Seven Bluefins swimmers headed up to Sheffield during the first two weeks in August to compete in the prestigious British Summer Championships and English National Championships.

Just to qualify for these events is a real challenge and honour for swimmers up and down the country, and the Bluefins swimmers did themselves proud, with a few even making finals!

Proceedings kicked off with the British Summer Championships competition, and the club had four swimmers competing in this. Each event consists of the top 24 ranked swimmers in Britain in various age groupings. Finlay Evans raced in the 100 & 200 Freestyle events and put in some solid performances, particularly as he had been suffering from some illness leading up to the competition. Finlay’s best race was in the 100 Freestyle in which he set off at a blistering pace and narrowly missed his entry time by a slender point 2 of a second.

Mairead Barker competed in both the 100 and 200 metre Breastroke events, with the 200 event being first. Mairead attacked the race right from the off, and actually hit the halfway mark in a time under her lifetime best  for the shorter 100 metre event! She continued to push on in great form to achieve a personal best time of 2.37.90, over a second faster than her entry time. This was enough to secure her a well deserved place in the final. She raced hard in the final event but wasn’t able to equal the superb time she registered in the heats. She did however maintain her ranked position that she went into the final on. Mairead also competed in the 100 metre Breastroke sprint event on the last day of the championships. Putting up a tough fight considering feeling under the weather with the onset of a cold, she recorded a respectable time of 1.16.17.  This was less than half a second away from her lifetime best she had set as a split in the 200 metre event she swam at the beginning of the championships.

As with Mairead, Mitchell Coombes also competed in the 200 metres Breastroke event. He attacked the race with a good first 100 metres and recorded a time which was just shy of his entry time. This was Mitchell’s first taste of a Summer Nationals Championship event, and bearing in mind he started the season last September with a time over 5 seconds slower than his entry time, it’s safe to say we’ll be seeing more of this Breastroke specialist at subsequent National championships!

Adam Milne, one of the club’s most experienced competitiors at National level, ensured that he would continue his run of being a national finalist, as he has been for a number of years! Adams best event was the 50 Backstroke, where he recorded a lifetime best in the heats with a time of 27.20, and went on to compete in the final, getting agonisingly close to his heat swim time, by being just .03 off! Adam also raced in the 100 metre Backstroke and Butterfly events, putting in strong performances in both, with neither being more than a second away from his entry time.

With the first week’s racing having come to an end, it was now the turn of the ASA National Summer Championships to take centre stage. These events comprised of the top 20 English swimmers in various age groups, with the proviso that if a swimmer had already competed in an event at the proceeding British Summer Championships, they were not eligible to compete in that same event in this competition.

Alfie Evans was the first Bluefins swimmer to step up to the starting blocks in these championships, and he certainly rose to the occasion. Recording a lifetime best in the heats, he did a fantastic job securing a place in the final. His swim in the final was sensational, and for the first time ever he ducked under the 64 second mark, recording a time of 1.03.90.

Next up to race were Bluefins Performance Squad members, Daisy Moore and Molly Goffin, both competing in the 200 metre Breastroke event. Both girls gave everything they had at this, their first ever National Championships, with Daisy recording a time within a second of her entry time, and Molly hitting a 2.48 for the very first time. Molly was agonisingly close to securing a place in the final of this event, narrowly missing out by the smallest of margins, .04 seconds to be exact!

Daisy also competed in what is frequently considered to be one of the toughest of all the events, the 400 Metres Individual Medley. Her heat swim was good enough to qualify her for the final, but deep down she knew she could pull something more out for the final race – and she certainly didn’t disappoint! With a cracking first leg of Butterfly, she went on to go 6 seconds faster overall than her heat swim.

In conclusion, a big well done to all the Bluefins swimmers who raced at Nationals over the last couple of weeks.  After a short rest they’ll be back in the pool at the start of next month, getting ready to push themselves on even further and faster than before! 

ASA National Summer Championships - Qualifiers

Basingstoke Bluefins are proud to announce that 7 of their swimmers have qualified for the ASA Summer National Championships.

Adam Milne, Mairead Barker, Finlay Evans and Mitchell Coombes have qualified for the ASA British Summer National Championships, which is open to the top 24 swimmers in Britain for each age group and race.

Daisy Moore, Alfie Evans and Molly Goffin have qualified for the ASA English Summer National Championships which is open to the next 20 fastest swimmers in England.

A huge achievement for all of them.

Last week saw the some of the highest performing swimmers from all corners of Britain converge on the Aquatics Centre in London for the British Swimming Championships.

It was the first time since the Olympic trials of 2012 that the venue has been used to host a British Championship event. Swimmers were vying for places on Team GB to compete at the FINA world Championships in Kazan, Russia, as well as the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the European Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The British team had previously had a fantastic European Championships, topping the medal table for the first time, so expectations for some world class swimming was high. It was no surprise then to see that the swimmers didn’t disappoint, with the highlight of the Championships being Adam Peaty of City of Derby beating the 100 metres Breastroke World record by a considerable margin!

Bluefins had two swimmers qualify for the championships, Adam Milne and Mitchell Coombes, both members of the clubs  Performance Squad. With Adam kicking off the boys swims with the 100 metres Backstroke event, he raced well, particularly making use of his undoubted skill in the underwater phases of his race. He was first in his heat to the 15 metre mark, pushing on to a season’s best time of 59.51, which was agonisingly close to his lifetime best of 59.11.

Mitchell was next up in the 200 metres Breastroke event. This was undoubtedly the highest level of competition that Mitchell had ever taken part in to date in his swimming career, and he handled the pressure with real professionalism and courage. This was even more applaudable considering the fact that he has not been on his best form following a period of illness! Mitchell fought all the way in this, one of the most gruelling events on the programme, to record a time of 2.33.48. The time was shy of his lifetime best of 2.29.70, but considerably faster than his performance at a recent meet, which gives a great indication that he is on his way back to full fitness.

Adams second race of the championships, the 100 metres Butterfly, was held on the last day of the meet. He again demonstrated some superb underwater speed and skill, and powered through to a lifetime best of 56.89, which hopefully will be enough to secure him a place as a qualifier for the British Summer Championships which is to be held in July.

A big congratulations should go to both the boys for qualifying for this, the toughest competition on the GB Domestic Calendar so far this year!