Derbyshire Championships 2002

04/07/02 Rykneld Swimming Club has produced it's best ever performance in the recent Derbyshire Championships. All the hard work by the swimmers and the coaches of the swimming club, paid off with an overall medal count of 66. The total includes 13 gold, 24 silver and 29 bronze medals.

Michelle Sanders not only collected 6 individual gold medals but in doing so achieved 3 National Qualifying times. Liz Moorcroft stormed to victory in the 200m Butterfly and the 400m Individual Medley. Whilst for the boys, Ben Cooper gained a total of 5 victorious swims and produced a championship best time in the 1,500m freestyle. Ben's younger brother, Joe put his goalkeepers gloves away and kept up the family tradition by winning the 200m butterfly in his age group. Gareth Young, was the winner in the 200m breast stroke.

The whole of the club, coach and parents are extremely proud of all the swimmers who represented Rykneld Swimming Club at this year's championship. Joe Lack, the Chief Coach at Rykneld is now busy amending all the personal best times that were often smashed by the young swimmers. Many swimmers produced times that will now qualify them to swim in the Midland and National Championships later this year.

Midland Championships

15/07/02 Rykneld was well represented this year at the Coventry pool, in the Midland County Championships: Danielle Walton, Rebecca Sigley, Jade Goucher, Michelle Sanders and Phillipa Brown for the girls. Ashley Booth, Dominic Hartshorne, Jack Bowley, John Davey, Matt Cooke, Nathan Young and brothers Ben and Joe Cooper for the boys. Chief Coach Joe Lack was proud of all these swimmers who were making their debuts in the Midland Championships and produced some great results, 4 swimmers reaching a final. Notably Michelle Sanders in the 800m Freestyle and Joe Cooper in the 200m Backstroke who both produced National Qualifying times.
One of our regular readers, Emma Cocking will be cheering on her brother Dan as he joins our team of swimmers at Coventry for the second weekend of the Midland Championships.
Good Luck Rykneld !

Midlands

22.07.02 Following on from last weeks Midland championships our young swimmers again had a very successful weekend. Michelle Sanders competing in the 400m Freestyle, gained a Bronze Medal and yet another National Qualifying time. Joe Cooper unfortunately missed his 400 Freestyle event, after being stuck on the M1 in traffic held up behind a motorway accident. He made it in time though to compete in the 200m Freestyle gaining another National Qualifying time. Dominic Hartshorne was a finalist in both the 200m and the 400m Freestyle and gained a National Qualifying time in both his events. Dan Cocking obviously gained inspiration by watching Michael Schumacher last weekend, Dan was just 1 second off gaining a National Qualifying time in the 400m Freestyle. Chief coach Joe Lack was justifiably very pleased with all the swimmers that have taken part in this years Midland Championships

This year has seen a total of 14 Rykneld Swimmers taking part in the Junior Midland Championships at Coventry, producing seven finalists and eight National Qualifying times.

National Results

20.08.02 In the National Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield our club was represented by three of our outstanding young swimmers. Michelle Sanders, Domonic Hartshorne and Joe Cooper. This was the first National Competition swim for all three swimmers, Chief Coach Joe Lack was really pleased with the results which saw 3 top 20 placing. Michelle Sanders continues to keep Joe busy updating her pb's and Domonic Hartshorne demonstrates why he was Augusts 'Swimmer of the Month' with 3 great swims. Joe Cooper, who unfortunately could not compete in his favoured 200m Backstroke due to a family holiday, returned just in time to swim in the 200m freestyle. Well Done to all !

Michelle Sanders - 12 years
200 Freestyle - 22nd (4 second personal best)
400 Freestyle - 17th (2 second personal best)
800 Freestyle - 18th (10 second personal best)
Dominic Hartshorne - 11 years
100 Freestyle - 38th (equaled personal best)
200 Freestyle - 35th (3 second personal best)
400 Freestyle - 19th (5 second personal best)
Joe Cooper - 11 years
200 Freestyle - 72nd

21.7.02 Midland District/Derbyshire Open Water Championships

The club was well represented at the Open Water Championships, Bosworth Water 21st July. In the Midland grouping Joe Cooper in the 1500m and Erica Brown in the 3000m collected Gold Medals. Kevin Sanders was a Bronze Medalist in the 3000m, James Watkinson in the 1500m, Matt Cooke and Liz Moorcroft in the 3000m taking 4th places.

In the Derbyshire Grouping the club came away with 5 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal

National Age Groups Open Water - Nottingham

Top Coach Joe Lack is pleased, as he says that all the constant hard work in training by our swimmers is being turned into 'Fantastic Performances', this was again demonstrated by our swimmers selected to swim in the National Age Group Open Water Championships at Nottingham this weekend. Erica Brown showed why she has been selected to represent the GB team in Dunkerque later this month with a great swim gaining a silver medal. Matt Cooke finished in 4th place in his age group with another great open water swim, Michelle Sanders, in her first open water event finished with a top 10 placing. Also finishing in the top 10 were Adam Sharpe and Liz Moorcroft although unfortunately Liz was later disqualified for interfering with another competitor..(Michelle Sanders her team mate !) Dan Higgon who was also in his first open water event finished strongly and James Watkinson showed again what a gutsy swimmer he is.Well Done to you all

Adam, Erica and Matt also formed the Derbyshire team which came fourth on the day, behind Scotland West, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham and beat several other county teams. This was an excellent result with what is effectively a club team!

Brian Mee Trophy Gala

The coach was full as usual as a strong squad of swimmers and our band of loyal spectators set off to Melton Mowbray to compete in the Brian Mee Trophy Gala hosted by Belgrave Swimming Club. A number of our 11 year old boys remained at Sharley Park no doubt doing a training set, at Sam's Swimming Party, ' Happy Birthday Sam ' This was the teams first competitive gala in what will become a busy schedule and a chance for swimmers to get back to race fitness after the holiday period. The gala brought out our great club spirit with a number of swimmers being given the chance to compete in events that they would not normally choose. Against some great competition each and every swimmer not only swam well for the team but also encouraged each other right up to the final relay. Rykneld finished in 4th place and there was a lot to cheer about on the journey home (especially when the coach driver finally turned the radio off !..Cheers Dan ! ) Thanks to all swimmers for making this a great team gala.

Inter Club Relay Gala

The Derbyshire Inter Club Relay Gala on Saturday brought the club together. There was a excellent team spirit - it is always good to see the younger swimmers being encouraged by the more experienced. Despite the final result we had some excellent swims with the teams working well together. As the season gets under way it is important that we keep this positive and enthusiastic attitude shown throughout the team. Well done and 'Good Luck' to all the swimmers taking part in our own B & C gala this weekend.- J.Cooke

6th - 8th September, Dunkerque La Vague Du Littoral

Congratulations go to Erica Brown back this week with the news that after a great 5k swim in the open sea she finished in 5th place. A wonderful start in what we all hope will lead to many swims for her country.Also in Dunkerque was our own coach Joe Lack who was the GB team coach for the competition

What we thought it was going to be a 3000m lake swim ended up a 5000m sea swim, conditions were very tough and it rained hard throughout the race. It didn't help that there was a very strong current going from left to right on the course. In total, 38 swimmers who had come from all over Europe started the race with only about 20 who finished, mainly because of the conditions. I am pleased to say that all 5 GB junior swimmers showed great spirit and all finished, with 4 GB swimmers in the top 10. The Great Britain Juniors (Including Erica) won Top Team
Excellent results from all swimmers especially pleased for Erica (aka. Delicate Little Flower) who as the youngest competitor has now established herself as one of the Countries rising stars! ...Joe Lack

B & C Gala October 6th

This Sunday Rykneld Swimming Club hosted their first B & C grade Gala. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the planning and organisation in what has proved to be a popular gala. As usual there has been a great deal of hard work and time which has been put in from our willing band of ' volunteers'. I would also like to thank the welcome number of sponsors who have supported Rykneld Swimming Club for this event and finally I hope that all the competing swimmers had both a successful and enjoyable day. A full set of results can be downloaded from our open meets page.

Goodbye to our friends from Matlock

During the refurbishment at the Matlock Pool, Rykneld Swimming Club was pleased to be able to provide training for a number of the Matlock Squad swimmers. Two swimmers in particular Steph Porter and John Davy became familiar faces in our pool at Sharley Park. The refurbishment complete and both Steph and John have now returned to the Matlock pool having made strong friendships at our Rykneld Club. It was great to see Steph Porter take the 'Top Girl Award' in the Rykneld B Grade Gala, we hope that you all enjoyed your time with us (even the early morning sessions.)

AGM 2002

Thursday 10th of October the club held the AGM for 2002

Mansfield Major Oak Designated Meet
23rd and 24th November
This was the first chance for swimmers to achieve District qualifying times and it produced some outstanding early season performances from all the swimmers involved.
Midlands Qualifyers (From this weekend)
Erica Brown - 200 Free
Michelle Sanders - 100 & 200 Free, 200 IM
Dan Cocking- 100 & 200 Free, 200 IM
Joe Cooper - 200 Free
Dominic Hartshorne - 100 & 200 Free
Christian Johnson - 100 & 200 Back, 100 & 200 Breast
Other swimmers making finals:
Ashley Booth, Laura Chambers, Liz Moorcroft, Danielle Walton, Stephanie Smith, Ben Cooper
These results show that we are heading in the right direction. At this same point last year we did not have any Midland qualifyers. The next twelve weeks of training leading upto the County Championships are very important. It is important that swimmers attend as many sessions as possible through the winter and work hard to make sure they are at their peak fitness in March. Joe would also like to mention how impressed he was with the team atmosphere. If the swimmers were not in the pool they were on the end of it pulling their team mates on.Thanks also to Lee Hartshorne who also spent most of the weekend coaching on poolside with Joe (even though he is a lightweight and missed Sunday morning!!!)

Speedo Gala November 9th

Our swimmers looked the business in their new team track suits which had arrived in time for the Second Round of the Speedo Gala. The gala was hosted by Chesterfield S.C. at our home pool Sharley Park and there was a great atmosphere from the large numbers of spectators supporting 6 strong swimming teams. The result of the gala was close right to the end with Chesterfield coming out the victors and Rykneld finishing fourth. I wish to congratulate every swimmer from the club for a great team performance, many of our swimmers were swimming in an age group higher than they would normally and this was against 5 very strong teams. Our next Speedo gala is on the 14th of December and I am sure that we will finish well placed in the Speedo League this season, with our swimmers competing as well as they did on Saturday. It will also leave us well placed to have a real go at next seasons Speedo, with some good youngsters coming through to compete next year and with most of our swimmers competing in their own age groups. Well done to you all.

Speedo Gala October 12th

The venue was the Cheslyn Hay Pool, it was the start of the Speedo Competition and as usual the Rykneld Supporters Club were in great voice ( and numbers) to cheer on our swimmers. The Rykneld swimmers didn't disappoint and again we had some fantastic performances with Pb's coming in thick and fast. To name individual swimmers is difficult because of the great all round performance of the team but for the girls Laura Chambers and the boys Ashley Booth I think both put in some outstanding swims. Both swimmers came to the gala feeling less than 100% but both were kept busy, they both produced high quality swims for the team. One more swimmer that I would like to mention is Connie Hammond, to me Connie demonstrated the full meaning of team swimming she cheered, encouraged and congratulated every team member throughout the gala. The team pushed for 1st place all the way through the competition but finally came away with 2nd place just 7 points behind the eventual winners, Perry Beeches. A great start to the Speedo Competition.

Bryan Produces a World Record Swim

It is fantastic to be able to announce that Bryan returns this week with the title of 'World Record Holder,' Bryan was part of the 4x100m Great Britain Medley Team that broke the INAS-FID World Record by a staggering 2 seconds as they claimed the gold medal position. Bryan had a very successful time in Liberec gaining 4th place in both the 50m Backstroke and the 200m Freestyle and a 7th place in the 100m Backstroke.

Sheffield City Open Meet - Ponds Forge, 30th November, 50m Pool
Again there was some fantastic performances for the second weekend in a row. This competition gave Ryknelds younger swimmers their first taste of a long course pool and also gave some of their more experienced swimmers a chance of an early season training swim.The swimmers are now showing that they can still swim very fast times even though they are in hard training.
Swimmers achieving medals/finalist places:-
Gold - Lucy Roberts, Dan Cocking,
Silver-Lyndsey Wooldridge, Dominic Hartshorne, Matthew Cooke, James Watkinson(2), Dan Cocking
Bronze-Amy Roberts
Finalists (Top 6) Sam Smith, Janice Sewell, Gareth Young
Other great swims which beat the cut off time came from:
Rebecca Sigley and Christian Johnson

Annual Small Pool Gala

The Small Pool Gala was held at Sharley Park leisure centre on the 6th December. In total 22 swimmers entered a varied programme of events. In a change to the normal galas, parents were invited to join the swimmers on the pool side to encourage their offspring, within splashing distance.
The aim of the gala was principally fun, however, try telling that to some very competitive.... potentional Olympic swimmers!!!!! It would be wrong to single out any one individual in a gala designed to compliment the clubs training programme, but I'm sure everyone enjoyed the evening. These galas help young swimmers come to terms with the ups and downs of more serious events both within the club, the speedo league as well as open meets.
Thanks should be given to all those who helped, especially the small pool staff, club officials- including an ASA starter and a troop of older swimmers from the club without which the smooth running of the gala couldn't of happened. The swimmers all received a drink halfway through the gala and parents were given several little chats explaining not only what the swimmers were doing and why, but also the importance of not getting dehydrated and the need to eat sensibly.
All the swimmers received a goody bag at the end of the gala and went home with a glow having swam in a event that contained 13 different races and took over one and half hours to complete.

Well done all you Goldfish, Dolphins and Sharks. See you all next week and keep up the good work.

Erica Gets an International Call

Erica Brown has been selected for the British World Class Distance Performance camp to be held at Crystal Palace (24th - 26th Jan). Ryknelds Coach Joe Lack has also been selected as a Coach for the British team
Erica will be training with the top Open water swimmers in the country which includes World and European Qualifiers. Congratulations go to both Erica and Joe from everyone at Rykneld Swimming Club

Rykneld Masters Gala

This years gala saw again, an increased number of entries to what we hope all the competitors from clubs far and wide fully enjoyed. As with any organised event it is necessary for a great deal of hard work to be done by a willing band of volunteers and it is the sign of a good club when there are so many to thank for their services after the eventIndividual thanks must go to Carol Green, Christine Moorcroft and Lorraine Goucher for this years organisation to Dave Fletcher and Rob Sewell for the Computer setup and timing on the day, for our D.J. Simon Brown and also to Dr David Hunt ' he who persuades' with his full list of Officials and helpers who gave their time willingly to make the gala the success it was. I would especially like to thank our young swimmers that came along all working hard, helping in various ways throughout the day..

Our swimmers have safely returned from this years Swim Camp . However this years swim camp was the final coaching session with Rykneld for Joe Lack who will be starting his new coaching postion with Norwich Penguins on his return. I know that the whole of club would like to say a huge 'thankyou' to Joe for everything that he has done for the club over the past years and a big thankyou also goes out to Joe's family for the 'Surprise' Disco and buffet which gave the club a final chance to say goodbye to Joe

Derbyshire Championships 2003

This years results from the Derbyshire Championships are the best ever at the swimming club, the medal tally for our swimmers came to 99 with a total of 172 placings in the top 6, a justified reward for all the hard work from swimmers coaches and parents at our club. Highlights from the championships included our 12 yr boys Dan Cocking, Joe Cooper and Dominic Hartshorne finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 1500m freestyle, all three gaining National Qualifying times. Michelle Sanders competing in the 400m IM and Erica Brown in the 800m freestyle both

Diddy League The 2003 Diddy league 1st round was held at Sutton Leisure Centre, Sunday 6th of April. This is always one of the first competetive galas that the 9 years will have competed in. We also had a number of our more experienced swimmers unable to attend, but this gave the opportunity to other swimmers to show what a great set of young swimmers we have coming through. That is exactly what they did ! right from the start each swimmer swam their hearts out for the team, with every point vital. Team Captains for this year Jack Bowley and Danielle Walton saw their team mates victorious with a fantastic team effort. Fianal Score- Rykneld 203, Bingham 202, Chesterfield 140, Matlock 101, Radford B 91.

Norwich Designated Meet A number of our swimmers set off this Easter weekend to visit their 'old' (as in previous) coach, Joe Lack whilst they competed in the Norwich Penguin's Long Course Designated Meet. All swimmers produced great swims with Michelle Sanders gaining national times in the 400m & 800m Freestyle which saw Michelle take 1st place in the 800m and 4th in the 400m. Ben Cooper came 2nd in the 100m Fly in a time of 1.05.84 a long course pb. Joe Cooper was 7th in the1500m which again was a national time and Joe just missed out of a national time in the 400m IM. Dominic Hartshorne was a finalist in the 50m freestyle and gained a long course pb in the 200m I.M.

It is always great to add items from club members and my thanks go to Richard Elliott for his following reflections of our clubs history.

30 years of Rykneld
If you didn't know Rykneld Swimming Club turned 30 years old in the summer of last year, over the years producing top quality swimmers. With many coaches and teachers helping us along the way to reach our full potential. Mandy and David Hunt, Glyn Roberts, Barry Moss, Dave Booth, Joe Wood, Beryl Marriott, Lillian Johnson, Les Fountain, Reg Clarke, Linden 'Dusty' Rhodes. Les Booker (Grandad), Steve Preston, Paula Milson, Alan Bacon, Mick Tuck, Eric Cummins, Godfrey Bettis, Francis Dalrymple-Smith, Mick Merritt, Dougie, Sarah and Carole Hunt, Stephanie Mather, Alan Holmes, Jamie Bend, Joe Lack, Alan and Alison Marsh, Christian Green, Lee and Nikki Hartshorne, Chris and Thomas Moorcroft, Brian Wibberley, Rob Sewell, Heather Cooper, Caroline Cocking and I'm sure many more which I can't recall.
We've had some great combinations of team managers along the way from when I joined all those years ago anyway, I couldn't tell you about before then. We've had:-
Dennis Milson and Sandra Fountain, John and June Pearson, John Pearson and Pearl Taylor, Pearl Taylor and Charlie Elliott, Charlie Elliott and Anji Fletcher, Anji Fletcher and Mick Cooke and present team managers Mick and Jackie Cooke.

Since I've been at Rykneld there has been so many people helping the swimmers on their way both by helping on poolside, and behind the scenes on the committee. And I would like to thank everyone who has put their efforts in to this swimming club over the past 30(nearly 31) years. Without you all, this club wouldn't be here today. THANKS!

USA Swimming turns 25
This year, 2003, it is the 25th anniversary of USA Swimming, the governing body of swimming in the United States. See what the best in the world are like! If you're interested in swimming times for all events, training schedules, the history of USA Swimming, or to talk in their forums, visit their website, www.usswim.org Other interesting websites:-

www.swimming.org.au - Austrailian swimming association
www.swiminfo.com - The worlds leading independent resource for swimming
www.usswim.org - USA Swimming
www.usms.org - United States Masters Swimming
www.ishof.org - International swimming hall of fame
www.swimming.ca - Canadian swimming
www.brittishswimming.org - The Amateur Swimming Association
www.fina.org - The world governing body of swimming

Loughbrough Training Having been individually selected after their excellent performances in this years Derbyshire Championships, 6 of our swimmers were invited for a day of specialist training at the Loughbrough pool, with other swimmers from the Midland District. Janice Sewell, Dan Cocking, Dominic Hartshorne, Joe Cooper, Jack Bowley and Christian Johnson attended the in-depth training course which our roving reporter on location, Jack Bowley said was "a brilliant day of swimming full of lots of technical information and useful tips on technique."

Diddy League Round 2 Our team for the round 2 of the Diddy league competed excellently to finish in 2nd place at the Sutton leisure centre pool. Another great team effort as we pushed the eventual winners Ripley all the way to the final heat, everyone of our swimmers was a credit to Rykneld Swimming Club. Coach Alan Marsh said it had been a good opportunity to give gala competition experience to some new faces in the team. The result leaves Rykneld placed high in the league and we are already looking forward to Round 3 of the Diddy league in June.