tobeing in the water without mum or dad.All our Pufferfish classes (pre-school) are

also conducted in the learn-to-swim pool hereas well as the early levels of the Flying Fishstream.Programming in the 25m shallow pool

(minimum depth 1.35m) was more challenging.Traditionally, swimming lessons are run up anddown the pool using 25m lanes. Not all childrenare ready for this immediately so we thought

>

‘Currently 2,300 children are enrolled and weanticipate our capacity being around 3,500

within two years. Catering for this number ofstudents each week requires creative planning’



LTS in Australia

outside the square. From the initial pool set up,we have revised the layout and taken in lane 4so that the width of the teaching area could beincreased. In addition, lanes 16 and 17 have alsobeen removed, giving us the options of 10m,15m and 25m teaching areas.

Adult classesWe offer a range of adult classes - beginner,improver and advanced levels – together withclasses that are unique to us. The Police EntryTest is a swim test that all prospective membersof the police force have to pass. The AUSTSWIM Teacher test is for those

looking to become an AUSTSWIM teacher andallows them to experience the waterrequirements of the qualification. The GreyMedallion is a Royal Lifesaving initiative for the55-plus population to introduce them to watersafety, water exercise, how to perform CPR etc.We are currently developing this programme.How do we manage the programme?Already, with 2,300 children enrolled in a

programme that has only been operating for 25weeks, we offer almost 600 classes a week withan average occupancy of 85 per cent. Weadminister around 300 class moves eachmonth – children changing day and time to suitparents or maybe they have progressed to thenext level and we need to find a new class. We do not offer ‘make up’ lessons, as their

membership includes access to the pool sevendays a week for the child and their supervisingadult. With so many swimmers enrolled in theprogramme, the administration is huge and theturnover of students each half-hour is a giantmanagement feat. We have a great poolside team who look after

everyone. In addition to the teachers in thewater, there is always a team member in theaquatics office as well as up to three on-decksupervisors, whose role is to make sure

everyone is happy. We have blitz assessmentweeks each term and during this time, we haveadditional assessors on the poolside to observethe children and their skill levels.The teacher in the water has class lists

printed on water-proof paper – an expensiveluxury but worth every penny. They can recordthe child’s attendance and tick offcompetencies, which helps the assessors. Wehave an online swim school managementprogramme, where parents can access theirchild’s progress reports and teachers can notifyparents when a child is ready to move up a level.This programme sounds similar to the one

used by Barking and Dagenham – ours is called‘SwimDesk’. All deck supervisors have tabletswhich they use to record the swimmers’progress via SwimDesk. Emails can be sent toparents using this technology, which thenallows them to visit an online portal where theycan track their child’s swimming history, look atcompetencies required for each level and readteacher biographies. It even allows them toprint off certificates at home. We too can see when children are ‘stuck on a

level’. To get over this hump, we guarantee thateach child will progress every 30 weeks. If thechild does not, we will offer an additional ‘free’lesson once a week until they do.

Programme collateralObviously, with the launch of a brand newprogramme, a range of collateral needed to beorganised, including a range of certificates foreach level. Parents have online access to thesethrough our parent portal but can also comeand see the team in the PARC Swim office tohave their certificates printed. We have a keyring for each child, which

relates to the stream they are in, and weenvisage this becoming a collectable item giventhat children love to collect keyrings and hang

them on their bags.To aid retention over the winter months, we

are introducing a free beanie for everyswimmer so they can wear it to and fromswimming lessons.

Use of the poolI note that in his article in the FebruarySwimming Times, Geoff says that publicswimming is available for 88 per cent of thecentre’s opening times. Here at PARC, weguarantee that public swimming lanes willalways be available during normal operatinghours, seven days a week. While we haven’tquite met Barking and Dagenham’s whopping410,000 swims in a year, we can boast thefollowing since opening in September 2014–April 2015:• number of aquatic entries: 159,989 • number of children attending birthdayparties: 2,586• programme spectator entries: 27,687• number of children via a school LTSprogrammes: 11,886

Where now?We need to prepare for the people who drop outof lessons and return again. There seems to bea widely-held belief that swimming in wintermakes you sick, therefore it is better to stay athome. We are keen to keep our members andlaunched an anti-sick campaign with the help ofvarious marketing tools – a free beanie for thechild, a free hot drink or even a coffee for mum.We remind them that it’s always summer atPARC given that the temperature here neverchanges.The next influx of new swimmers will come

late September with an even bigger number inJanuary. I’d like to think we will reach 3,500enrolments by this time next year but beingrealistic, I would be happy with 3,000.

WORLD CLASS STARTING BLOCKSBritain’s leading manufacturer of swimming pool competition equipment and stainless steel pool hall metalwork has introduced adjustable footrest starting blocks to its product range.

Based on stainless steel tubular frames or pedestal formats, the tops incorporate the rear footrest with 5 clearly numbered adjustable positions.

• As used at the 2012 London Olympic Games and all major championships since

• Suitable for deck level, freeboard and raised end pools• Adaptable to existing poolside fixings, avoiding re-drilling

the edge tiles

Manufactured in Sheffield by: Steel Line Ltd Tel: 0114 231 7330 Fax: 0114 256 0330 Email: [email protected]

www.steelline.co.uk



Jill Stidever receives herUnsung Hero trophy at theBBC Sports PersonalityAwards in December;opposite: Jill with daughterJane, a six-time Paralympian

Feature - Jill Stidever Oct15 RGph.qxd_Final Five inside out 03/09/2015 11:07 Page 1


Jill Stidever

Unsung HeroJill Stidever is 78, still works many hours a week after a career spanning 60years and is described by colleagues as ‘one in a million’. Liz Byrnes meetsBBC Sport’s Unsung Hero of 2014 and coach of Leicester Penguins

It all started for Jill Stideverin the sea off the southcoast of Devon. Fromlearning to swim in thosechoppy waters throughcompetitive swimming forPlymouth Ladies, Jill’s

journey progressed to teachingand coaching, with hercommitment to and passion fordisability swimming rewarded withan MBE and the BBC SportsPersonality of the Year 2014Unsung Hero Award.There has also been personal

and professional joy at seeingthree of her students, includingdaughter Jane, compete at theParalympics.Growing up in Plymouth, Jill did

not learn to swim until she was 11,admittedly a late learner ‘becausesomething called the War held meup’. She continued in an outdoorpool on Plymouth Hoe andbecame a club swimmer,breaststroke her speciality atWestern Counties competitions.Jill had already got involved in

teaching lifesaving to youngstersbut it was when she moved toLondon to study teacher trainingat Avery Hill, Eltham, that shereally took her first steps in whatwas to become a lifelong careerand passion. She explains: ‘I fellinto it. People would ask me if Icould help them with swimming.This was ordinary people who hadnot had the opportunity like me todo swimming and asked me forhelp. While I was at college, the girlwho had the room directlyopposite me lost her sister in avery tragic accident at Skegness.She stepped out into one of the

holes [on the beach] and her bodywasn’t found for months.‘So I started in many ways there,

with someone whose need wasn’tphysical or that type of need butcertainly needed some help to getover the death of her youngersister.’

GraduationAfter graduating, Jill taughtprimary and reception children inPaddington for a year beforemarriage to husband Mick, whowas in the air force, saw hertraverse the country.In the early 1960s, Jill trained

with the Halliwick Association, aconcept designed to teachindependence in the water, andthen undertook ASA qualificationsin teaching people withdisabilities.She moved to Markfield in

Leicestershire in 1972 and, havingalready gained experience withdisability swimming, was offeredthe use of the pool at BosworthCollege in Desford, where sheestablished a club. Jill recalls: ‘Wehad nothing apart from this offerof a pool and, at the time, I had adisabled daughter as well. Westarted with Jane and two othermembers.‘It was just myself doing the

teaching, which lasted a longtime – in fact through until 2000. Ithen had some other volunteersthat came along. A parent of onechild took teaching qualificationsto be able to help. I relied onparents a tremendous amount.Numbers didn’t increase thatmuch but probably to about 10–12swimmers.

‘We had nothing apart from thisoffer of a pool and, at the time, Ihad a disabled daughter as well’

>


‘Among that lot, I had threeParalympians, who had virtuallystarted as non-swimmers with meand one of them went to Atlanta in1996, one to Sydney in 2000 andthe other went to six Paralympics.The reputation began to grow

and my running of teachingcourses for the ASA also grew – Iwas working full-time all this time

too. I was beginning to spread theword a bit locally and then Istarted to get more volunteers.’Jill had also become

increasingly involved in CerebralPalsy Sport, a condition thatdaughter. Jane, now 49 and a six-time Paralympian, lives with. Shesays: ‘Prior to the Paralympics inBarcelona 1992, the GB team was

made up of competitors frommembers of the five nationaldisability sporting organisationsand I was involved with CerebralPalsy Sport, coaching swimming.‘Jane was a member of the

cerebral palsy team from 1984 andI was on the periphery, ensuringshe had suitable equipment in NewYork. where she competed in the

equestrian event – Great Britaindid not send a riding coach there -as well as swimming.’

MedalsJane won gold in the mixeddressage as well as a silver andtwo bronze medals in the pool inthe United States and there wasfurther success at the fivefollowing Games.Jill continues: ‘I remained with

Cerebral Palsy Sport, whocontinued to attend their specificdisability world championships,and was invited to join the staffpreparing for the Paralympics in2000 (Sydney) and 2004(Athens).’Two more former pupils in

Emma Harper (née Booker) andCaroline Warlow (née Read)competed at Atlanta in 1996 andSydney 2000. It was at times hardto separate the personal from theprofessional.‘It was very difficult to divide

yourself at times, extremelydifficult. I hope I managed it themajority of the time not to be toobiased towards my daughter. Itwas difficult but it was great to beable to help some of them reachtheir ambitions.’There are four hours of classes

a week – at Bosworth College Pooland Ibstock Community College –as part of the Leicester Penguins,across a spectrum of disabilitieswith a concentration on physicaland visual difficulties.‘That is where we have built up

an expertise in handling in thewater, putting them in the correctpositions, giving them the supportthey need, whereas there are twoor three other clubs inLeicestershire that specialise inlearning disabilities. ‘We would encourage the child

there if that was the mostappropriate session for them, justas we would encourage them intomainstream swimming if that wasthe right place for them.’Jill has handed over the running

of sessions two days a week and isnow a volunteer herself – but hasno intention of ceasing herinvolvement, health permitting. ‘Iwill be around unless they reallywant to get rid of me. I enjoy it,that’s the trouble. It gives me farmore satisfaction to see themmake tiny little steps forward thanthe satisfaction I give to them, I’msure. It’s nothing to do with me – itis what they get out of it and thatgives back to me. The message is itis worth continuing.’


>

‘I will be around unless they want to get rid of me. I enjoy it, that’s the trouble. It gives me far moresatisfaction to see them make tiny little steps than thesatisfaction I give to them, I’m sure’

This picture, below and opposite:Jill coaching disabled youngsters


ImpactMany youngsters and theirfamilies have made a huge impacton Jill, including a boy confined toa wheelchair. ‘He has severespeech difficulties, I have ahearing loss and the combinationof the two don’t go particularlywell together in a swimming pool.They showed him on television fortwo seconds swimmingindependently across the pool.That has taken seven years toachieve because he can only usehis legs swimming on his back in aslightly unorthodox way but hecan swim 300m nowindependently.‘Families stand out rather than

the children necessarily – familiesthat come week after weekbecause they know their child isgetting so much extra from it.There’s a little girl who has to besupported – I use the word‘supported’ loosely – in the water,and her brother and sister playwith her in the water. It’s anenvironment in which they can bepart of a family. She is another onethat stands out.‘The Paralympians that I have

been privileged to work with alsostand out; the coaches that areinvolved stand out. A coach inScotland who coached MaggieMcEleny, who carried the flag forBritain in Sydney 2000, stands outbecause of the time he alsospends working with these peoplewho take longer to learn.‘There are so many: they may

have gone through my hands andinto public swimming. They aresafe in the water.’She also pays tribute to the

team she has built around her,saying: ‘They are absolutely vital,they really are. They are peoplewho over the years have provedthey have a long-lasting interest inworking in the water and workingon poolside. ‘Some of them coach and I do

make a distinction. I distinguishbetween coaching and teachingbecause some of the others arevery happy to work very, veryslowly with some of ours to work inthe water and actually teach themtiny little moves that will helpthem achieve their independence.I couldn’t work without them.’

DedicationJill’s work, dedication andcommitment has been recogniseddown the years, although in 2000,she was completely taken aback tobe awarded an MBE. ‘It was a

complete shock,’ she admits. ‘I’dnever thought of anything like thatas a reward.‘There are so many other

volunteers who have done things. Iam very honoured to receive it.‘I kept it hidden from my

husband from the time I had theoriginal letter until it wasannounced on the eve of 2000.When it was announced, he thendidn’t believe me.‘I wanted it to be a surprise the

same as it was for everyone but Imisjudged the day they (thenewspaper) were phoning to talkto me about it. I thought it was thefollowing day and I was aiming toget them all out of the house so hewould see it in the paper first of all.Instead he heard me talking to thepaper on the telephone.’Then came the Unsung Hero

Award at the 2014 BBC SportsPersonality of the Year in Glasgow.‘It was a terrific honour because

it had come from the people whohad watched me working.Apparently parents had got intouch with them. I was again a bitnaïve: they succeeded in catchingme out so much over this. ‘They wanted to speak to my

swimmers, who were going toSheffield for a competition, and Ibelieved them so I got my juniorswimmers there and found it was atrophy for me. It was an honourbecause it was in my localsurroundings – in fact it startedfrom the pool where I was offeredthe water 43 years ago.’While recognition for

Paralympic swimming hasmushroomed since the 2012Games in London, Jill, now 78, ispassionate about the grassrootselement. Her opinion is constantlysought about the need for extraqualifications, good teaching andfor up-to-date information to bereadily available.

TargetsShe concludes: ‘Many disabledchildren struggle to “learn to live”and their grassroots period lastsconsiderably longer than that oftheir peers so parallel smalltargets need setting to aidsuccess.‘Pool time, space and the

goodwill of volunteers are, ofcourse, major issues. There is somuch enthusiasm for inclusivewater-based activities that can beharnessed following London 2012to make the most of the legacy. ‘Nowhere is this more obvious

when extra volunteer officials turn

up for a disability meet because“the fun is still there”.‘Let’s ensure favourable

circumstances are there for alldisabled people. While a very fewhave opportunities to become

Paralympians, we need to keepalive the swimmer’s personalambition as well.’

* For more on volunteering:swimming.org/asa/volunteering


Jill Stidever

• Enjoy it

• Be very observant. Look for what they can do,don’t look for what they can’t do

• Support and give confidence where needed.

• Play

• Let them show you, let them demonstrate theirideas and then share them. How you can adapt toget better movement or more conventionalmovement

• Just remember swimming is swimming and anyway you can get through the water and propelyourself through the water safely is swimming.You see, my philosophy is built on pleasure

• Adaptable methods of communication:

– visual (good demonstrations, use of picturesand/or video, start-stop games)

– oral (explanations with or without pictures,silent lessons, three or four basic signs)

– tactile (movement of swimmer's limbs to helpunderstand requirements – in full vision of all)

– olfactory – appreciation that some swimmersare more sensitive to smells

• Time to wait, listen, respond, suggest, tryunconventional ideas and above all ‘think outsidethe box’

JILL’S TOP TIPS



DEVELOPINGCONFIDENCE INYOUR COACHING

Ian Turner at work during the2006 European Short CourseChampionships in Helsinki

Feature - Ian Turner RGph_Final Five inside out 04/09/2015 13:47 Page 1

Ihave long held the viewthat good coaching comesfrom the confidencegained from knowing thatyou are doing thingscorrectly. Many of us haveself-doubt. We regularly

struggle with ourselves over ourlevel of knowledge. Many of uswork in isolation with little supportand even less opportunity to shareour experiences with someonethat understands. Coach mentors,offering sound advice gained overyears on deck, are few and farbetween. During my early years asa coach, I worked a great deal inisolation. I was combining schoolteaching with swim coaching in asmall market town in the EastMidlands. Many workouts were acase of trial and error and it wasn’tuntil I placed a girl on the 1988Olympic team that I became moreconfident in my own ability andrealised that I must be doingsomething right. Nevertheless,there was still that nagging doubtthat I had been lucky and perhapsthe girl would have made the teamirrespective of who coached her.These demons drove me on to seeif I could do it again with otherswimmers.

Maximising potentialWe need to maximise the potentialof every youngster that comesthrough the door. This places ahuge responsibility on ourcoaching skills. Many coachesround the world flit from one ideato the next without building a‘coaching model’ of what theypersonally believe will produceswimmers. Other coaches struggleto overcome the challenge ofhaving enough confidence in theirown ability to develop the thingsthat they are good at, let alonework on the areas that are in needof refining. It is important to give coaches

the knowledge and informationthat will help them gain theconfidence required toconsistently place swimmers in

medal-winning situations. Remember, it isn’t necessarily a

great facility that produces greatswimmers. But the knowledge andmotivation of the coach willalways play a huge role in gaininga result. Some of the world’s bestswimmers have come out ofordinary facilities. But the world’sbest swimmers have all hadcoaches that will enquire, shareideas, experiment, discuss andseek new ways of developing theirknowledge base.

Eight things that will helpyour confidence levels as acoach1. Be intuitive and inquisitive.Nocoach has the exclusive licence ongood workouts. If you find a goodtraining set on the internet, don’tbe afraid to use it. Alternatively,adapt the set to your ownrequirements and put your ‘spin’on it. If a workout you have written(or borrowed) is successful, don’tbe afraid to do it again and again. On the other hand, have the

confidence to move the workoutforward by making it harder,reducing the rest interval orsimply trying to lengthen theduration of the intensity(particularly in the speed/endurance area). Moving a setforward over a period of weeksgives the athlete the opportunityto adapt to the intensity and speeddemanded by the coach. In thismanner, the workout can becomea weekly ‘key set’. Confidentcoaches, when asked why they didsomething in a particular way,often put it down to being, ‘theright thing to do!’ However, I thinkit is more subtle than that. Theyhave a weekly plan in their headand they know exactly where theset fits into this overall plan. Don’t be afraid to take a grain of

an idea and develop it. Talk toother coaches and see what they

are doing. Keep reminding theswimmer that in other trainingvenues throughout the world,someone is doing things better,faster and harder.

2. Be a planner. The essence of allpreparation is good planning. Without it, the coaching thought

process can become confused andblurred. Good planning has aprofound effect on the confidenceof the coach. Start the plan withthe desired result in mind. Thissimply means working backwardsfrom the pinnacle event of theyear. All cycles are geared toensuring that the athlete swimswell at this principle event. Coaches should ensure that

they have a weekly plan of theenergy systems that they wish tohit in each workout. Have a planthat outlines the entire cycle,including competitions, time trials,test sets etc. A question that isalways worth asking yourself is: ‘Ifthe group does this set today,what do we do tomorrow?’

Coaches must avoid walkingonto the deck without a plannedworkout. Swimmers very quicklyobserve that the coach is ill-prepared for the session. Thisrumour takes little time to getaround the club. The worst thingthat a coach can be accused of, byathletes, is being lazy. A lack of aworkout is the first step to thishappening. For me, one of thesatisfying aspects of coaching iskeeping a log of the workouts thathave taken place over thepreceding period. Using aparticular training set again is nota sign of your lack of imagination. If the set achieves its objectives,

keep a detailed record of therepeat times achieved and refer toit when you want to fit the set backinto your weekly planner.Remember the adage: ‘If the set isworth doing, it’s worth doing again

and again.’Any plan should also identify

the rest and recovery time thatyou have built into the cycle toensure that the swimmer has abreak from the sport. Oneinteresting observation that I havemade over the years is that duringthis period of rest, swimmersactually grow in height and add afew kilos of weight. When dealingwith swimmers who are goingthrough puberty, these shortperiods of recovery are importantfor their growth and maturation. However, coaches must always

balance this break with the loss offitness and the subsequent timerequired to return to the samelevel of aerobic and anaerobicfitness. Two weeks is plenty oftime to be out of the water. Anylonger will cut deeply into the nexttraining cycle. The training planshould also clearly outline whenthe coach is going to rest andtaper the athlete. A plan based onmultiple tapers each year isflawed. Any extended trainingprogramme is constantlyinterrupted by resting for a meetthat has no consequence. Such apolicy ensures that the athleteachieves decent times at everymeet but the big drops inperformance never happen as nosignificant workload has beenundertaken. In other words, thereis nothing to taper on. Plan the taper by reducing the

sprint element of your programmeover five weeks, the VO2 maxelement over three weeks and thekick work over a four-week period. Always remember that it is the

environment that coaches createthat produces quality swimmers,not facilities.

3. Be knowledgeable andtechnically strong. A soundtechnical knowledge of our sportis the foundation of all coaching. Swimmers will very quickly spot

that you haven’t got theknowledge and skills required tosolve technique problems. Themake-up and combination of yourtraining workouts will be quicklycriticised by athletes if you don’tspend time putting them together. They are not easily hoodwinked.

Regular group meetings need to


Coaching

>

Most coaches have self-doubt but good coaching comesfrom knowing you are doing things correctly, says LincolnPentaqua and former Great Britain head coach Ian Turner

‘Sound technical knowledge is thefoundation of all coaching.Swimmers will soon spot that youdon’t have the knowledge’


be held where you explain theplans both in the training pool andcompetition. In this way, the coachlearns to read individualswimmers and understand thepsychology of the group. Try notto be predictable with yourswimmers. There are workoutswhere the girls can train togetherwithout the boys. There are timeswhen the sprinters can traintogether. Don’t be apprehensiveabout introducing two workouts inthe session. Remember the oldsaying: ‘One size does not fit all.’ Running two or possibly three

workouts within one sessionincreases the chances of eachathlete in the group makingtraining gains from the workout. In order to achieve this, not only

must the coach be organised butthe swimmers have to respectwhat is trying to be achieved.

4. Be a leader. The attitudeswimmers adopt throughout theworkout is a reflection of the

coach. Attitudes inevitably startfrom the top. An unreliable andsloppy coach produces unreliableand sloppy swimmers. Alwaysremember that the athletes youcoach spend more time with youthan they do with any otherperson other than mum and dad. The coach becomes the

principal role model in the life ofthe athlete. As coaches, we mustalways remember to set a goodexample. This is a hugeresponsibility and must not betaken lightly. We should alwayslook the part when dealing withswimmers, as they are quick tojudge. We need goodcommunication skills and mustalways speak with confidence,never being arrogant. Many of ourswimmers will model themselveson us, so we need to be confidentwithout being clever. A question Ihave asked myself over the yearsis: ‘How many of my swimmershave gone on to be swim coacheswhen they retire?’ In other words,

have I influenced any athleteenough for them to want to stay inthe sport? This mutual respect isextremely important in theformative years of a youngster.

5. Be a watcher. As I mentionedearlier, no-one has the patent ongood ideas. Sit and watch howother coaches operate. Obviously,discard the things that do notappeal but take on board thethings that can improve yourconfidence and coaching skills. Watching other coaches is never

time wasted. There is regularlysomething that stimulates interestin the workout or the way that thecoach talks to the group. Swimmers are all different and

one of the hardest jobs incoaching is reading eachindividual and understanding whattheir requirements are in the pool. Our skill set has to be extensive.

Time may have to be foundoutside the normal trainingsession to deal with individual

requirements. Some swimmersare more aerobic than others andcan train longer and harder. Others are built for speed and,

although they still require anaerobic background, they can’tsustain the level of intensity thatothers can achieve. Coaches haveto be aware of these differences.Observing the training group overa period of time gives the coach agreat insight into the psychologyof each swimmer. Watch yourathletes. How do they relate toeach other? Who is the leader? Which member of the group

needs more support than therest? One interesting aspect ofour sport is that all our swimmersare individuals and needmanaging in different ways but atsome point, they have to gel as ateam. A skill of coaching is beingable to carefully judge the make-up of each of these swimmers.Some need more attention. Someare mentally stronger than others. Recognising and understanding


>

Ian Turner coaching Britain’s Mel Marshallwho herself now coaches City of Derby’sbreaststroke world champion Adam Peaty


Coaching


the different skills required tobring the best out of each athletecan be partly achieved by simplywatching and observing.

6. Be pushy. Another underlyingskill in coaching is having theconfidence to push the groupforward to new levels of fitness. This is hard during periods when

the athlete is tired and reluctant tocommit. This ‘cruel to be kind’stance can’t be avoided. Encouragement is obviously the

first tool to use. However, there areoccasions when the ‘hard call’ hasto be made in order for the athleteto maximise their full potential. There must never be underlying

resentment in the decision. Thehard calls are made on soundcoaching experience. There aredaily situations in our sport whendecisions have to be made. As onewell-known coach was heard tosay, ‘Near enough is not goodenough!’ The hard decisions neednot be made at the last minute. Ifthe issue is confronted earlyenough, it can be dealt with. Unfortunately, many coaches do

not see this. Making the correctdecision under pressure is always

a confidence booster. However,many of the decisions we make ascoaches will not please everyone.We have to get on and do what wefeel is correct. Always remember,an athlete’s performance is basedon time; as coaches, ourperformance is based on ourdecision-making skills!

7. Be honest. But be professional.If the athlete has had anindifferent swim, sandwich the badnews between two positives. Themistakes that were made duringthe swim have to be delivered butthe ‘sandwich’ method leaves theathlete aware of both the strongand the weaker aspects of theperformance. If the same mistakeskeep being made, the coachshouldn’t hesitate to be firmer.Always be honest about your

expectations for the race. Explain,

prior to the race, how they shouldapproach the race. There arecompetitions throughout the yearwhen we expect athletes to ‘swimthrough’ without a rest. Be honestand outline how they can stillachieve a decent time, eventhough they are fatigued. Suggestthat within 2 to 3 per cent of theirpersonal best is achievable. Inaddition to racing tired, there areoccasions when an athlete has totrain tired. Rather than allow themto skip the session, suggest thatthey train but move down the lane.This places less stress on theswimmer but also shows that yourjudgement can be trusted.

8. Be a listener. Athletes havesome great ideas. They spendhuge periods of their dayploughing up and down the laneand those with fertile minds

regularly think about our sport. Acoach who listens to theirswimmers quickly gains theirrespect. We don’t have themonopoly on good ideas. Listen totheir suggestions and don’tinstantly dismiss them. In myexperience, when you ask anathlete to write a workout, theyoften make it impossibly hard.Some swimmers need more of

your time than others. Beprepared to give them time.

However, the coach has to becareful that the swimmer is notjust ‘parking’ their problem. Suchan athlete can quickly drain yourenergy. Listen to parents but beprepared to separate the pieces ofinformation that are useful fromthe rubbish that is designed topromote their own child. Listen toother coaches when they share atraining idea with you. Be inquisitive and ask what they

are focussing on. If a coach ishaving success with a swimmer,ask what they are doingdifferently. Take the idea andexpand it but use your ownexperience to make a judgementon what you are being told. Findways to improve your coaching.

‘Encouragement is the first tool touse. But there are occasions whenthe “hard call” has to be made tomaximise their full potential’


Swimming, diving, synchronised swimming,coaching and sub-aqua are all covered in ourlatest round-up of award pictures from around the regions

Awards& Celebrations>


>

Cerebral Palsy Team England swimmers Megan Short (facing camera) andSamantha Lewis embrace after competing in the 100m backstroke at theCPISRA World Games in Nottingham’s brand new 50m pool. Photo: Epic Action Imagery

>

The ASA and British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) are working in partnership to introduce snorkelling tochildren who are learning to swim. As part of the partnership, a new snorkeller CPD is nowavailable for ASA qualified level 2 swimming teachers through the IoS. See story on page 11

>

Croydon Amphibians’ Oludaisi Adefisan with his medal fromthe MC events at the ASA National Summer Championshipsin Sheffield

>

>

Salford Synchro, based at Salford Community Leisure, gave themselves a boost ahead of the Lancashirechampionships by winning two bronze medals at the national championships in Gloucester. The medalswere won in the technical team and free team events by Isabelle Spencer, Zoe Taylor, Charlotte Moore,Jessica Spencer, Greta Hampson, Elise Hodges and Olivia Dearden, who stood in at the last minute

Three-time Commonwealth diving champion SirPeter Heatly (left), aged 91, with the Scottish Eastdistrict heraldic crest, which was presented afterhe stepped down as district president. He wasvisited by his successor as president, JackSnowdon (right), vice-president Ritchie Metcalfeand immediate past president Cath Fleming

Round-up Awards Oct15 RGph.qxd_Roundup Awards 04/09/2015 16:05 Page 1


Awards & celebrations>

Seagulls’ synchro teamwith their winningsfrom the Dorsetchampionships. Theystruck gold six timesat Dorchester, wherethe Christchurch club’sHermione White, EmilyBanfield, Becky Goodeand Alex Banfield wonindividual routine andfigures titles in the12/u, 13-14yrs, 15-16yrsand 17/o age groupsrespectively. SistersAlex and Emily alsowon the 17/o duetbefore joining Goode,Caroline Bedford,Hannah Cummings,Aimee Davis, ChristinaLorimer, BeckyWomersley and MarnieTree to win the teamevent. Goode andLorimer also won silverin the 17/o duet. PaigeDerbyshire won silverin the grade 1 solo andwith sister Summer inthe grade 1 duet

>

Biggleswade and Mid Beds swimmer Scott Neavegives back to his sponsors Edible Ornamentalsafter making the 100 and 200m backstroke B finals at the Irish national champs in Dublin

>

Several Newport Pagnell SC swimmers were successful at the South East England regional championships,including Erin Saunders (silver, 50m breaststroke), Ashley Frost (bronze, 200m backstroke), SophiePatrick, Kaity Grose, Rebekah Heath, Rhiannon Jefferies, Rafe Dobson and Joshua Press

>

Nuneaton and Bedworth SC’s competitive swimmer pathway team (l-r) Louise Darlington, Sue Newman, Terry Freeman, Andy Eales, Jordan Finn and James Luke.After a great season in which they made the junior league final for the first time since 2011, the club aims to continue punching above its weight and hasstrengthened the team with the addition of Louise and Jordan, who will run the club’s new county development squad. Louise formerly swam for Enderby SC.Jordan swam for Nuneaton and Bedworth

Round-up Awards Oct15 RGph.qxd_Roundup Awards 04/09/2015 16:06 Page 2

If I could bring about change, Iwould… have single-band agegroups for boys aged 15, 16, 17and 18, plus 19/over and for girlssingle-band age groups for 14,15, 16 and 17yrs with the topband being 18/over.Although I’m in favour of

many of the changes made forthe summer nationals, I thinkit’s important to encourageswimmers at the top end of theage groups. At the moment, it’stoo much about juniorswimming. I feel that girls aged17 to 18 and boys aged 19 to 20have a hard time afterEuropean juniors. In myopinion, we lose too manytalented swimmers aged 16 to19. The system disadvantagesthem instead of encouragingthem. We don’t do enough forthose ages and we need to doso much more. I know thatlogistically it would be difficultto fit these additional ages intothe competition time-frame butI would prefer that boys startedat 15/u so that we could havethe older ages instead.I would also make it compulsory

for all level 1 and 2 meets to haveseparate finals sessions. Iunderstand that clubs need meetsto make a profit but I feel that longheat sessions are making thesport boring and less challenging.What other sport has competitorson poolside from 8 in the morningtill 8 at night with all agescompeting together inmonotonous heats? Is it anywonder we put people off gettinginvolved in the sport and can’tretain swimmers? Having separatefinals would make our sport moreexciting and encourage head-to-head racing. We need to look atmaking meets more fun, moreentertaining, more exciting. Finalsare about learning to race and wedon’t give our swimmers enoughexposure to that. The grand prixcircuit is a good example of howthis worked in the past. Theremust be ways of getting somesupport for that type of system.

Nobody knows this but… themajority of people think of me asbeing involved in swimming butduring my nine years in Plymouth,I also worked with Andy Banks andPlymouth Diving. They have thistradition that any staff areexpected at some point to go offthe high board. When I finished atPlymouth in 2010, Tonia Couchpresented me with one of her

costumes and told me to jump offthe 10m board. They also invited ajournalist from the PlymouthHerald to record the event. So Ihad no choice.Normally, you would progress

from 5m to 7.5m and work up tothe 10m board but if I had gone off5m first, I would have realised howhigh that was and I might not have

had the courage to go off 10m. SoTom Daley took me straight up tothe 10m platform, gave me a fewhelpful tips – like ‘Don’t point yourtoes’ and ‘Keep your arms by yoursides’ – and then we jumped offtogether. It was exhilarating. It feltlike I was in the air for a long timebefore hitting the water. I actuallyenjoyed it and I ended up going

straight back up and doing it againon my own. I could never havedived off. It’s amazing how thedivers can do multiple somersaultsand twists and time them perfectlyso that they disappear into thewater with virtually no splash.

I wouldn’t be where I am nowwithout…my parents – and theirencouragement and support. Theyset such a good examplethemselves and they instilled inme the traditional life values suchas responsibility, commitment,compassion, honesty, reliabilityand hard work. Anything you wantto achieve, you have to work for. Ihave a brother and two sisters andour parents have always beenthere for us.

The last concert or gig I went towas… I haven’t been to manyconcerts in recent years. The lastone I went to was The Wiggles inPlymouth in 2008 with my twochildren, George and Jack. TheWiggles are an Australianchildren’s band and they produce alot of educational songs that arereally lessons in life – about whatyou should eat or how you shouldbehave. They had one song calledFruit Salad Yummy Yummy. Theyare a household name in Australiaand even have their own TV show. Iprobably enjoyed the concertmore than my children but thenI’ve always been a kid at heart.

I often dream about… having myown 50m pool in Oxford. I wouldhave accommodation on poolsideso that the swimmers who have totravel long distances could stayover. I have so many swimmersthat travel and have to get up at4.15am. It would be so much easierif they could sleep at the pool. Iwould also have studio flats for thecoaching staff. I have coaches whoare single guys and they arehaving to find accommodation atextortionate rates.I also dream about having an

underground transport system inOxford. The traffic is horrendous.So if there are any millionaires outthere, I would be very pleased tohear from them.The only other thing I dream

about is our club’s Oxford bullmascot. We have a friendly rivalrywith Thanet and City of Cardiff andthey have huge mascots that paleours into insignificance. I wouldlike a bigger and wackier mascot –maybe one on stilts – so we canmatch Thanet and Cardiff. We


The City of Oxford head coach reveals thatshe once went off the 10m board withTom Daley and why she’d probably do

well on ‘Strictly’

AMANDA BOOTH

Honesty Box Oct15 RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 03/09/2015 10:23 Page 1


have to take it to a new level now.Not that I’m competitive!

My heart was broken… onJanuary 1, 2010, the day I realisedmy marriage was over and my twoboys would be growing up in abroken family. I had such a happychildhood and wanted my childrento grow up in a happy familyenvironment like the one I wasbrought up in. Not to be able to dothat for them broke my heart. Fiveyears on, they are very happy andhave settled into school in Oxford.Children are incredibly adaptable.

The last time I cried was… thisweek. My younger son, Jack, hasautistic spectrum disorder (ASD)and he has a full-time teachingassistant at school. She hasworked with him for two years andhas been wonderful. But she toldme she is finishing at school thisyear. I cried was when she told meshe was leaving.

My ultimate indulgence is… theonly thing I can think of is to watcha film of my choice at the cinema.Everything at home is about mytwo boys. What would be nice is toenjoy an uninterrupted trip to afilm of my choice. I never get thechance to do anything like that soit would be a real luxury.

My ideal dinner party guestswould be… I’m not a dinner party

person and prefer informal mealswith family and friends. Notincluding family members, myideal guests would include myclosest friends, Michaela Breeze,and her partner, Sinead Kelly.Michaela was a Commonwealthgold medal-winning weightlifterand I was her physio for about 16years, on and off. She is anamazing character and such amotivational person. Sinead wasan international netball player.They married in Devon recentlyand I was fortunate enough to beinvited. It was the first gaymarriage I have been to and it wasan absolutely fabulous wedding. Other guests I would like are my

coaching colleague KyleFrantzeskou and his brother, Dale.Kyle coached with me at Plymouthand has now joined me in Oxford.Dale coaches at Cardiff. Both aregreat company. We’re able tobounce ideas off each other.The best thing about them all is

that they are very genuine peopleand all think outside the box.

Before I die, I want to… ensureour two boys are secure,independent and happy. Jack’sautism will mean that beingindependent will be a big challengebut it’s something I’m going to trymy hardest to help him with.

The biggest lesson life hastaught me is… that sometimes

walking away is a step forward.Always keep an open mind andnever stop learning.

My favourite way to relax is…walking on the beach and clifftopsin Cornwall. I just love the Cornishcoastline. I love the sound of wavescrashing onto the beach. Myparents always took us to Cornwallin the holidays. I went with myparents and my boys this summer.You can’t beat the Cornish coast.

My favourite book and film… Idon’t get a lot of time for books. Myfavourite film and book that madea memorable impression wereSchindler’s List. I read the bookbefore I saw the film. I’m quite intohistory. That film had an effect onme. On a more joyful side, a filmthat always makes me laugh isDrop Dead Fredwith Rik Mayall. It’sa children’s film about animaginary friend. It’s really funny.

If I wasn’t doing this, I’d be…probably coaching dancing. When Iwas younger, I danced and swamuntil I had to make a choice. I loveddancing the most but the teacherwasn’t as good and swimming waswhat I ended up doing. The girls Idanced with are all professionaldancers or dance teachers.

The hardest thing I’ve had to dois… recite a poem at my Grandma’sfuneral. It was a difficult thing to do

because everybody in front of mewas crying. To try and bottle thoseemotions up so you can read apoem is so difficult.

I owe my parents… not only what Ihave already said but withoutthem I wouldn’t be coaching today.I wouldn’t have been able to coachat Oxford without their support.The hours of work in swimming areso anti-social. How could I leavetwo young boys and go to morningtraining without someone in thehouse? My parents live near Bathand Mum is here three-and-a-halfdays a week so there is someone inthe house for my boys. That’s a bigsacrifice for both my parents.

My heroes are… my sons. Jack, 10,because every day he has to dealwith the challenges of beingautistic, and George, 12, becausehe has become such a caring andsupportive brother. People dojudge and he has to deal with theirlack of understanding. He triesreally hard to understand andsupport his younger brother’sdifficulties. They are both amazing.Other than that, I have never

hero-worshipped. I am not thattype of person. I just haven’t beencelebrity- or hero-orientated.

I’m a Celebrity or Strictly?I absolutely love dancing so I wouldlove an opportunity to dosomething like Strictly ComeDancing. But I also love teamchallenges so I would have notrouble taking on the jungle either.But I wouldn’t do either because Idon't like celebrity and reality TV.

If I could spend my fantasy 24hours as I wished, with norestriction on travel, I would…want to be on a space station withmy two sons circumnavigating theearth. I think it would be anincredible experience to see theearth from above and to lookthrough space. I would also love togo to Norway and see the NorthernLights because I have Norwegianancestors.

Honesty box

‘I once jumped off the 10m board with Tom Daley.He gave me some helpful hints. It was exhilarating

and I went straight back up to do it on my own’

Opposite:Amanda Booth;left: Amanda(far right) withher City ofOxford team atthe NationalArena League Bfinal in Cardiff

Honesty Box Oct15 RGph.qxd_Honesty Box 03/09/2015 10:24 Page 2

Ponds Forge, Sheffield | 23–25 October 2015

This exciting national event is open to any Category 2 member of the ASA aged from 18-80+. It is a great opportunity to compete against others within your own age band. Over three days of competition more than 1,000 entrants will take part for the chance to become ASA Champion 2015.

Individual Entries Close: 12 Noon 30 September

Relay Team Entries Close: 12 Noon 7 October

ASA National Masters and Senior Age Group Championships 2015

For more information visit www.swimming.org/masters

Funding Partner Official Partner Official Supplier Host City & VenueEndorsed Product

masters event ad2.indd 1 27/08/2015 15:55


Ad sales 01509 640231 >Clubs >Events >Jobs Classified

Naomi receives herSwimtastic award fromSharron Davies

>

And we consider the Great Swim series and ask why there is such adiscrepancy in entry numbers

WE REFLECT ON THE

PLUSSARAH SPEERS

NOVEMBER 2015 ISSUE ON SALE OCTOBER 21 MARK THE DATE ON YOUR CALENDAR

The synchro coach from Leeds is in our Honesty Box

CHRIS BRYANT MPWe speak to the shadow minister for culture, media and sport, and he’s a good swimmer

www.swimming.org/swimmingtimesYou don’t want to miss it: subscribe now

Or scan thiscode on yoursmartphone

ASA OPEN WATER CHAMPS

NEXT MONTH

Classifieds OCT15_Classifieds 04/09/2015 14:53 Page 1


Classified >Clubs >Events >Jobs Ad sales 01509 640231

Copy below is two times actual size.

CITY OF DERBY (Affiliated to ASA East Midland Region and Derbyshire ASA)

Remind you of their LONG COURSE OPEN MEET 2016 Ponds Forge Sheffield

(Under ASA Laws and ASA Technical Rules of Swimming)

Saturday / Sunday 16th / 17thJanuary 2016 THIS EVENT IS LEVEL 1 LICENSED (1EM160127)

TWO SESSIONS PER DAY WITH CONTINUOUS WARM UP / SWIM DOWN

Ages: 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, 15+ and Open

50m, 100m and 200m All Strokes, 400m Freestyle and 200m Individual Medley

Ages at 17th January 2016 Entries close: 3rd December 2015

For further details see www.coderby.co.uk/meets or contact :

Mrs. Sharon Llewellyn 12 Consall Grove, Trentham Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire ST4 8YW Tel: 07889 723774

Also in 2016 at Queens Leisure Centre – Derby

Short Course Level 3 Licensed Open Meet April 2016 B Grade Level 3 Licensed Open Meet July 2016

Open Morning, Saturday 10th October 10.00am - 12.30pm

01502 722175 � [email protected] � www.stfelix.co.uk

Open Mor y 10th October 10.00am - 12.30pmdatur, SaningOpen Mor y 10th October 10.00am - 12.30pmy 10th October 10.00am - 12.30pm

r full time coac ouxpertise ofe

Open Mor

holar. Scff. Sching staf ffr full time coac

y 10th October 10.00am - 12.30pmdatur, SaningOpen Mor

, as arleailabve aships arholar

y 10th October 10.00am - 12.30pm

.ding facilitiese boar, as ar

y 10th October 10.00am - 12.30pm

WANT TOADVERTISE HERE?We offer series rates foradvertisers and classifieds from as little as £27 + VAT

01509 640231

[email protected]

Call:

Email:

Find your perfect job in aquaticsVisit www.swimming.org/careers

@JobsInSwimming


STEPH TOOGOODTRAINING DATES 2015

Steph Toogood, Hydro-Actif LtdUnit 2, 62 Landguard Road, Shanklin,Isle of Wight PO37 7HU Tel: 01983 719579Email: [email protected]: www.hydro-actif.com

WATER EXERCISE EDUCATIONSun 20 Sept Shallow Certification Hemel Hempstead

Sun 27 Sept Shallow Certification Ryde, Isle of Wight

Sun 27 Sept Practical Pregnancy W/S Brighton

Sun 11 Oct Shallow Certification Edinburgh Airport

Sun 11 Oct Shallow Certification Canvey Island, Essex

Sun 18 Oct Shallow Certification Birmingham

Sun 18 Oct AEA Certification Brighton

Sun 18 Oct Deep Certification Camberley, Surrey

Sun 1 Nov AEA Certification Manchester



POOLSIDE SHIRTS // HOODIES // BOARD SHORTS

01709 789590 // [email protected] // ZEONSPORTS.CO.UK

POOLSIDE GEAR

FABRIC: BREATHABLE - QUICK DRY

2 EASY WAYS TO ORDER Call: 01509 640230

1 Email: [email protected]

2

PRINT BACK ISSUES AVAILABLE

Want to know more or book?Visit www.swimming.org/careers To book, complete a Gold vacancy form and enter your ASA Club code alongside your invoice address.

Any questions? Email [email protected]

Clubs Going for Gold

From 1 May 2015 we offer a special rate for ASA affiliated clubs – get our top Gold package for £169 – that’s a saving of 15%.

ASA affiliated clubs are the backbone of aquatics and we want to ensure they can access the best possible packages at a price that suits their pocket.

We are offering our bells and whistles Gold package for just £169 + VAT for a full month.

Terms and conditions apply.

15%saving on Gold packages for

ASA clubs

Photo: REUTERS

Prices:Online version: Free of charge

(through FINA Member Federations)or 1.5 EUR/2 USD/copy

Hard copy: 4 EUR / 6 USD/ (+postage)FINA Member Federations ordering a large number of

copies will receive the publication at a discounted priceof 2.5 EUR/3.75 USD + postage per copy.

BRANDNEW

OPPORTUNITY!

AQUATIC STARSONLINE reach

our 1,6 million readersin 203 countries!

What a joy! The online version of the FINA Aquatics World Magazine is nowavailable FREE OF CHARGE following the decision of the FINA Executive!

The FINA Member Federations are distributing it to their basic list ofe-mail addresses, to all those whose common passion is the aquatic sport.

If you apply through your national federation you will be able to read our Magazineon your PC, tablet (iPad) or smartphone free of charge and become one

of its 1,6 million readers worldwide! The best stories on swimming, diving, water

polo, synchro and open water swimming are just a few clicks away!

For ordering printed copies, visit the FINA website (www.fina.org)

FINA Aquatics WorldMagazine is a 124-pagetreasure trove of information,news, views and profilesfrom the internationalfederations andfive disciplines around theglobe. The printed versionof our magazine is dulypraised for its high qualityand for being of benefitand interest to theworldwide swimmingcommunity. The full-colourmagazine is published sixtimes a year,every secondmonth.

Official FINA MagazineSponsor

A


76 October 2015Swimming Times

Following Ian Gordon’s recent look back to the 1980 Moscow Olympics, RogerGuttridge tracks down more of the swimmers who came home with medals

BACK IN THE USSR: 4

Duncan Goodhew MBEGold 100m breaststrokeBronze 4x100m medley relayThe 1980 GB swim team captain has forged ahigh-profile career as a motivational speaker,author and promoter of swimming. He is thelong-standing president of Swimathon, theworld’s biggest fundraising swimming event,and a director of award-winning LimelightSports, which deals with grassroots and massparticipation events.He is also the founding ambassador of

Premier Sport, which aims to inspire youngpeople through PE and sport. He is married toAnne and they have two children.

Sharron Davies MBESilver 400m IMSharron was just 13 when she competed in thefirst of her three Olympic Games in 1976,launching her on a varied and high-profilecareer as a TV presenter, charity patron,motivational speaker and celebrity. In theswimming community, she is probably bestknown today as the person who interviewsswimmers for BBC Television immediatelyafter their races.She recently launched Parents4Sport,

which aims to help parents whose childrenare active in sport. She has three children,including Grace Davies-Redmond, aninternational track-and-field athlete.

Phil HubbleSilver 200m butterflyPhil also swam at the 1984 Olympics andwon seven medals at two CommonwealthGames before beginning an internationalbusiness career that has included executiveroles with Dell Computers, where he headed upEurope’s operations, Sony Europe and the FordMotor Company in Germany. He now lives on the Sunshine Coast, just

north of Brisbane, Australia, with his twochildren. He is director of Ozgreen Energy andAustralian Food Investments. He still swims but‘with a preference for salty water with wavesrather than chlorine’.

Gary AbrahamBronze 4x100m medley relayThe medley team’s backstroker has remained inhis native Southampton area, coachingFareham Nomads until 1988, later helping DaveHeathcock at City of Southampton beforebecoming head coach at nearby Eastleigh SC in1994. He was recently forced to give that up dueto health problems but is hoping to do one-to-one coaching. ‘I believe in training to racerather than training to train – cutting out all the

daily grind that we were exposed to,’ he says.Gary has two children and has been a

single parent and carer for a son with autismand a learning disability.

David LoweBronze 4x100m medley relayThe team’s fly swimmer went on to swim in the1984 Olympics, where he switched strokes tocome third in the B final of the 100m freestyle.He also won three silver medals at the 1982Commonwealth Games and the following yearin Gloucester became the first Briton to gounder 50 seconds for the short-course 100mfreestyle (49.86).Zimbabwe-born David has since been head

coach at Ledbury, Haslemere, Swim Swanseaand Mid Beds and, for the last 10 years, has runhis own swimming academy in theBedfordshire-Cambridgeshire border area. Hispast charges include Wales and GB

internationals Owen Morgan, whose short-course 100m freestyle PB was coincidentally49.86, and breaststroker Andrew Ayres.David, who also won masters world titles in

1996, is married to former GB team physioCabella (nee Wigley). Daughter, Kamie, 14,swims at regional level and is on the modernpentathlon England talent programme. SonAshton, 6, is involved in swimming, diving,tennis and judo.

Martin SmithBronze 4x100m medley relayThe freestyler in the relay final also swam at the1976 Olympics and is proud to have won at leastone medal at every major competition –

Phil Hubble

David Lowe

Martin Smith

Final Five Reflections Oct15 RGph_Final Five Reflections 04/09/2015 15:42 Page 1


Final five Reflections

Olympics, world championships, Europeanchampionships and Commonwealth Games. Hewent on to use his all-round sporting talent byspending a season as a bare-foot place kickerfor the University of Arkansas’ Americanfootball team.He was also head coach of the university

swimming team until it was disbanded in 1996and now coaches CASL, the second largestsoccer club in the US. Several of his playershave gone on to win college scholarships.Now known as T Martin Smith (his first name

is Trevor), he works as a senior executive salesrepresentative for the pharmaceutical companyEli Lilly, based in North Carolina.

Mark Taylor4x100m medley relayMark swam the freestyle leg in the heats. Thesedays, that would entitle him to a bronze medalbut not in 1980. To mark the 25th anniversaryof his marriage to former City of Cardiffswimmer Denise, their daughters Anne-Marieand Zoe asked the BOA if a medal could beawarded retrospectively. The answer was no sothey had an Olympic ring made for their dadinstead.Mark, who also swam for Wales at the 1978

and 1982 Commonwealth Games, is a globaloperations manager for investment bankers J PMorgan Chase, for whom he has worked for 32years. He lives in Dorset and helps out with thecoaching for Swim Bournemouth.

Paul Marshall4x100m medley relayLike Mark, Paul swam in the relay heats(backstroke) but was not awarded a medal. Healso reached the 100m backstroke semi-final inMoscow and broke the Scottish record at the1978 Commonwealth Games.Known as Britain’s only black Olympic

swimmer, Paul was born in Ghana and adoptedby a British couple when he was three weeksold. He grew up in Dundee, where he sadly diedof cancer in 2009 aged 48, a few weeks beforethe birth of his first child with wife, Gina. He alsoleft two sons by a previous marriage.His post-swimming career included a year as

a radio DJ and 21 years in the RAF, where hebecame a squadron leader. Following his death, former Liberal Democrat

leader and fellow Olympian Sir MenziesCampbell, who was also a friend and his localMP, described him as a man who ‘excelled ateverything he did’.

Mark Taylor

Gary Abraham

Final Five Reflections Oct15 RGph_Final Five Reflections 03/09/2015 11:13 Page 2

was seduced into this trip bythe lure of a cheap flight toKazan but the realitiesquickly became all tooapparent – an overnight

flight with a five-hour layover inHeathrow and four hours inMoscow plus rubbish in-flight food.I amused myself as best I could inTerminal 5 and eventuallysuccumbed to the call of the bar,

where I was soon reeling at the £11for a double G&T. After a change of planes at

Heathrow (the pilot smeltburning!) and at Moscow, weeventually arrived in Kazan about8am the next day and weregreeted at the baggage reclaimand shepherded onto shuttlebuses by enthusiastic andknowledgeable volunteers. Thirtyminutes later, and after passingthrough several rather severesecurity checks, we weredeposited at the InternationalCentre in the Athletes’ ‘Gulag’ andordered to follow a green line onthe floor that led us to the firststage of accreditation.

Pythonesque I say ‘first stage’ because whatfollowed after that was quitesimply Pythonesque. We formedan orderly queue and waited ourturn to collect our passes. It was allpretty slick. They photocopiedyour passport and handed overyour meet accreditation. In mostother meets, the process stopsthere, but no, this is Russia and Iwas learning fast that they are

rather big on mindlessbureaucracy (remember the Visaprocess I described last month?). We were then directed to the

accommodation desk, where theycopied your passport and directedyou to the migration desk, orrather, they would have doneexcept that I’d neglected to tellthem I was sharing my room. Aftera wait of 25 minutes, profuse

apologies and a further copy ofour passports, we were cleared to proceed.Next stop, the migration desk,

where you complete a form sayingwhere you’re staying (as if theydidn’t know) and provide a furthercopy of your passport. Then it wason to the accommodationmanagement services desk, whichlooked distinctly like theaccommodation desk where – yes,you’ve guessed –our passportswere copied and finally we weregiven a piece of paper anddirections to our home for theweek: Block 22. An electric vehiclewhisked us to the other end of thecompound and our Block, wherewe checked in and provided theobligatory copy of our passport.It was great for team morale

that all the Brits were housed inthe same block at the ‘Gulag’. Thisinspirational idea would have beena stellar success but for the factthat the ‘Gulag’ was deemed a dryzone. I was, therefore, reduced tobuying soft drinks at thesupermarket. I stuffed a bottle ofSprite in the freezer to chill andpromptly forgot about it.

Waking up in the early hours, Iremembered the bottle, which wasprobably frozen solid and about toexplode. Concerned about theeffect this would have on mysecurity deposit, I tiptoed acrossthe room (anxious not to wake myroomy, Lynne) to remove theoffending beverage. As I gingerlyopened the freezer door, the bottlerolled out and bounced very

accurately and deftly on the toesof my left foot. Uttering a number of expletives,

I hopped around the kitchen areafor a full 30 seconds tryingdesperately to subdue the urge toscream. Then, for some reason, Idecided that as I’d gone to all ofthis effort, I might as well have adrink. Wrong move, Binge! Iopened the top and the thingerupted all over the kitchen floor.Lynne, very graciously, said thatshe had not heard the commotionduring the night, although she hadbeen rather curious as to why shewas sticking to the floor.

Up the PalaceThe masters championships hadbeen relegated to the improbablynamed Kazan Aquatic Palace,which turned out to be anunbelievable swimming facility,immensely impressive and palatialand living up to its name. Swimming here was fantastic

and the Russians had clearly spenta great deal of time and effort onpresenting the masters champs.Of course, what really makes

these trips is the experience of and

immersion in another country’sculture, although that was prettydifficult, as the Russian languageis particularly impenetrable. Asimple evening meal becomes a bitof an adventure. On one particularevening, Lynne and I were joinedby honorary homme de Francais,Le Dunk and Ros Johnson. Attimes, Le Dunk can be‘insupportable’ but he does havehis skills, which include beingworld-class at self-promotion andmore usefully a flair for languages. I don’t even possess an O level in

French so anyone who can stringtwo syllables together in an accentother than Geordie is linguisticallygifted to me. We found a café-barwith some outside seating andchose a table, to be faced with aninaccessible menu in both Russianand Tatarstanese but ‘nyetEnglish’, which were the onlycomprehensible words we couldextract from the waitress.It is a little known fact that Le

Dunk was the early inspiration forthe Star Warsprotocol droid C3POand, while even he is not proficientin 6 million forms ofcommunication, identifying thisизделияon the menu as pastaindicates his awesomeness,although he did fail miserably toorder a bottle of wine.By the time we'd worked our

way through a few beers and aportion of spaghetti carbonara,the place was beginning to fill upand we were able to order asecond course of chips and a thirdof ice cream by pointing at variousother diners’ plates – a rather oddcombination but a brilliant nightout. While all of my Evil MutantSwim Coaches would likely shaketheir heads and tut, it did set meup nicely for the swimming!

Master blogger DIARY OF A BINGE SWIMMER

She calls it the ‘Gulag’ but VerityDobbie ends up being quiteimpressed by her Kazan experience

MASTERBLOGGER

I‘The Russian language is particularly impenetrable and I don’t even possessan O level in French so anyone who can string two syllables together in anaccent other than Geordie is linguistically gifted to me’


Feature - VERITY Binge Oct15 RGph.qxd_Feature layout suggestion 1 04/09/2015 11:58 Page 1



17– 18 OctoberManchester Aquatics Centre

To enter this event and for more information visit: www.swimming.org/waterpolonationals

Entries close 12 noon on Wednesday 23 September 2015.

ASA National Age Group Water Polo Championships 2015 (U15)

Funding Partner Official Partner Official Supplier

ChampionshipsGroup WASA Na

Championshipster PoloaGroup W

ional AgetASA Na

Championshipster Polo

ional Age

2015 (U15)Championships

www

2015 (U15)Championships

t: isivo enTTo ent

g/w

Championships

imming.or.swwwwent and fver this eo ent

er AManchest

ionalstonaerpoltag/wiontormae infor morent and f

entrics Ctquaer Aober18 Oct17–

ionalsion

eentrober

ose 12 noon on Wies clEntr

Funding Partner

ednesdaose 12 noon on Wg/wimming.or

ficial SupplierOfficial PartnerOfFunding Partner

ember 2015.y 23 Septednesdaerpol

ficial Supplier

ember 2015.


EXTREME<<>>READING

Send your photos to: Extreme Reading, Swimming Times, SportPark, 3 OakwoodDrive, Loughborough University, LE11 3QFEmail: [email protected]

We love appearing at weddings or even going up in the air or tendingtomatoes. Swimming Times continues to tour this and other countries...


Your photos

GET ACTIVE!Each month extreme readershave the chance to win a LumieBody Clock Active (RRP £99.95)

THE PRIZE HASJUST GOT BETTER!

WINNER!

Charlie Sulley hoped to pick up some tips to improve her stroketechnique from the pages of Swimming Times as she relaxed on the bigwheel on the seafront at Weston-super-Mare.The 33-year-old had spent the day at the beach and on the pier before

taking in the views of the ocean from the top of the ride. Charlie has been working hard to increase her confidence in the water

after a frightening experience in a pool in Greece. A wave machinewhirred into action and knocked her off her inflatable ring. Unable tosignal for help, she made a desperate attempt to doggy-paddle to safetybut feared the waves would pull her under. Eventually, she spotted her friend standing nearby watching her

frantic struggle with much amusement. Charlie couldn’t understand whyher near-death experience was so funny, until she banged her knee onthe floor of the pool and realised she was in about 12 inches of water! Charlie said: ‘I was in a complete panic. I thought to myself: “I’m going

to need more than my 25m badge to get me out of this pickle.”’ Since that fateful day, Charlie has incorporated swimming into her

regular gym routine so she can be less fearful of the deep end. And finally, here’s Thomasina Trott, from Tottenham, who wastreating her tomatoes and decided, on the spur of the moment,that a Swimming Times extreme reading picture was called for. And for those of you not quite able to decipher in the snap, she

has a very healthy crop in her collection.Tina, as she prefers to be known, has swum in a couple of open

water events this year and is looking forward to more next year.And more tomatoes!

Bride Stephanie Gardner took theplunge when she headed down the aislein Cyprus but in this picture it’sbridesmaid Charlotte who is practisingher diving pose. The bride, owner of Steph’s Swim

School, which operates from the Hiltonhotels at junctions 21 and 24 of the M1,married Robert during an intimateceremony in Ayia Napa. Around 20family members and close friends joinedthe happy couple. Steph’s son gave her away, her

granddaughter was flower girl and herfour daughters were bridesmaids,including swimming teacher CharlotteBooth, pictured. Deborah Bignell, ownerof JKM Swim School, also pictured,carried out ‘best lady’ duties on the big day.The swimming trio took a quick break

from the celebrations to snap this photo with Swimming Times after theentire wedding party returned from asurprise open top bus trip around theCypriot resort.

FEATURES RADIO

WINNER!

WINSGOGGLES!

Extreme Reading Octph RG.qxd_Final Five Readers 04/09/2015 15:41 Page 1

Swimming Times is now available to purchase as a digital version on your tablet, smart phone or PC

+FREE APP DOWNLOAD AND SAMPLE ISSUE

Single copies or subscriptions are available via the App Store, Google Play or pocketmags.com

The digital subscription is a stand-alone product and not available direct from Swimming Times

GET SPEEDO FITYOU HAVE THE WILL. WE HAVE THE WAY.GET SPEEDO FIT

YOU HAVE THE WILL. WE HAVE THE WAY.

Stay motivated by connecting with our team of world class athletes, coaches, experts and like-minded swimmers, o�ering help and advice to help you get the most our of your swim.

Our new range of body positioning swimwear, online training videos and the Speedo Fit app will ensure that you’ll not only get fit, you’ll get Speedo fit.

www.speedo.co.uk

Documents

Swimming Times October 2015