8 September 2010
Lots of life time best performances help bring home the women’s team trophy for the second year running with the club finishing second top team overall.
Top club final standings
Top team
- Plymouth Leander 328
- City of Leeds 283
- City of Sheffield 182
Top men’s team
- 1. Plymouth Leander 249
- 2. City of Sheffield 123
- 3. Warrender 96
- 13. City of Leeds 36
Top women’s team
- City of Leeds 247
- City of Manchester 129
- City of Newcastle 122
Day 1 (03/08): Distance freestyle girls deliver and a shock bronze for the men’s freestyle team
The City of Leeds Swimming Club got off to a great start on day one at the ASA National Youth Championships in Sheffield.
The heats of the Girls 14/15 yrs 400m individual medley set the standard with life time best performances (LTB) from the quartet of Emily Jones, Emily Vose, Rebecca Whaling and Madeline Fale. Anne Bochmann then stepped up to qualify fastest for the final of the girls 16/17yrs 400m individual medley and secured our first gold medal of the championships with a seasons best performance later in the day.
The 200m butterfly heats then saw Lucy Emerson, Anne Bochmann, Anna Cheesborough, Bethany Coggins and Danielle Hall-Jackson produce some of their best performances of the season to qualify for their respective semi finals and Anne Bochmann and Emma Graham moved safely through to book their place in the 100m freestyle semi finals.
The shock result of the first morning but no less deserved, came from the Men’s 4 x 100 freestyle Quartet of James Harrison, Ross Glegg, Gareth Mills, and Mathew Vose when they went from ranked last on the programme to secure their place in the final in 8th position, moving up some 21 places. The final then saw Mathew lead the team out with a life time best 53.80 and the rest of quartet went on to produce an outstanding and inspired team performance to secure a well earned bronze medal against all the odds!
In the 1500m freestyle that occupied the afternoon session before the finals, the City of Leeds shone once again when Danielle Hall-Jackson put the disappointment of the European Junior Championships behind her with a great swim to retain her national title in a season’s best of 16.46.52 and Emma Graham who had only recently returned from Holland where she was crowned European Junior Open Water Champion secured a well earned silver to help put the City of Leads at the top of the Team Championship table after day one.
Day 2 (04/08): Double gold and a British record on day two
The first final of day two saw the duet of Danielle Hall-Jackson and Anne Bochmann produce gold medal winning performances for the City of Leeds, Danielle with a life time best performance of 4.17.9 in the girls 14/15yrs age group and Anne Bochmann, who produced the performance of her life to win the girls 16/17yrs age group title and set a new British Age Group record of 4.10.99 along the way.
The girls 200m butterfly finals that saw all five City of Leeds swimmers represented after the semi finals the day before, was no less successful for the club when Lucy Emerson won her first individual medal at a National Youth Championships taking the silver in a magnificent LTB performance of 2.16.50, closely followed by Anne Bochmann in the girls 16/17 years taking her second title of the day with another life time best performance of 2.13.30, only 10 minutes after the 400m freestyle!
Gareth Mills made it safely through to the means 200m butterfly final together with Rebecca Davies, Avril Kirishenko and Hannah Wardle in the Girls 200m breaststroke, and both Ross Glegg and James Harrison were through to the boys 100m freestyle final.
We had but one representative in the boys 1500m freestyle in Gareth Mills but he did not disappoint as he was determined to add as much as possible to the team points total and did just that with a great swim in a very fast final heat and very close to his LTB.
Anne Bochmann then went on win a bronze medal in the final of the girls 16/17 years 100m freestyle in a seasons best and then went on to anchor the girls 4 x 100 freestyle team where together with Emma Graham, Danielle Hall-Jackson and Lucy Emerson, they match the boys from day one with a bronze medal and our second relay medal of the Championships. Rebecca Whaling also found herself in her first national final of her career with a solid performance just outside the life time best she set in the semi finals, all contributing to the City of Leeds staying top of the Team Championship table after day two!
Day 3 (05/08): Leeds double their gold medal haul
No less than twelve swimmers qualified for the semi finals after another successful morning heats session for the club.
The afternoon session dedicated to the girls 800m freestyle saw Danielle Hall-Jackson and Anne Bochmann go head to head with Jessica Thielman from the City of Newcastle and the Leeds girls once again came out on top.
Danielle finished first in the girls 14/15 years in a new LTB of 8.44.58 as did Anne Bochmann in the girls 16/17 years age group to add another two gold medals to the ever increasing total. Leeds have great strength in depth in this event and of the eight swimmers who took part, five achieved a top 10 position and added valuable points to the team total.
The other highlight of the day came in evening with the girls 200m breaststroke finals. Rebecca Davies set the scene in the girls 14/15 years age group in making her first National final and confirming the progress she has made throughout the season and scoring well for the team. The girls 16/17 years final saw two representatives from the City of Leeds in Hannah Wardle and Avril Kirishenko qualifying in 6th and 4th place respectively. However, Avril never looked back after leading from the front to achieve her first national title with a 5 second LTB and Hanna came through with a typically strong last 25m to take the bronze medal for an outstanding double medal winning performance for the club.
With Gareth Mills, James Harrison, and Ross Glegg and Freya Rezendez also finding themselves in the finals on day three with lifetime or seasons best performances, and the Men’s 4 x 200 freestyle Team (Daniel Gill, Ross Glegg, Gareth Mills and James Harrison) reaching their final much in the same fashion that saw them take the bronze medal in the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, the City of Leeds were still on top of the points table with only two days remaining!
Day 4 (06/08): Relay gold for the girls and Leeds still number one
Day four at the meet got off to a quiet start for the team, but Emma Graham began her campaign in the 50m freestyle by moving through to the semi final and then the final later in the day and our 200m breaststroke medal winners, Hannah Wardle and Avril Kirishenko made sure of their spot in the semi finals in the 100m event.
Anne Bochmann secured her fifth gold medal of the Championships in the Girls 200m freestyle with a LTB performance of 2.01.30 winning by just 9/100ths of a second, and then went on to take the bronze medal in the 100m butterfly putting in another LTB performance of 61.15 as did Freya Rezendez in her first National final with a 64.87 performance in the girls 14/15 years age group.
The girls then went on to qualify together with a busy Hannah Wardle, who had to swim her LTB only minutes after her breaststroke semi, to make the final of the girls 200m individual medley.
The afternoon session was given over to the Men’s 800m freestyle with Ross Glegg the only representative from the City of Leeds and whilst he narrowly missed a top ten place he nonetheless dropped his LTB by over 5 seconds.
The highlight of the day however, came in the final of the girls 4 x 200 freestyle Team where the City of Leeds led from the front with an inspired performance from Emma Graham to lead the team out in a seasons best of 2.03.04, which was all the more remarkable as she had only just left the pool after winning more points for the team by finishing 5th with a LTB swim in the final of the 50m freestyle. This gave team mates (Danielle Hall-Jackson, Lucy Emerson and Anne Bochmann) a lead that was never challenge and a victory that improved on the silver medal from the same event the previous year and took the gold medal tally for the club one step closer to double figures and helped to retain out No1 team position with one day to go!
Day 5 (07/08): Three more gold medals and top team trophy for the girls
The final day of racing saw James Harrison and Mathew Vose begin their campaign in the 50m freestyle with both lads securing their place in their respective semi-finals. James missed out on his final by just one place and Mathew Vose proved a little more fortunate by finishing tenth after the semi final. However, in the final Mathew raised his game with a LTB performance of 24.48 and moved up no less than five places from an outside lane which was typical of the way the whole team had risen to the challenge throughout the meet.
Avril Kirishenko did the double when winning her second title of the meet in the Girls 16/17 years 100m breaststroke. Hannah Wardle narrowly missed matching her result in the 200m breaststroke in finishing 4th albeit with a LTB performance of 1.12.95 and then stepped up together with Anne Bochmann in the final of the 200m individual medley, who subsequently took her personal gold medal tally total to six with another fingertip victory over Jessica Thielman from the City of Newcastle.
The heats of the Girls 4 x 100 medley Team saw the City of Leeds qualify second behind a very strong Hillingdon team, producing a final where potentially any of the top five teams could win. However, as the last race of the Championships, the team of Rebecca Whaling, Avril Kirishenko, Anne Bochmann, and Emma Graham were determined to take the victory, and whilst not leading at any stage during the race until the last 50m, they took gold with a storming last leg of 56.87 from Emma Graham for a win that reflected the way in which the swimmers had embraced the “Team Above All” ethic that had defined our championships.
In the end Plymouth Leander were too strong for us on the last day of the meet and moved ahead to win the overall team trophy by only 40 points, but the girls team once again took the Girls Team Trophy with a points margin of 120 points over the next team home.
A great team effort from the swimmers, coaches and team staff. Well done everyone!
Medal table
| Club | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Leeds | 12 | 3 | 4 | 19 |
| Plymouth Leander | 8 | 8 | 3 | 19 |
| City of Sheffield | 8 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
Lifetime best performances: 70
Season’s best performances: 101