News / 2011

Merry Weekend for Leeds at Annual Christmas Cracker Meet

Posted on 19 December 2011

City of Leeds scoop 43 medals in a suc­cess­ful week­end full of Christ­mas cheer.

Unlike last year where an unfor­tu­nate pow­er out­age cast a dark shad­ow over our annu­al Christ­mas Crack­er meet, this year’s com­pe­ti­tion ran smooth­ly, thanks in no small part to the many vol­un­teers who gave up their week­end to help make the meet a suc­cess. A big thank you to all vol­un­teers from every­one at the club!

As for the swim­ming, well done to City of Man­ches­ter Aquat­ics who won the Top Vis­it­ing Club Award and were pre­sent­ed with the Kevin Glass­ford Memo­r­i­al Tro­phy by Lin­da Glass­ford. City of Leeds claimed 43 medals in total. Con­grat­u­la­tions to all our medallists!

Gold (10)

Eddis­son Munoz, Richard Maw­son, Kiani Camp­bell-Grady (7), Sophie Taylor

Sil­ver (13)

Chloe Adams (3), Kather­ine Fish­er, Richard Maw­son (2), Lin­da Shaw, Ross Glegg, Danielle Hall-Jack­son, Richard Maw­son (2), Geor­gia Coates (2)

Bronze (20)

Thomas Gaskell, Richard Maw­son (2), Kiani Camp­bell-Grady, Ryan Flana­gan, Geor­gia Coates (3), Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw (3), Rebekah Bir­rell (2), Danielle Hall-Jack­son, Lin­da Shaw (2), Chloe Adams, Dou­glas Walk­er (2), Anna Cheesbrough

Con­grat­u­la­tions to the fol­low­ing swim­mers who won Top Boy/​Girl Awards in their age groups.

Top Age Group Boy Awards

• Har­ri­son Coul­ter – Stock­port Metro
• Matthew Steven­son – Biddulph
• Mar­tyn Wal­ton – Hatfield
• Alex Dunk – Prescot

Top Age Group Girl Awards

• Abbie Wood – Derventio
• Oso­bel Thwaite – Co Chester
• Phillip­pa Shut­tle­worth – Hatfield
• Aimee Will­mott – Middlesbrough

Successful Summer Continues for Benson

Posted on 3 September 2011

Triath­lete Gor­don Ben­son takes yet anoth­er vic­to­ry and is called up to rep­re­sent GB at World Championships.

Gor­don was part of the Great Britain Male Youth Triathlon Team who won a gold medal at the Euro­pean Youth Relays in Tours, France. The event was a ​‘back to back triathlon relay’ (each ath­lete com­petes a full triathlon) and Gor­don took the last leg of three tak­ing the team from fifth to first. He lat­er claimed it was one of the hard­est races he had ever com­pet­ed in!

Fur­ther­more, Gor­don has now been select­ed to rep­re­sent Great Britain at Triathlon (junior lev­el) at the World Cham­pi­onships in Bei­jing in Sep­tem­ber. He is the youngest mem­ber of the 21 triath­letes select­ed, the team includes world cham­pi­ons Alis­tair and Jonathan Brown­lee and all the oth­er top names from Great Britain.

Swimmers Triumph Once Again at Youth Nationals

Posted on 2 September 2011

Youth swim­mers dis­play out­stand­ing con­sis­ten­cy and strength in depth to fin­ish the five day meet as sec­ond top team overall.

The 2011 British Gas ASA Nation­al Youth Cham­pi­onships were once again a huge suc­cess. The team this year showed great strength in depth. More swim­mers made semi-finals and finals gain­ing impor­tant points for the team.

The Youth Team fin­ished in 2^nd place over­all, 3^rd in the Boys and 2^nd in the Girls cat­e­gories. Cou­pled with the results of the Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships the City of Leeds were Top Club through­out the age groups 11 – 18 years of age.

Dai­ly Reports

Day 1 – Wednes­day 27^th July

The 2011 Nation­al Youth Cham­pi­onships start­ed very well. All of the girls com­pet­ing in the 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley swam Life Time Best (LTB) or Sea­son Best (SB) per­for­mances. Freya Resendez and Anne Bochmann secured their places in the semi finals lat­er in the evening where they both swam faster to book their place in day 2 finals.

The boys 400m freestyle saw two out of the three swim­mers com­pet­ing for Leeds make their way through to the evening finals. Ryan Flan­na­gan and Gareth Mills pro­gress­ing through while Ross Glegg swam a very dom­i­nate heat swim in a SB. Ryan and Gareth con­vert­ed to fin­ish in 4^th posi­tion in a LTB whilst Gareth moved up four places to fin­ish 5^th in a LTB.

The girls again pro­duced some out­stand­ing morn­ing swims in the 200m but­ter­fly. Four out of the six girls made the evening semi finals two of which in LTB and equal LTB. Anna Chees­brough equalled her best time in the evening semi-finals, Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw made it through to her respec­tive age group final in a LTB, while Danielle Hall-Jack­son and Anne Bochmann swam through to their respec­tive age group finals in Day 2.

Matthew Gra­ham pro­gressed through to the semi-finals of the 100m back­stroke, swim­ming a LTB in the semi-final Matthew had a great start to the meet.

The girls 100m freestyle pro­duced fan­tas­tic per­for­mances Danielle Hall-Jack­son swam a SB while Emi­ly Fish­er swam LTB, with Anne Bochmann pro­gress­ing though to the semi-finals that evening where she qual­i­fied for her age group final in the sec­ond days finals session.

Matthew Gra­ham con­tin­ued his form in the 200m breast­stroke. Matthew went through at 100m in a LTB and fin­ished with an over­all LTB pro­gress­ing through to the evening semi-finals ses­sion where he qual­i­fied for the final in his respec­tive age category.

Emi­ly Jones qual­i­fied for her first ever Nation­al semi-final in a LTB in the 200m backstroke.The boys 4 x 100m freestyle team made it through in third posi­tion in the finals ses­sion and sus­tained their third place win­ning the teams first medal of the cham­pi­onships. A great first day with a very busy sec­ond days finals ses­sion ahead.

Day 2 – Thurs­day 28^th July

Har­ri­son Day start­ed the teams cam­paign on the sec­ond day in the 200m but­ter­fly. With the team behind him and Har­rison’s deter­mi­na­tion and endeav­our he swam a LTB which very well deserved. Ryan Flan­na­gan and Gareth Mills pro­gressed through to the semi-finals in the evening finals ses­sion and qual­i­fied of their respec­tive age groups finals on Day 3. Joe French made it through to the semi-finals of the 17/18 year old age cat­e­go­ry con­vert­ing his heat swim.

Claire Cash­more recov­ered from ton­sil­li­tis to com­pete in the Nation­al Cham­pi­onships after her suc­cess­ful Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships. Mak­ing the final of the 50m freestyle fin­ish­ing in 8^th position.

Sev­en of the City of Leeds girls com­pet­ed in the 400m freestyle with three pro­gress­ing through to the evening finals. Anna Chees­brough, Emi­ly Fish­er and Lucy Emer­son com­pet­ed well to swim slight­ly off their LTB. Nico­la Gra­ham swam a LTB while Freya Resendez fin­ished 8^th in the 14/​15years final. Danielle Hall-Jack­son fin­ished 7^th in 16/18 years final while Anne Bochmann secured her and the team’s first Gold medal of the championships.

Gareth Mills and Ross Glegg com­pet­ed strong­ly in the boys 100m freestyle, Ross pro­gressed through to the 17/18 years semi-final con­vert­ing his heat performance.

Leeds had six girls com­pete in the 200m breast­stroke, four of them made it through to the evening semi-finals a fur­ther three girls made it into their respec­tive age group finals. Han­nah War­dle, Freya Resendez, Rebec­ca Davis and Sophie Tay­lor all pro­gressed to semi-finals. Han­nah, Freya and Sophie made it through to the finals in LTB and SB. Rebec­ca swam two SB over the course of the heats and semi-finals.

Matthew Gra­ham and Ryan Flan­ni­gan con­tin­ued their fan­tas­tic form pro­gress­ing through to semi-finals of the 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley and qual­i­fy­ing for the finals in Day 3 all in LTB.

The mid­dle ses­sion of the sec­ond day allowed the dis­tance swim­mers to take the stage. Gareth Mills com­pet­ing in the 1500m freestyle swam a superbly paced race. Gareth’s oppo­nents swam a body length ahead of him on the first 1000m, how­ev­er, Gareth had the greater increase in speed at the end of the race and closed the gap to a fin­ger tip fin­ish. Gareth fin­ished sec­ond to win his first ever nation­al medal. What’s more, Gareth’s time was good enough to break the scot­tish age group record pre­vi­ous­ly held for over four years by GB Inter­na­tion­al Rob­bie Renwick.

In the finals ses­sion Freya Resendez fin­ished 8^th in the 14/15 years 200m IM just out­side her LTB she set in the pre­vi­ous evening’s semi-finals. Anne Bochmann fin­ished 8^th in the old­er age group final. Sev­er­al finals lat­ter Anne and Danielle com­pet­ed again in the final of the 200m but­ter­fly. Anne fin­ished third to pick up her sec­ond medal of the cham­pi­onships equalling her semi-final per­for­mance. Danielle fin­ished in 10^th posi­tion pick­ing up an extra point for the team.

The heats of the girls 400m freestyle Team relay showed what strength in depth the City of Leeds has by two team’s qual­i­fy­ing for the Nation­al cham­pi­onships. The Girls 4 x 100m freestyle A Team fin­ished a very suc­cess­ful sec­ond day off fin­ish­ing 9^th in the final col­lect­ing a fur­ther two points for the team.

Day 3 – Fri­day 29^th July

The girls 200m freestyle was our first event on the third morn­ing of the heats. Emi­ly Fish­er start­ed with LTB after her impres­sive 100m freestyle ear­li­er in the week. Danielle Hall-Jack­son and Anne Bochmann pro­gressed through to the semi-finals with Anne pro­gress­ing on to the 16 – 18 year old final on day four.

Matthew Gra­ham was just out­side his LTB on the 200m back­stroke, while Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw swam her third LTB of the cham­pi­onships in the 100m but­ter­fly. Anna Chees­brough swam a LTB in the 100m but­ter­fly pro­gress­ing through to the evenings semi-finals with Anne Bochmann who equalled her SB.

Claire Cash­more pro­gressed through to the final of the mul­ti class 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley final. Claire qual­i­fied in 9^th posi­tion. Claire showed her expe­ri­ence at the high­est lev­el fin­ish­ing in 4^th posi­tion in the final, a very good per­for­mance from Claire who had just recov­ered days ear­li­er from tonsillitis.

The Boys 4 x 200m freestyle team had an out­stand­ing per­for­mance. The boys qual­i­fied in 8^th posi­tion for the final, how­ev­er, the per­for­mances from Ryan Flan­na­gan, Joe French, Ross Glegg and Gareth Mills were of the high­est stan­dard and all con­vert­ed the heat swims to fin­ish in 5^th posi­tion. Anoth­er encour­ag­ing per­for­mance was Gareth Mil­l’s anchor leg, Gareth record­ed the fastest split (1:50.90) out of all of the forty final­ists team members.

The mid­dle ses­sion of the third day opened the door to our female dis­tance swim­mers to stamp their author­i­ty. Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw opened the City of Leed­s’s account with her fourth LTB, Rebec­ca com­pet­ing in her first Nation­al Youth Cham­pi­onships fin­ished her final swim with sev­en sec­ond LTB, an excel­lent meet for the young­ster. Nico­la Gra­ham and Emi­ly Vose fol­lowed with a LTB in their 800m’s. Lucy Emer­son dropped ten sec­onds to beat her SB. Danielle Hall-Jack­son swam in the final heat against very high cal­i­bre oppo­si­tion. Danielle pulled her­self into a strong sil­ver medal posi­tion chas­ing down Jes­si­ca Thiel­man from New­cas­tle. Danielle fought back to become lev­el going into the last 50m where she touched first to win her first Gold medal of the cham­pi­onships win­ning the 16/18 year old cat­e­go­ry two years out of age in a LTB.

In the finals ses­sion and the con­clu­sion to the pre­vi­ous evening’s semi-finals, Ryan Flan­ni­gan swam a super race to fin­ish 5^th in the 15/16 year olds final in anoth­er LTB, while Gareth Mill qual­i­fy­ing in 10^th posi­tion fin­ished in 7^th posi­tion in a LTB in the 17/18 year old cat­e­go­ry of the 200m butterfly.

Sophie Tay­lor and Freya Resendez com­pet­ed in the final of the girls 14/15 year old 200m breast­stroke. Sophie fin­ished in sil­ver medal posi­tion in a very close­ly fought race for the gold medal in anoth­er LTB. Freya fin­ished in 5^th Posi­tion in a LTB per­for­mance. Freya so far had been one of our busiest swim­mers mak­ing semi-finals and finals in the 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley, 400m freestyle and 200m breast­stroke along with sev­er­al oth­er heat swims. Han­nah War­dle was our rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the old­er age cat­e­go­ry fin­ish­ing 8^th in a LTB.

In the Boys 15/16 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley final we had strong rep­re­sen­ta­tion once again with Ryan Flan­ni­gan and Matthew Gra­ham. Both Ryan and Matthew swam LTB through heats, semi-finals and in the final. Ryan swan him­self to being Nation­al Cham­pi­on, his first Gold medal of the cham­pi­onships, while Matthew fin­ished strong­ly again achiev­ing 7^th posi­tion and anoth­er LTB.

Day 4 – Sat­ur­day 30^th July

The boys 200m freestyle start­ed day four. Ryan Flan­na­gan, Ross Glegg and Gareth Mills all pro­gress­ing through to the evening semi-finals in LTB and SB times. All three qual­i­fied com­fort­ably for the their respec­tive age group finals.

Claire Cash­more qual­i­fied for the mul­ti clas­si­fi­ca­tion 100m breast­stroke final after a com­fort­able heat swim. Claire fin­ished in 5^th posi­tion con­vert­ing her heat time by a large margin.

Ryan Flan­na­gan and Joe French both qual­i­fied from heats to semi-finals and onto the final the fol­low­ing evening in day 5 finals ses­sion for the 100m butterfly.

Emi­ly Jones equalled her LTB in the 100m back­stroke while Rebec­ca Whal­ing qual­i­fied for the semi-finals. Six girls com­pet­ed in the 100m breast­stroke heats, four of which qual­i­fied for the evening semi-finals (Freya Resendez, Han­nah War­dle, Avril Kir­itschenko, Sophie Tay­lor). Freya, Sophie and Avril all qual­i­fied for the final on Day 5.

Two teams qual­i­fied for the Girls 4 x 200m freestyle teams. The sec­ond team of Freya Resendez, Nico­la Gra­ham, Anna Chees­brough and Emi­ly Vose all had strong heat swims. The first team qual­i­fied for the final in third posi­tion and held there posi­tions in the final. Each one of the quar­tet of Danielle Hall-Jack­son, Emi­ly Fish­er, Lucy Emer­son and Anne Bochmann swam LTB to secure their bronze medals. Again our anchor leg from Anne Bochmann was the fastest split of all the final­ist (1:59.72).

Day 5 Sun­day 31^st July

The sprint events were saved for the final day! Ross Glegg and Avril Kir­itschenko pro­gressed through to their respec­tive semi-final. The team were well rep­re­sent­ed in the girls 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley. Emi­ly Vose, Nico­la Gra­ham and Emi­ly Jones all swam LTB’s. Joanne Simp­son swam a LTB and qual­i­fied for her first Nation­al final fin­ish­ing in 10^th posi­tion. Freya Resendez made anoth­er finals appear­ance fin­ish­ing in 5^th posi­tion whilst Anne Bochmann swam to a bronze medal from Lane 0. Matthew Gra­ham was the only male swim­mer in the boys 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley where he con­tin­ued his col­lec­tion of LTB per­for­mances achiev­ing yet anoth­er one in his final event of the championships.

The girls and boys relay teams per­formed well in the 4 x 100m med­ley teams. The boys missed the final by a small mar­gin as did the girls sec­ond team, none the less all of the swim­mers gave excel­lent per­for­mances whilst rep­re­sent­ing the team. The girls first team (Rebec­ca Whal­ing, Avril Kir­itschenko, Anne Bochmann and Emi­ly Fish­er) qual­i­fied for the finals fin­ish­ing in 5^th position.

Claire Cash­more fin­ished in 5^th posi­tion in the mul­ti clas­si­fi­ca­tion 100m freestyle. Claire had suf­fered with ton­sil­li­tis pri­or to the cham­pi­onships, she came to the meet with a pro­fes­sion­al atti­tude that I hope all swim­mers in her com­pa­ny can recog­nise that is the atti­tude need­ed to per­form at the very elite lev­el of your sport.

The con­clud­ing finals from Day finals did not dis­ap­point. Ross Glegg fin­ished in 10^th posi­tion in the boys 17/18 years 200m freestyle. In the same race Gareth Mills won his sec­ond medal of the cham­pi­onships fin­ish­ing third in a LTB.

The girls 100m breast­stroke finals again con­clud­ed on the final day where Leeds were again well rep­re­sent­ed. Sophie Tay­lor won a bronze a medal to pick up her sec­ond medal of the cham­pi­onships, while Freya Resendez in yet anoth­er final fin­ished in 8^th posi­tion in the same age cat­e­go­ry. Avril Kir­itschenko fin­ished in 6^th posi­tion in the 16 – 18 year old age group.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to all swim­mers on a sea­son’s hard work a fan­tas­tic indi­vid­ual and team results.

Top Club Final Standings

Top Over­all Club

1. City of Man­ches­ter Aquat­ics 224
2. City of Leeds 210

Top Boys Club

1. Ply­mouth Lean­der 130
2. War­ren­der Baths SC 114
3. City of Leeds 91

Top Girls Club

1. City of Man­ches­ter Aquat­ics 151
2. City of Leeds 119

Leeds Scoop 31 Medals at Welsh Summer Nationals

Posted on 12 August 2011

A large team of 44, many of whom were trav­el­ling to an away meet for the first time, came home from Swansea with 31 medals; includ­ing 12 gold.

Dai­ly Reports

Day 1

City of Leeds start­ed the 2011 Welsh Sum­mer Nation­als in a pos­i­tive man­ner with many of the teams 44 swim­mers pro­duc­ing life­time best per­for­mances in their first swims. After the morn­ing and after­noon heat ses­sions City of Leeds had 12 final­ists for the first finals session.

The first finals ses­sion showed that the City of Leeds were with­out doubt the most vocal team on pool­side as the final­ists set the tone for the rest of the week.

First up Olivia White swam to a sil­ver medal in the Girls 50m breast­stroke from lane 8 in a life­time best. Next up Lewis Evers, Richard Maw­son, Callan Jack and David Keigh­ley went in the Boys 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley. Lewis fin­ished 1^st, close­ly fol­lowed by Richard in 2^nd, with Callan Jack being just touched out to 4^th place. David Keigh­ley fin­ished in 8^th with all four of the boys pro­duc­ing life­time bests. Jes­si­ca Man­ning and Abi­gail Bur­ton fol­lowed the boys and pro­duced the sec­ond 1 – 2 fin­ish of the evening for the City of Leeds with Jess fin­ish­ing 1^st just ahead of Abi in 2ndin the Girls 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley both with life­time best performances.

Lewis and Callan returned to the pool for their sec­ond final of the evening and were joined by Toby Kitch­ing in the Boys 100m back­stroke. Lewis won his sec­ond gold of the evening with Callan fin­ish­ing 6^th and Toby 8^th. The final swims of the evening were Jess and Abi in the Girls 100m back­stroke. Jess pro­duced a best time to fin­ish 2^nd with Abi fin­ish­ing 8^th just out­side her best.

Day 2

The sec­ond day of com­pe­ti­tion start­ed with the Boys and Girls 400m freestyle in the morn­ing heats. With the City of Leeds swim­mers con­tin­u­ing their form from the night before Lewis Evers, Richard Maw­son and Callan Jack fin­ished 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd in the Boys event with Abi­gail Bur­ton fin­ish­ing 2^nd in the Girls event all with life­time best swims.

The after­noon heats ses­sion fin­ished with the City of Leeds hav­ing 8 final­ists for the day 2 finals ses­sion and a host of life­time best performances.

First up in the finals was Joe Mor­ris who fin­ished 3^rd in the Boys 50m freestyle just out­side his best time set in the heats. Next was Lin­da Shaw who fin­ished in 1^st again just out­side her life­time best set in the heats.

David Keigh­ley was the City of Leeds only rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the final of the Boys 100m breast­stroke and he pro­duced a life­time best to fin­ish just out­side the medals in 4^th. In the Girls 100m breast­stroke, Jes­si­ca Man­ning won her sec­ond gold medal of the com­pe­ti­tion, break­ing the meet record in the process, with Lay­la Black pro­duc­ing an out­stand­ing swim to come 3^rd in a life­time best. Abi­gail Bur­ton came 8^th just out­side her best time from the heats.

Fin­ish­ing the day in the pool were Lin­da Shaw and Olivia White in the Girls 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley. Both pro­duced life­time best per­for­mances with Lin­da fin­ish­ing 2^nd and Olivia 4^th.

Day 3

With the com­pe­ti­tion mov­ing into its third day the City of Leeds were going from strength to strength. With the heats for the 200m back­stroke and 100m freestyle pro­vid­ing near­ly all of the teams 44 swim­mers with swims and life­time best per­for­mances to go with them the City of Leeds sup­plied 13 final­ists for the day 3 finals, their high­est tal­ly so far.

Olivia White led the way in the finals ses­sion for the sec­ond time dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion. After a con­trolled heat swim Olivia pro­duced a life­time best per­for­mance in the to come 2^nd in the Girls 100m breaststroke.

In the Boys 200m back­stroke Lewis Evers swam to his third gold medal of the com­pe­ti­tion with Callan Jack fin­ish­ing 3^rd and Richard Maw­son 5^th, all in life­time best times. In the Girls 200m back­stroke Jes­si­ca Man­ning came 4^th and Abi­gail Bur­ton 6^th again in life­time best times.

The Boys 100m freestyle saw Lewis win his fourth gold of the com­pe­ti­tion fin­ish­ing first, just out­side his best time. Richard Maw­son came 5^th in a life­time best and Callan Jack 8^th, just out­side his time from the heats. In the Girls 100m freestyle Abi­gail Bur­ton won her first Gold Medal in a life­time best with Jes­si­ca Man­ning fin­ish 6^th, just out­side her heat time. Cleo Gor­ringe, swim­ming in her first final, fin­ished 4^th in the Girls 100m freestyle equalling her life­time best.

The final swim of the day saw Lin­da Shaw take to the water in the Girls 800m freestyle. After a tough swim Lin­da fin­ished in 7^th falling just short of her life­time best.

Day 4

Day for pro­vid­ed a wel­come rest for many of the City of Leeds swim­mers, how­ev­er the 8 swim­mers who did swim man­aged to pro­duce 7 life­times best times swim them­selves into 5 finals.

The after­noon heat ses­sion fin­ished with the Girls 200m freestyle team win­ning the sil­ver medal after post­ing an out­stand­ing time in the first of two heats.

Lin­da Shaw took to the water first in the Girls 50m back­stroke fin­ish­ing in 8^th just out­side of her life­time best from the morn­ing heats. Next in the water were Lewis Evers, Callan Jack and Richard Maw­son in the Boys 200m but­ter­fly. Despite all three boys pro­duc­ing life­time best swims they fin­ished 4^th, 5^th and 7^th. Final swim of the day was Maise Boyes in the Girls 200m but­ter­fly. Maise pro­duced her sec­ond life­time best of the day to fin­ish in 7^th in her first final.

Day 5

Day five saw a return to the pool for most of the City of Leeds teams 44 swim­mers with 8 swim­mers mak­ing the evening finals ses­sion after the morn­ing heats. In the after­noon ses­sion Richard Maw­son pro­duced a life­time best per­for­mance to win the Boys 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley and break the meet record with Callan Jack fin­ish­ing 3^rd in anoth­er life­time best time.

In the finals ses­sion Olivia White again set the tone with a scin­til­lat­ing swim in the Girls 200m breast­stroke. Olivia pro­duced a life­time best swim to win gold lead­ing from start to finish.

In the Boys 200m freestyle Lewis Evers, Richard Maw­son and Callan Jack gave the City of Leeds their sec­ond 1, 2, 3 of the com­pe­ti­tion. Lewis fin­ished in 1^st with Richard 2^nd and Callan 3^rd all beat­ing their times from the heats. In the Girls 200m freestyle Abi­gail Bur­ton won her sec­ond gold of the com­pe­ti­tion, fin­ish­ing first in a life­time best and meet record time. Jes­si­ca Man­ning swam a life­time best to come 4^th and Ker­rie Sin­clair, com­pe­ti­tion in her first final of the com­pe­ti­tion, fin­ished 7^th, just out­side her best time set in the heats.

The last swim of the day was Ben Young in the boys 100m but­ter­fly. Ben fin­ished 7^th in a very close final, just out­side the life­time best he set in the heats.

Day 6

With every­one feel­ing the effects of five days of hard rac­ing the City of Leeds swim­mers pro­duced a fan­tas­tic dis­play of tough swim­ming to main­tain their lev­el of per­for­mance on the final day of competition.

Olivia White pro­duced a life­time best in the Girls 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley to win the bronze medal with five swim­mers secur­ing them­selves a place in the last final ses­sion of the competition.

Lewis Evers fin­ished off his week with 2^nd in the Boys 100m but­ter­fly in a life­time best time. Jes­si­ca Man­ning and Amelia Clynes came 4^th and 6^th respec­tive­ly in the Girls 100m but­ter­fly both just short of their life­time bests.

The City of Leeds fin­ished their cam­paign with Lay­la Black and Abi­gail Jack in the Girls 200m breast­stroke final. Fight­ing each oth­er all the way Lay­la and Abi­gail both pro­duced life­time best times. In a close fin­ish Lay­la touched 3^rd to win her sec­ond medal with Abi­gail 4^th in her first final of the competition.

After 6 days and 18 ses­sions of tough swim­ming the City of Leeds fin­ished the week with:

• 12 Gold
• 12 Sil­ver
• 7 Bronze
• 55 Final­ists

Well done to every­one involved for an enjoy­able and reward­ing week.

Fantastic Summer Results for Benson

Posted on 10 August 2011

City of Leeds Swim­mer and Inter­na­tion­al Triath­lete Gor­don Ben­son claims two sil­vers in major euro­pean events.

After a crash in an event in Paris where for­tu­nate­ly he sus­tained only super­fi­cial injuries, 17 year old Gor­don Ben­son went on to win two inter­na­tion­al sil­ver medals. The first was in the Euro­pean Triathlon Cup in Echter­nacht, Lux­em­bourg and the sec­ond in the 3000m at the Euro­pean Youth Olympics in Tra­b­zon, Turkey.

On top of all this, upon his return to the UK, Gor­don won gold in the British Junior Aquathlon Cham­pi­onships in Lon­don fin­ish­ing over 20 sec­onds ahead of his near­est rival!

Well done Gordon!

Leeds Named Top Girls Team at National Age Groups

Posted on 9 August 2011

Golds from Kiani Camp­bell Grady and Katy Fish­er helped to see Leeds crowned the top age group girls team in the land.

Dai­ly Reports

Day 1 – Camp­bell Grady Takes Gold

The City of Leeds start­ed the 2011 Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships in fine fash­ion with five finals from sev­en swims and life­time best per­for­mances from Rebakah Bir­rell (200m indi­vid­ual med­ley), Eddis­son Munoz (100m back­stroke) and the Boys 400m freestyle Team of Blake Ben­nett, Math­ieu Ehret, Dou­glas Walk­er and Fred­dy Hoban.

First to take to the water in the finals ses­sion was Rebekah Bir­rell in the Girls 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley. Rebekah came 4^th in a close final with a life­time best per­for­mance, bet­ter­ing her time from the heats by 2 seconds.

Eddis­sion Munoz went next in the Boys 100m back­stroke, com­pet­ing at his first Nation­al Cham­pi­onships, fin­ish­ing in 10^th place in his first ever Nation­al final, just out­side his time from the heats.

Kiani Camp­bell Grady and Lin­da Shaw fol­lowed in the Girls 100m freestyle. Kiani pro­duced a life­time best per­for­mance to fin­ish first and win her first nation­al gold medal. Kiani took the lead ear­ly in the race and stayed ahead through­out. Lin­da also pro­duced a life­time best per­for­mance to fin­ish 6^th in her first ever nation­al final.

In the last final of the day for the City of Leeds Kiani took to the water again in the Girls 200m back­stroke final, fin­ish­ing third to win her sec­ond medal of the evening with anoth­er life­time best performance.

Day 2 – Shaw leads girls to glory

The sec­ond day of com­pe­ti­tion was a busy day for the City of Leeds with six­teen heat swims. The swim­mers fought hard to earn six finals places with life­time best per­for­mances from Kather­ine Fish­er (400m freestyle), Blake Ben­nett, Dou­glas walk­er and Fred­dy Hoban (200m but­ter­fly), Kather­ine Fish­er (100m but­ter­fly) and Blake Ben­net and Dou­glas Walk­er (200m indi­vid­ual medley).

After the morn­ing heat ses­sion the boys entered the pool for the 1500m freestyle with both Blake Ben­nett and Fred­dy Hoban pro­duc­ing life­time best per­for­mances. Blake fin­ished in 6^th place and Fred­dy 7^th against some tough com­pe­ti­tion. Dou­glas Walk­er also swam in the 1500m event falling just short of his best time.

In a busy finals ses­sion Kather­ine Fish­er took to the water first in the Girls 400m freestyle com­ing 10^th, just out­side her best. Next up was Fred­dy Hoban in the boys 200m but­ter­fly. Fred­dy fin­ished in 7^th after a tough race, just out­side his time from the heats. Next to swim was Chloe Adams in the girls 200m breast­stroke, appear­ing in her first nation­al final. Chloe deliv­ered a life­time best per­for­mance to fin­ish 7^th in a very close race.

Kather­ine Fish­er took to the water in her sec­ond final of the evening in the girls 100m but­ter­fly. Kather­ine fin­ished in 2^nd place to win a sil­ver medal, nar­row­ly miss­ing out on the gold in a thrilling fin­ish. Blake Ben­nett made his first final appear­ance of the Cham­pi­onships in the boys 200m indi­vid­ual med­ley fin­ish­ing 9^th just out­side his time from the heats.

In the last final of the ses­sion the City of Leeds 400m freestyle team of Lin­da Shaw, Kather­ine Fish­er, Rebekah Bir­rell and Kiani Camp­bell Grady fin­ished first to win gold with a sol­id per­for­mance. Lin­da led the team out before life­time best swims from Kather­ine and Rebekah set up Kiani to pow­er home in first place.

Day 3 – Fish­er Queen as Camp­bell Grady dou­bles up

Day three proved a tough day for the City of Leeds swim­mers with five finals from 14 swims with sev­er­al swim­mers miss­ing out on finals by the small­est mar­gins. There were life­time best per­for­mances from Dou­glas Walk­er and Fred­dy Hoban (400m freestyle), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (200m freestyle), Eddis­son Munoz (200m back­stroke) and Rebekah Bir­rell and Kather­ine Fish­er (200m butterfly).

Rebekah Bir­rell and Kather­ine Fish­er swam in the girls 800m freestyle and despite their best efforts fin­ished just out­side the top ten.

Kiani Camp­bell Grady was the City of Leeds first final­ist of the evening in the girls 200m freestyle. Fol­low­ing her gold in the 100m event much was expect­ed and Kiani duly deliv­ered lead­ing for near­ly the whole race to win her sec­ond nation­al title of the Cham­pi­onships. Eddis­son Munoz was next to swim in the boys 200m back­stroke final. After qual­i­fy­ing in a life­time best Eddis­son raised his game to steal a place and fin­ish 7^th, beat­ing his time from the morn­ing heats.

The City of Leeds had three swim­mers in the girls 200m but­ter­fly finals. First to swim was Abi­gail Bur­ton, anoth­er first time final­ist com­pet­ing at her first cham­pi­onships who fin­ished 10^th.

Next came Kather­ine Fish­er and Rebekah Bir­rell in the 200m but­ter­fly. After qual­i­fy­ing fastest the pres­sure was on Kather­ine and she did­n’t dis­ap­point. Despite being behind for most of the race Kather­ine pro­duced a scin­til­lat­ing fin­ish to touch out her oppo­nent and win her first nation­al title in a life­time best per­for­mance. Rebekah also pro­duced a fine swim to fin­ish in 6^th place.

Day 4 – Shaw leads the girls out again as Camp­bell-Grady gets three

The City of Leeds fought back on day four with five finals from ten swims. There were life­time best per­for­mances from Kiani Camp­bell Grady (100m back­stroke), James Thomp­son (100m breast­stroke) and Blake Ben­nett (100m butterfly).

The first final­ist for the City of Leeds was Kiani Camp­bell Grady who went into the final sec­ond in the girls 100m back­stroke. Kiani led from the start to win her third gold of the cham­pi­onships in a life­time best per­for­mance. Next up was James Thomp­son in the boys 100m breast­stroke who, after a life­time best in the heats fin­ished 10^th just out­side his time from the morning.

Next in the water was Chloe Adams in the girls 100m breast­stroke. Chloe swam a best time to fin­ish 7^th in anoth­er close race. Blake Ben­nett swam next in the boys 100m but­ter­fly final being just touched out to 9^th place despite a sec­ond life­time best of the day.

In last final day was the girls 800m freestyle team. Much was expect­ed of the City of Leeds team of Lin­da Shaw, Kather­ine Fish­er, Rebekah Bir­rell and Kiani Camp­bell Grady qual­i­fied first and they did­n’t fail to deliv­er. Lin­da led the girls out with a life­time best per­for­mance which set the tone for Kather­ine, Rebekah and Kiani to romp home to their sec­ond team gold of the Championships.

Day 5 – Munoz makes his mark

The final day of the 2011 Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships saw three City of Leeds swim­mers mak­ing the finals of the 400m indi­vid­ual med­leys from six starts and the girls 400m med­ley team going into the final in sec­ond place. The boy’s 400m med­ley team just missed out on the final. In the heats there were life­time best per­for­mances from Abi­gail Bur­ton, Rebekah Bir­rell, Eddis­son Munoz, Dou­glas Walk­er, Blake Ben­net and Fred­dy Hoban (400m indi­vid­ual medley).

Kather­ine Fish­er and Rebekah Bir­rell stepped up first in the final ses­sion to com­pete in the girls 400m indi­vid­ual med­ley final. With the points totals for top girls team close both girls need­ed to find a per­for­mance and they duly deliv­ered. Rebekah swam to a life­time best time and 6^th place and Kather­ine improved on her time from the heats to find an extra place and fin­ish in 9^th.

Next was the turn of the boys and Eddis­son Munoz took to the water first. Eddis­son put in an out­stand­ing per­for­mance to improve sig­nif­i­cant­ly on his life­time best set in the heats and fin­ish in 3^rd place to win his first nation­al medal. Dou­glas Walk­er went next and pro­duced a life­time best to fin­ish in 4^th place.

City of Leeds last swim of the Cham­pi­onships was the girls 400m med­ley team of Kiani Camp­bell-Grady, Chloe Adams, Katy Fish­er and Lin­da Shaw. With only 1 sec­ond cov­er­ing 2^nd to 4^th place the girls were touched out in the final stages of the race despite a strong last leg from Lin­da fin­ish­ing just out­side the medals in 4^th place.

Despite this dis­ap­point­ment the girls had plen­ty to cheer about as they were crowned the 2011 Nation­al Age Group Girls Teams Cham­pi­ons beat­ing City of Leices­ter by 7pts.

Well done to every­one involved.

Top Club Final Standings

Top Over­all Club

1. Stock­port Metro 203
2. Hat­field 178
3. Nova Cen­tu­ri­on 173
4. City of Leeds 158

Top Girls Team

1. City of Leeds 118
2. City of Leices­ter 111
3. Taunton Deane 104

Top Boys Team

1. Hat­field 178
2. Thanet 114
3. City of Leeds 40

Degree of European Success For Cashmore

Posted on 15 July 2011

City of Leeds swim­ming star Claire Cash­more is on the crest of a wave after claim­ing five medals and help­ing break two records at the recent IPC Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships in Berlin.

The 23-year-old Great Britain inter­na­tion­al enjoyed a stun­ning week of suc­cess in Ger­many, win­ning two gold medals, a sil­ver and two bronze, as well as set­ting an indi­vid­ual British record and break­ing world and Euro­pean records in the med­ley team relay events.

The Kid­der­min­ster swim­mer’s per­son­al achieve­ments were fur­ther boost­ed, when dur­ing the event, she dis­cov­ered she had secured a 2:1 in her Lin­guis­tics and Pho­net­ics degree at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leeds.

While com­plet­ing her degree Claire has lived in Leeds for the last three years, train­ing as part of the City of Leeds squad at the Aquat­ics Cen­tre at the John Charles Cen­tre for Sport.

Her first medal in Berlin came from being part of the freestyle relay team which set a new Euro­pean record in win­ning gold. A sil­ver medal and British record fol­lowed in the indi­vid­ual 100m breast­stroke events, before claim­ing bronze in both the 100m but­ter­fly and 200m indi­vid­ual medley.

Her week of suc­cess con­clud­ed in style with a gold medal and new world record in the relay med­ley event, before things got even bet­ter when Claire dis­cov­ered her degree result.

City of Leeds swim­mer Claire Cash­more said:

I’m real­ly hap­py with my swims at the Euro­pean Cham­pi­onships and it shows I am in great shape a year before Lon­don 2012. Find­ing out about my degree result too means it has been a very good few weeks for me.

This year has been real­ly tough try­ing to jug­gle third year of uni­ver­si­ty and swim­ming so to have the medals in my pock­et is a great feel­ing. The Euro­peans were a step­ping stone for the Par­a­lympics so it is very excit­ing and a bit scary to think the next major event will be at Lon­don 2012!

Next year being the Par­a­lympic Games I want to do every­thing pos­si­ble to ensure I that I am in the best shape of my life.

The City of Leeds Swim­ming Club is sup­port­ed by Leeds City Coun­cil’s Swim­ming Train­ing Scheme, and Senior Age Group Coach Richard Deni­gan said:

Major con­grat­u­la­tions to Claire for her tremen­dous suc­cess in Berlin. Togeth­er with her degree result it was a great week so all cred­it to her for being so focused and ded­i­cat­ed in doing her best in both aspects of her life.

Togeth­er with the sup­port of all the coach­ing staff, her com­mit­ment to con­tin­u­al­ly improv­ing is fan­tas­tic and with the Lon­don 2012 Par­a­lympics now only a year away it is real­ly excit­ing for her and the team.

Leeds Finish Top of Medal Table at North East Regionals

Posted on 14 June 2011

Final week­end of the NER Bag­cat Cham­pi­onships sees our gold medal tal­ly double.

The sec­ond week­end of the ASA NER Bag­cat Cham­pi­onships took place at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on the 11^th and 12^th June 2011.

With the Cham­pi­onships being the last chance for most swim­mers to qual­i­fy for the ASA Nation­al Cham­pi­onships, the com­pe­ti­tion was fierce with many swim­mers try­ing to achieve their qual­i­fy­ing times.

The City of Leeds Swim­ming Club were rep­re­sent­ed by mem­bers of the Nation­al Youth and Age Group squads, Com­pe­ti­tion Cen­tral and the Region­al Youth Squad.

There were some great swims over the week­end with swim­mers from the City of Leeds achiev­ing more Nation­al Qual­i­fy­ing times and Chantel Mad­den achiev­ing her first in the Girls 200m breaststroke.

The City of Leeds Boys and Girls 4 x 100m med­ley relay Teams post­ed com­pet­i­tive times in a bid to gain qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the Nation­al relays. The teams now have to wait for the rest of the results around the coun­try to see if they have qualified.

The Cham­pi­onships fin­ished with the City of Leeds top­ping the medal table with 26 Gold, 31 Sil­ver, and 22 Bronze medals.

Gold (13)

Jes­si­ca Man­ning (4), Euan Cow­an (2), Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Chantel Mad­den, Blake Ben­nett, Chloe Adams, Jacob Butetr­field, Boys 4x100m med­ley ​‘A’ Team, 4x100m med­ley ​‘A’ Team

Sil­ver (13)

Euan Cow­an (2), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (2), Fred­dy Hoban, Toby Kitch­ing, Jacob But­ter­field, Blake Ben­nett, Lay­la Black, Dou­glas Walk­er, Liam Bir­rell, Lin­da Shaw, Rebekah Birrell

Bronze (11)

Jacob But­ter­field (2), Abi­gail Bur­ton (2), Eddis­son Munoz (2), Liam Bir­rell, Euan Cow­an, Toby Kitch­ing, James Thomp­son, Blake Bennett

Final­ists

Lin­da Shaw, Richard Maw­son, Cleo Gor­ringe, Rebekah Bir­rell, Chantrel Mad­den, Tom Gaskell, Blake Ben­nett, Fin­lay Law­less Coombes, Jacob Sed­don, Dou­glas Walk­er, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Kather­ine Fish­er, Bran­non Pear­son, Lewis Evers, Callan Jack, Dan Hall, Fred­dy Hoban, Jacob But­ter­filed, Liam Bir­rell, Chloe Adams, Amelia Clynes, Geor­gia Coates, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, William Finn, Toby Kitch­ing, Robert Tay­lor, Abi­gail Jack, Lay­la Black, Har­ry Devlin, Chris Greenwood.

Age Groupers Achieve Many National Qualifying Times

Posted on 10 June 2011

Great indi­vid­ual and relay per­for­mances see Leeds top medal table after first week­end of NER Bag­cat Championships.

The first week­end of the ASA NER Bag­cat Cham­pi­onships took place at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on the 4^th and 5^th June 2011.

With the Cham­pi­onships being the last chance for most swim­mers to qual­i­fy for the ASA Nation­al Cham­pi­onships, the com­pe­ti­tion was fierce with many swim­mers try­ing to achieve their qual­i­fy­ing times.

The City of Leeds Swim­ming Club were rep­re­sent­ed by mem­bers of the Nation­al Youth and Age Group squads, Com­pe­ti­tion Cen­tral and the Region­al Youth Squad.

There were some great swims over the week­end with 9 swim­mers from the City of Leeds achiev­ing Nation­al Qual­i­fy­ing times. These swim­mers were:

Chris Green­wood, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Eddis­son Munoz, Chloe Adams, Blake Ben­nett, Dou­glas Walk­er, Rebekah Bir­rell, Kather­ine Fisher.

The City of Leeds Boys and Girls 4 x 200m and 4 x 100m freestyle relay Teams post­ed com­pet­i­tive times in a bid to gain qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the Nation­al relays. The teams now have to wait for the rest of the results around the coun­try to see if they have qualified.

After the first 2 days of the Cham­pi­onships the City of Leeds were top­ping the medal table with 13 Gold, 18 Sil­ver, and 11 Bronze medals.

Gold (13)

Jes­si­ca Man­ning (3), Euan Cow­an, James Thomp­son, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Liam Bir­rell, Eddis­son Munoz, Dou­glas Walk­er, Blake Ben­nett, Boys 4 x 100m freestyle ​‘A’ Team, Girls 4 x 200m freestyle Team, Girls 4 x 100m freestyle ​‘A’ Team

Sil­ver (18)

Liam Bir­rell (2), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (2), Dan Hall, Har­ry Devlin, Eddi­son Munoz, Chris Green­wood, Fred­dy Hoban, Toby Kitch­ing, Rebekah Bir­rell, Kather­ine Fish­er, Euan Cow­an, Jacob But­ter­field, Tom Gaskell, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Chloe Adams, Boys 4 x 200m freestyle Team

Bronze (11)

Jacob But­ter­field (3), Abi­gail Bur­ton, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Dou­glas Walk­er, Chantel Mad­den, Chris Green­wood, William Finn, Eddis­son Munoz, Lay­la Black

Final­ists

Eleanor Jones, Lin­da Shaw, Richard Maw­son, Cleo Gor­ringe, James Thomp­son, Rebekah Bir­rell, Chantrel Mad­den, Eddis­son Munoz, Tom Gaskell, Blake Ben­nett, Fin­lay Law­less Coombes, Jacob Sed­don, Dou­glas Walk­er, Dom Beech, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Kather­ine Fish­er, Jem­ma Ayles­bury, William Walk­er, Euan Cow­an, Bran­non Pear­son, Lewis Evers, callan Jack, Dan Hall, Fred­dy Hoban, Boys 4 x 100 freestyle ​‘B’ Team, Girls 4 x 100 freestyle ​‘B’ Team

Benson Strikes Gold at Blenheim Triathlon Event

Posted on 8 June 2011

17-year-old City of Leeds Swim­ming Club mem­ber wins Men’s Junior Elite age group, plac­ing 7^th overall.

The Blenheim Triathlon, which forms part of the British Triathlon Super Series was held on the 4^th/​5th June 2011. City of Leeds Swim­ming Club mem­ber Gor­don Ben­son was com­pet­ing in the Men’s Junior Elite age group. The event con­sist­ed of a 750m swim, 20K bike ride and a 5k run.

Despite los­ing some time in his tran­si­tions Gor­don won the Men’s Junior Elite Blenheim Triathlon and came 7^th over­all in a time of 01hr 01:49.

This result puts him at the top of the British Triathlon Super Series for the Elite Junior Men, a fan­tas­tic achieve­ment in his first year in this age group.

Gor­don has been select­ed to rep­re­sent Great Britain in the Euro­pean Triathlon Champs on 25^th & 26^th June 2011 in Spain, how­ev­er due to a clash with his stud­ies he will not be able to compete.

Despite this set­back Gor­don can still get selec­tion for the World Cham­pi­onships in Bei­jing through oth­er avenues.

We wish Gor­don the best of luck with in his bid to qual­i­fy for the World Championships.

Great Swims and Plenty of Medals at SportsAid Meet

Posted on 12 May 2011

Annu­al Sport­sAid Uni­son meet shows swim­mers are in good shape approach­ing end of sea­son meets.

The annu­al Sport­sAid Uni­son meet was held over the week­end of 7^th and 8^th May at the John Charles Cen­tre for Sport Aquat­ic Centre.

The meet was well attend­ed with clubs from York­shire and Hum­ber­side as well as teams from as far away as Wales.

The City of Leeds were rep­re­sent­ed by mem­bers of the Nation­al, Region­al, Com­pe­ti­tion and Devel­op­ment squads. With many of the Leeds swim­mers in their final prepa­ra­tion for the NER Age Group Cham­pi­onships at the begin­ning of June this was an oppor­tu­ni­ty for qual­i­ty race prac­tice and to get some last minute qual­i­fy­ing times.

There were plen­ty of good swims over the week­end with numer­ous sea­son and life­time best times show­ing that every­one is in good shape.

The City of Leeds swim­mers picked up 21 gold, 23 sil­ver and 20 bronze medals over the week­end which was a great effort.

Well done to every­one involved.

Leeds Swimmers Enjoy Success in Sunderland

Posted on 10 May 2011

Report from NER Senior/​Youth Cham­pi­onships and spe­cial com­men­da­tion for Sam Lawman.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to all swim­mers on some fan­tas­tic per­for­mances. Spe­cial con­grat­u­la­tions to Sam Law­man (Region­al Youth Squad) who had a strike rate of 100% life time best per­for­mances as well as mak­ing finals and con­vert­ing his heat swims.

Gold (8)

Sophie Tay­lor (2), Matthew Alli­son, Gareth Mills, Joe French (2), Boys 4 x 200m f/​s team, Boys 4 x 100m f/​s ​‘A’ team, Anne Bochmann

Sil­ver (16)

Danielle Hall Jack­son (2) Boys 4 x 100 med­ley ​‘A’ Team, Anne Bochmann (3), Daniel Gill, Chris Wilkin­son, Rebec­ca Whal­ing (2), Gareth Mills (2), Avril Kir­itschenko, Joe Siber­ry, Ross Glegg, Girls 4 x 200m f/​s ​‘A’ team

Bronze (9)

Gareth Mills, Girls 4 x 100m f/​s ​‘A’ team, Han­nah War­dle, Joe Siber­ry, Avril Kir­itschenko, Matthew Alli­son, Girls 4 x 100m med­ley ​‘A’ team, Chris Wilkin­son, Rebec­ca Whal­ing, Freya Resendez

Final­ists (52)

Boys 4 x 100 med­ley ​‘B’ Team, Girls 4 x 100m f/​s ​‘B’ team, Ross Glegg, Danielle Hall Jack­son, Lucy Emer­son, Freya Resendez, Rebec­ca Davis, Anna Chees­brough, Avril Kir­itschenko, Matthew Gra­ham, Rebec­ca Whal­ing, Siroos Saeed, Matthew Alli­son, Joseph French, Peter Faw­cett, Emi­ly Jones, Han­nah War­dle, Stephen Water­house, Emi­ly Fish­er, Matthew Vose, Daniel Gill, Girls 4 x 100m med­ley ​‘B’ team, Boys 4 x 100m f/​s ​‘B’ team, Sam Law­man, Girls 4 x 200m f/​s ​‘B’ team

Well done to all swim­mers and coaches.

Hard Fought Third Place for Leeds in National Arena League Final

Posted on 19 April 2011

The City of Leeds Swim­ming Club returned from a five year absence to storm to 3^rd place in the 2011 Nation­al Are­na Swim­ming League Cup Final. 

Leeds Swimmers Turn in Great Performances at National Qualifying Meet

Posted on 15 April 2011

Meet lives up to its name with many Leeds swim­mers post­ing qual­i­fy­ing times for the Nation­al Age Group Championships.

Swim­mers from the Nation­al Youth, Nation­al Age Group and Com­pe­ti­tion Squads were rep­re­sent­ed at the City of Leeds Nation­al Age Group Qual­i­fi­er Meet. It was a busy day of swim­ming for all involved with lit­tle time for recov­ery between events.

All the swim­mers respond­ed well to the chal­lenge with many swim­mers achiev­ing qual­i­fy­ing times for North East Region­al Cham­pi­onships or Nation­al Age Group Cham­pi­onships. City of Leeds were well rep­re­sent­ed in the finals sessions.

Gold (32)

Katy Fish­er (4), Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw (4), Eddis­son Munoz (3), Blake Ben­nett (3), Dou­glas Walk­er (3), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (3), Lin­da Shaw (2), Abi­gail Bur­ton (2), Rebekah Bir­rell, Jacob Sed­don, Har­ri­son Day, Joanne Simp­son, Fred­dy Hoban, Toby Kitch­ing, Tom Gaskell, Jacob Seddon

Sil­ver (25)

Eddis­son Munoz (4), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (4), Joanne Simp­son (2), Toby Kitch­ing (2), Rebekah Bir­rell (2), Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw (2), Jacob Sed­don, Katy Fish­er, Fabio Lare­do, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Chris Green­wood, Jess Lew­ing­ton, Lewis Evers, Jame Thomp­son, Fred­dy Hoban

Bronze (23)

Phebe Robin­son (4), Eddis­son Munoz (2), Richard Maw­son (2), Chris Green­wood (2), Rebekah Bir­rell, Fred­dy Hoban, Cleo Gor­ringe, Abi­gail Jack, Jem­ma Ayles­bury, Jess Lew­ing­ton, William Finn, Fabio Lare­do, Dom Beech, Toby Kitch­ing, Har­ri­son Day, Lewis Evers, Jacob Seddon

Final­ists

Lewis Evers, Chris Green­wood, Ben Tay­lor Walsh, Callan Jack, Rob Tay­lor, Han­nah White, Emel­eye Sanders, Melis­sa Robin­son, Abi­gail Jack, Olivia Dixon, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Jem­ma Ayles­bury, Jess Lew­ing­ton, Cleo Gor­ringe, William Finn, Richard Maw­son, Dan Hall, Har­ri­son Day, Dom Beech, Elliott Holt, Fabio Lare­do, Tom Brag­in­ton, Lin­da Shaw, Dan Brooke Maw­son, James Coates, Guneet Bachra, Geor­gia Coates, Jor­dan Perkins, Zoe Kitch­ing, David Keigh­ley, Jes­si­ca Priest, Toby Kitch­ing, Tom Gaskell, Olivia Fer­ri­day, Han­nah Senior, Kim­ber­ley East­wood, Eloise Boyes, Fred­dy Hoban

Leeds Dominate Yorkshire Team Championships

Posted on 29 March 2011

A one-two in the Boys 9/10 yrs 200m med­ley team was the high­light of a tri­umphant day for City of Leeds SC 

On Sun­day 20^th March 2011, the York­shire SA Team Cham­pi­onships were held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. The com­pe­ti­tion involved 5 age groups, 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, 15/16, and Open swim­ming 200m freestyle and med­ley relays for both boys and girls. 

The City of Leeds Swim­ming Club had an impres­sive 80 teams com­pet­ing dur­ing the day win­ning 11 out of the 20 events and plac­ing sec­ond in 7 of the 20 events includ­ing tak­ing the top 2 places in the Boys 9/10 yrs 200m med­ley team. 

Gold (11)

• Boys 9/10 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Girls 11/12 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Boys 13/14 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Boys 9/10 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Girls 11/12 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Boys 13/14 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Girls 15/16 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Boys 11/12 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Girls 13/14 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Boys 15/16 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Girls 13/14 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team

Sil­ver (7)

• Boys 9/10 200m med­ley ​‘B’ team
• Girls 15/16 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Men’s Open 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Girls 9/10 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Wom­en’s Open 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Girls 9/10 200m freestyle ​‘A’ team
• Wom­en’s Open 200m freestyle team

Bronze (4)

• Girls 14/15 200m freestyle ​‘B’ team
• Girls 9/10 200m freestyle ​‘B’ team
• Boys 11/12 200m med­ley ​‘A’ team
• Girls 13/14 200m freestyle ​‘B’ team

Well done to everyone. 

Yorkshire Sprints Meet Yields a Fine Medal Haul

Posted on 26 March 2011

22 Golds, 19 Sil­vers and 19 Bronzes con­cludes a suc­cess­ful 2011 York­shire Cham­pi­onships campaign.

The final day of the 2011 York­shire SA Age Group/​Open Cham­pi­onships was the 50m sprints held and Ponds Forge, Sheffield on Sat­ur­day 19^th March 2011.

City of Leeds Swim­ming Club were rep­re­sent­ed by swim­mers from the Nation­al Senior, Youth and Age Group Squads, the Region­al Senior and Youth Squads and the Com­pe­ti­tion and Devel­op­ment Squads.

There were many best times over the two ses­sions and City of Leeds Swim­mers returned with 22 Gold, 19 Sil­ver and 19 Bronze Medals with a fur­ther 56 finalists.

Con­grat­u­la­tions to all the swimmers.

Gold (22)

Bil­ly Walk­er (2), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (2), Sophie Hob­bah (2), Jake Lam­bert (2), Blake Ben­net (2), Ellie Jones, Phebe Robin­son, James Thomp­son, Jes­si­ca Man­ning, Euan Cow­an, Kather­ine Fish­er, Rebe­ca Mot­ter­shaw, Freya Resendez, Matthew Vose, Chloe Adams, Sophie Taylor

Sil­ver (19)

Euan Cow­an (2), Liam Bir­rell (2), Lucy Emer­son (2), Jake Lam­bert, Rebekah Bir­rell, Matthew Smith, Chantel Mad­den, Dougie Walk­er, Sam Law­man, Han­nah White, Freya Resendez, Anna Chees­brough, Leah Crisp, Jes­si­ca Man­ning, Fabio Lare­do, Rebec­ca Davis

Bronze (19)

Jes­si­ca Man­ning (2), Emi­ly Fish­er (2), Thomas Coates (2), Sophie Hob­bah, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Jacob Sed­don, Matthew Vose, Bil­ly Walk­er, Mad­dei Fale, Har­ry Devlin, James Thomp­son, Phebe Robin­son, Lin­da Shaw, Freya Resendez, Dougie Walker

Final­ists (57)

Samuel War­dle, Leah Crisp, Rachel Pillinger, Lay­la Black, Oliv­er Bing­ham, Stephen Coop­er, Tide Dracup, Thomas Coates, Jacob Butetr­field, Toby Kitch­ing, Blake Ben­nett, Thomas Gaskell, Daniel Hall, Lewis Evers, Cleo Gor­ringe, Lin­da Shaw, Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw, Freya Resendez, Joanne Simp­son, Sophie Tay­lor, Tom Brag­in­ton, Matthew Gra­ham, Angus Hall, Daniel Gill, Rachel Maw­son, Ellie Jones, Amber Mason, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Phebe Robin­son, Matthew Ken­neth, Chloe Adams, Geor­gia Coates, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Rebekah Bir­rell, Methieu Ehret, Har­ri­son Day, Joe Mor­ris, Emi­ly Jones, Anna Chees­brough, Matthew Smith, Anna Bell­wood, Daniel Clement, Sha­heen Algho­fari, John Coop­er, Beth Reid, Nico­la Gra­ham, Dougie Walk­er, Fred­dy Hoban, Rebec­ca Davis, Kristy Davis, Vic­to­ria Gnandt, Amelia Clynes, Jem­ma Ayles­bury, Emi­ly Vose, Rebec­ca Toul­son, Dom Beech, Sam Lawman.

Important Information Regarding National Arena League Final

Posted on 3 March 2011

Plans for the day out­lined by Head Coach Dave Calle­ja and how to get your tick­ets for the biggest team event of the year!

The Nation­al Are­na League Final will be held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield on Sun­day 17^th April 2011. The squad will be trav­el­ling to the venue by coach. All select­ed swim­mers will be expect­ed to trav­el with the squad in accor­dance with the our Nation­al Are­na League Selec­tion Policy.

Sched­ule

• Meet 11:30 at John Charles Cen­tre for Sport
• Coach Departs 11:45
• Warm Up 13:30
• Coach returns 18:30 (esti­mat­ed)

Swim­mers will be expect­ed to trav­el in full City of Leeds Swim­ming Club Kit and wear City of Leeds Club Kit on pool­side at all times dur­ing the event. Swim­mers who wear a swim­ming cap must wear a City of Leeds Club cap for warm up and rac­ing. This is in accor­dance with the City of Leeds Swim­ming Club Nation­al Are­na League Selec­tion Policy.

The Nation­al Are­na League Final Squad has been select­ed from the City of Leeds Swim­ming Club Rank­ings. Selec­tion is based on age as at 31^st Decem­ber and in accor­dance with the City of Leeds Swim­ming Club Nation­al Are­na League Selec­tion Policy.

Tick­ets

Tick­ets for the Nation­al Are­na League Final are avail­able from Kay Chees­brough (Senior Nation­al Squad). To reserve your tick­ets contact:

• Email: kcheesbrough@​featherstone.​wakefield.​sch.​uk
• Phone: 07931661345

Tick­ets are £7.00 each (£3.50 for senior cit­i­zens and under 16 years). Dis­abled indi­vid­u­als and their car­ers are admit­ted free of charge.

Trans­port

There are a num­ber of events tak­ing place on the week­end of the final and we have been advised that park­ing will be very restrict­ed in and around the pool. The club will there­fore arrange for one or two sup­port­ers coach­es to trav­el to Sheffield if required. To this end, when you reserve your tick­ets you will be asked to indi­cate your wish to trav­el by coach or not. The cost of the sup­port­ers coach will be approx­i­mate­ly £5.00 per head. The swim­mers coach will be free of charge.

The sup­port­ers bus togeth­er with the swim­mers bus will depart from the John Charles Cen­tre for Sport at 11.45am and expect­ed to return at approx­i­mate­ly 5.00pm.

If any par­ents would be pre­pared to help get things organ­ised in terms of t‑shirts, horns, make-up, fun­ny wigs or any oth­er team para­pher­na­lia, then I am sure the sup­port­ers com­mit­tee would very much appre­ci­at­ed it.

It will be a great after­noon of fast and furi­ous team com­pe­ti­tion, and I hope every­one will be able to come along and sup­port the swimmers.

Dave Calle­ja
Head Coach

Two Fantastic Weekends For Leeds at Yorkshires

Posted on 2 March 2011

Leeds swim­mers excel over both week­ends as Com­mon­wealth Games final­ist Anne Bochmann and vol­un­teer Jack Fer­ri­day receive awards.

First Week­end – 19/20 February

The first week­end of the 2011 York­shire ASA Age Group/​Open Cham­pi­onships was held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. The City of Leeds Swim­ming Club were rep­re­sent­ed by mem­bers of the Nation­al, Region­al, Com­pe­ti­tion and Devel­op­ment Squads.

Over the 2 days of com­pe­ti­tion City of Leeds had 155 final­ists win­ning 64 medals, a fan­tas­tic achievement.

Gold (24)

Blake Ben­nettt (4), Leah Crisp (3), Bil­ly walk­er (2), Freya Resendez (2), Fred­dy Hoban (2), Kiani Camp­bell Grady (2), Anna Chees­brough, Har­ri­son Day, abio Lare­do, James Thomp­son, Sophie Tay­lor, Daniel Gill, Lucy Emer­son, Euan Cow­an, Alex Jones

Sil­ver (21)

Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw (2), Douie Wlak­er (2), Jacob But­ter­filed (2), Jes­si­ca Man­ning (2), Liam Bir­rell, Freya Resendez, Emi­ly Vose, Anna Cheese­brough, Jacob Sed­don, Har­ri­son Day, Matthew Gra­ham, Sophie Tay­lor, Euan Cow­an, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Sophie Hob­bah, Eddi­son Munoz, Oliv­er Bingham

Bronze (20)

Emi­ly Vose (2), Maise Boyes, Liam Bir­rel, Sha­heen Algho­fari, Phebe Robin­son, Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw, Freya Resendez, Emi­ly Fish­er, Emi­ly Jones, Dougie Walk­er, Fred­dy Hoban, Matthew Gra­ham, James Thomp­son, Joe Sib­bery, Bran­non Pear­son, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Sophie Hob­bah, Matthew Vose, Jacob Lambert

Sec­ond Week­end – 26/27 February

The sec­ond week­end of the 2011 York­shire ASA Age Group/​Open Cham­pi­onships was held a week lat­er at the Aquat­ics Cen­tre, John Charles Cen­tre for Sport, Leeds.

Dur­ing the meet, Anne Bochmann was pre­sent­ed with the Hen­ry Dixon award for Out­stand­ing Swim of the Year.

Jack Fer­ri­day was pre­sent­ed with the Vin­cent and Mar­garet Horner Tro­phy for Out­stand­ing Vol­un­teer­ing Ser­vices to swimming.

Over the 2 days of com­pe­ti­tion City of Leeds had 181 final­ists win­ning 71 medals, anoth­er fan­tas­tic achievement.

Gold (24)

Freya Resendez (4), Blake Ben­nett (3), Dougie Walk­er (2), Fred­dy Hoban (2), Rebec­ca Mot­ter­shaw (2), Chloe Adams (2), William Walk­er (2), Jes­si­ca Man­ning (2), Joe Sib­bery, Emi­ly Vose, Matthew Alli­son, Jacob Lam­bert, Kiani Camp­bell Grady

Sil­ver (25)

Dougie Wlak­er (2), Fred­dy Hoban (2), Euan Cow­an (2), Sophie Hob­bah (2), Blake Ben­nett, Jacob Sed­don, Liam Bir­rell, Matthew Gra­ham, Abi­gail Bur­ton, Rebekah Bir­rell, Emi­ly Vose, Freya Resendez, Alex Jones, Daniel Gill, Emi­ly Jones, Jacob Lam­bert, Oliv­er Bing­ham, Kiani Camp­bell Grady, Matthew Vose, Anna Cheese­brough, Fabio Laredo

Bronze (22)

Eddi­son Munoz (2), Dougie Walk­er (2), Olivia White (2), Oliv­er Bing­ham (2), Jacob But­ter­field (2), Emi­ly Fish­er (2), Jacob Sed­don, Lewis Evers, Joe Sib­bery, Pheobe Robin­son, Rebekah Bir­rell, Freya Resendez, Emi­ly Jones, Har­ri­son Day, Leah Crisp, Toby Kitching

Introducing The ASA Swimming Performance Awards

Posted on 20 January 2011

The club has recent­ly intro­duced the ASA Com­pet­i­tive Swim­ming Per­for­mance Awards as a pro­gres­sive incen­tive to the swim­mers to ulti­mate­ly achieve their Coun­ty Cham­pi­onship standards.

The times for the awards are con­sis­tent with the ASA Grad­ed Swim­ming Times, and the Gold Stan­dards approx­i­mate to aver­age coun­ty age group qual­i­fy­ing times for 12 year old boys. When this lev­el is reached there is a good chance that these swim­mers would qual­i­fy at coun­ty level.

The awards are aimed at the younger swim­mers in par­tic­u­lar, although all swim­mers on the scheme can achieve them regard­less of age. The awards will be avail­able to the swim­mers at the Devel­op­ment Meets in par­tic­u­lar, but they can be achieved by com­pet­ing at any meet in our cal­en­dar through­out the season.

For more infor­ma­tion on the awards, as well as fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions and the time stan­dards, see our page on the ASA Per­for­mance Awards.

BBC News Recognise Club's Recent Success

Posted on 6 January 2011

Our swim­mers are mak­ing yet more head­lines; this time on the BBC News website.

Superb facil­i­ties and a great coach­ing team are cred­it­ed for ​“turn­ing tal­ent into results” in the BBC News arti­cle linked below.

City of Leeds swim­mers are tops (BBC News)