Thame swimming champs are ‘awesome’

THAME swimming club is growing and growing and the members achieving some great things in the pool. Helen Williams gives a flavour of the what has been achieved this year, with here take on the club Champions of 2015:

OVERALL we had just under 100 swimmers and some 85% of the Club take part in at least one or more race, which is a significant uptake in participation on previous years!  We also had representation from each of our Groups from Group 1 right through to Masters, so a massive ‘well done’ to all the swimmers who took part and who made the Championships the success it was.

We kicked off on Sunday November 15, with the 400m Freestyle and 400m IM for both the girls and boys with new County Accepted times being achieved for Sam White and Oscar North for their 400 Free, and Josh and Ben Williams for their 400 IM.  There were some fabulous PBs in evidence too, so special call out to the following swimmers who knocked a whopping one minute or more off their previous times:  Joshua Greig, Lucy Block, Laura Creswell and Kaycia Socrates.

Photo courtesy of Iain Phillips

Next, Sunday, November 22, was the 800m for the girls and 1500m for the boys with Elizabeth Humphreys bringing home First place overall for the girls and Ben Williams for the boys.  There were some amazing PBs in evidence here too, so again ‘well done’ to the following swimmers who knocked over a minute or more off their previous best times:  Hazel Randall, Elizabeth Humphreys, Zoe Cooke, Isobel Nelson, Ellen Ludlow, Jo Hewitt, Josh Williams, Elliot Riley-Brown, Hallam Cozier, Rory Pridmore and Henry Bell.

Club Championships

The main event was the full day Club Championships on Sunday, November 29, and what a fabulous day of swimming it was! Full of fantastic swims and lots of personal bests too.  A massive well done to every swimmer, especially to all those for whom it was their very first gala.  There was very little time between races so kudos to all the swimmers who kept their energy and motivation levels up.

New for 2015 was the Will Finch Breaststroke Canon Relay in memory of Thame Swimming Club swimmer, Will Finch, who very sadly passed away earlier this year. What a fitting tribute race it was too with 50 of our swimmers (in five teams of 10) each swimming 25m breaststroke in canon style to celebrate Will’s favourite stroke.  Fitting too that George Finch brought his team home to win overall with each swimmer winning a £10 voucher. Well done to all those who took part and to those who cheered and made lots of noise during the race too!

Club Champs also saw the second year of the Tom Birmingham Skins event in memory of coach Tom Birmingham who passed away in 2014.  The event was as nerve wracking and exciting as ever, as the top five swimmers from the 200IM competed against each other in an elimination style challenge … would it be breast, back, fly or free pulled out of the hat?!  For the girls Kaycia Socrates, Lily Hawkes, Maisie Randall, Laura Cresswell and Ella Simms all competed, with Ella just pipping Laura to win the trophy.  For the boys it was Hallam Cozier, Elliot Riley-Brown, Josh Williams, Ben Williams and Harry Block with Harry also just pipping Ben to the top spot!  Well done again to all the swimmers!

As a special call-out I would like to highlight that it was Elizabeth Smith’s (one of the Club’s very first swimmers) last gala for Thame Swimming Club so good luck Lizzie for the future.

Homemade treats and special thanks

Thank you to all the parents who baked such delicious cakes and to all the parents/children who bought and enjoyed them too.  I’d like to thank Colin Gibbs for running the stall which made a massive £150 in total!  Thanks also to Rachel Humphreys for supplying the deliciously tasty homemade apple juice.

This is the first time we have run a ‘licensed’ meet and as ever, such an event cannot take place without all the support of the parent volunteers and officials, so many thanks to everyone who helped to make Club Champs the success it was.  A special call out to Wendy Randall for being lead referee overall for the  gala, supported by referee Mark Simms – without either of them we would not have been able to run this gala.  Thank you also to all the coaching staff, under the leadership of Ian Blyth who encouraged their swimmers throughout the Championship and to our Chairman, Simon Haarburger for orchestrating the whole event!

We now look forward to a fabulous Awards Evening on Saturday 30^th January 2016 to celebrate everyone’s success.