Posted on 9 September 2010
The ASA National Championships in Sunderland saw a first senior international qualification for Bochmann and a first senior medal for Kiritschenko.
Whilst most of the swimmers arriving in Sunderland were somewhat weary after a long and demanding Youth Championships and found it very challenging to deliver the same performances against some of the best senior swimmers in the UK, the meet for others represented great opportunities.
The highlight for the team on day one was Anne Bochmann winning the senior 200m individual medley title in a new lifetime best performance of 2:13.88 to qualify for the Commonwealth Games and her first senior international meet. Kate Hutchinson, who moved from Leeds to Loughborough last year, was second in 2:15.33 and World Open Water Champion Keri Anne Payne was third in 2:15.38 secs.
Avril Kiritschenko continued her great form when she qualified second going into the final of the 50m breaststroke and raced to another lifetime best performance and club record of 32.44 to secure the silver medal; her first at a senior national level. Later in the week Avril went on to finish 4th in the 100m breaststroke in another LTB performance of 1:11.16 missing a medal by less than 5/10th of a second to finish off a very successful season.
Matthew Allison, who has been with the programme since coming to university last September cruised to the final in the Men’s 400m individual medley in what is his first Senior National Championships since moving from the youth ranks last season. In the final Matthew finished a creditable 4th place with a lifetime best performance of 4:24.7.
Emma Graham posted a lifetime best in the Womens 50m freestyle final after qualifying in the morning heats in 10th position. She succeeded in moving up to 5th place from the outside lane in a time of 26.53 and less than 2/10th of a second from a podium place. Both Emma and Danielle Hall-Jackson finished top 8 in the fastest heat of the Womens 800m freestyle with Danielle finishing 5th marginally outside her best time set at the recent Youth Championships and a good result for her first senior final.
In the Womens 400m freestyle, Anne Bochmann lined up with Olympic medallist and former world record holder Joanne Jackson and was determined to take her on. The expectation of a fast first 200m did not materialise and whilst Anne matched Joanne stroke for stroke until 300m her strength and maturity over the last 100m was too much for Anne who nonetheless secured her second medal of the championships. Only some 15 minutes later Anne was back in the pool for the 400m individual medley final where she had to settle for silver once again behind Stephanie Proud albeit with another lifetime best performance of 4:44.67 This topped off a great season for Anne culminating in her Commonwealth Games selection in the 200 IM, 200m butterfly and 400m freestyle.
It was another great team effort from a young team.
Posted on 6 August 2009
Congratulations to our Girls Youth Team who picked up the Top Girl’s Club award at the British Gas ASA National Youth Championships in Sheffield.
Posted on 18 March 2009
Strong second and third days all round as Emma Graham achieves European Junior Qualification in two more events to take her total to four.
Day 2 of the British Gas Swimming Championships and Emma Graham carried her good form into the 200m freestyle where she swam a personal best time of 2:04.26. This earned her a third individual qualification for the European Junior Championships.
Not content with this, day 3 saw Emma make it 4 out of 4 as she qualified for the European Juniors again, this time in the 800m freestyle. Her time of 8:47.82, a lifetime best by nearly 7 seconds, puts her in lane 1 for tomorrow’s final.
Danielle Hall-Jackson also competed in the 800m freestyle, dipping under 9 minutes for the first time to touch home in 8:58.35, making her the fastest 1994-born swimmer.
back to day 2 and in her first of two swims this week, Hannah Wardle was unlucky to miss out on qualification for the European Junior Championships in the 100m breaststroke. However, Hannah kept up the trend of personal bests, clocking 1:13.15. Look out for Hannah in the 200m on Thursday.
Also competing in the 100m breaststroke was Rebecca Davis. Rebecca, coached by Richard Denigan, touched home in 1:16.46 to take over a second off her previous best time.
Another swimmer coached by Richard is 13 year old Lucy Emerson, who had a busy couple of days, narrowly missing her best times in the 200m and 800m freestyle to finish in 2:08.68 and 9:16.86 respectively.
Posted on 16 March 2009
Emma Graham qualifies to swim two events at the European Junior Championships as the club get off to a flyer on day one of the British Gas Swimming Championships in Sheffield.
Emma Graham, coached by Dave Calleja, clocked a 6 second personal best in the heats of the 400m freestyle, to finish in 4:16.82. Good enough not only for a place in the final, but also a seat on the plane to Prague as the fastest qualifier for the European Junior Championships later this year.
In the final, Emma was just touched out into 8th place but managed to set another personal best clocking 4:15.46 in a world-record breaking race!
Emma also competed in the 50m freestyle, swimming a 26.88 to qualify in 16th for the semi-finals and for another swim at the European Juniors.
Also swimming the 400m freestyle were youngsters Danielle Hall-Jackson and Lucy Emerson, posting times of 4:23.07 and 4:28.49 respectively.
Sprinter James Harrison competed in the 50m freestyle and set a best time of 24.13 but was unlucky not to make the semi-final in a tough field.
Great Job Guys! Keep it up!!
Posted on 28 July 2008
Outstanding performances from Matthew Johnson and Danielle Hall-Jackson, helped the City of Leeds on their way to the Top Club award at the ASA National Age Group Championships.
Johnson concluded his 2008 ASA National Age Group campaign with 10 individual gold medals and 3 bronze medals from the team relays. Meanwhile, Hall-Jackson picked up 4 golds (400m/800m/1500m freestyle and 4 x 200m freestyle relay), 1 silver (200m freestyle) and 1 bronze medal (4 x 100m freestyle relay).
Dominating the boys 13 years age group, Matthew Johnson completed his ASA National Age Group Championships in 2008 with easy wins in the 200m breaststroke (2:30.63) and 400m freestyle where he set a new British age group record of 4:09.59 smashing the record by over three seconds. He finished the day by contributing to the team performance in the boy’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay where the City of Leeds team came third.
Summarising Matthew Johnson’s performances, Richard Denigan, head age group coach at the City of Leeds, said, “Matthew’s target was to win ten individual gold medals at these Championships. Some of his events have been close with Matthew being pushed by his competitors, but we expected that and prepared accordingly. He’s come a long way in twelve months and we are both very pleased that he has accomplished his goal. In training we have been focused upon pacing and learning to swim a controlled race. His swims have been more mature but at the end of the day this is all a learning experience for the future”, concluded Denigan.