BECKENHAM SWIMMING CLUB: WEEKLY UPDATE: FRIDAY 10 APRIL 2015
CLUB MATTERS
British Championships
The British Swimming Championships 2015 (14-18 April) will see athletes make a competitive
return to London for the first time since the 2012 Olympics. Beckenham Swimmmers Luke
Gunning, Kunmi Ogunfeibo, Sophie Lewis-Ward and Teigan Child will pitting themselves
against the Nation’s best swimmers. Also competing will be Lauren Walton and Michael
Gunning who are Beckenham members currently representing other programmes. Good luck
to all of them.
The British Swimming Championships will also act as the qualification event for this
year’s World University Games, South Korea; the European Youth Olympic Festival, Georgia;
European Games Baku, Azerbaijan; World Junior Champs, Singapore.
The Championships can be followed on the British Swimming website
http://www.swimming.org/britishswimming/britishgaschamps/
Margaret Wellington
As reported last week we are sorry to inform you of the passing of Margaret restrick (nee
Wellington). Here is a little bit about her swimming exploits.
Margaret Wellington was our first lady Olympian. She won a bronze medal at the 1947
European Aquatics Championships in the 4×100 m freestyle relay. She finished fourth in the
same event at the 1948 Summer Olympics. At the 1950 British Empire Games she won three
silver medals, in the 110 yards and 440 yards freestyle and 3×110 yards medley relay (in
case you wonder there was no Butterfly event at that time the stroke deriving from an over
the water recovery which had been permissible in Breaststroke), and a bronze in the 4×110
yards freestyle relay.
You can read more about her in the Club History which is on our website at
http://www.beckenhamswimmingclub.com/History.html or see her in action in the British
Pathe Film “Mermaid in the City” at http://www.britishpathe.com/video/mermaid-in-the-city
Captains’ Report on Kent County Championships
“Over the past weekends during February and March, swimmers took part in the Kent county
championships held at Medway. With most of top squad and gold squad there including a few
younger swimmers it was quite the spectacle, with PBs falling everywhere and 13 EBPs from
Tamara Elise Elliott, Luke Gunning, Kunmi Ogunfeibo and Tiegan Child combined.
Due to such a strong army of Beckenham swimmers to atmosphere was electric, with
everyone getting involved to cheer on races and singing along with songs during the intervals
and warm ups (even Tony if it was the right tune!!). It was really good to see older swimmers
helping out some of the younger swimmers to show them the ropes, in what will have been
one of the younger swimmers first swimming meets.
The weekend was concluded with the relays at Crystal Palace where the boys 4x100m
Medley Team kept up their winning ways by winning the event that they have not lost in very
long while. We would like to say thanks to Tony (a.k.a Big T/T Dogg) Di and Kym for getting
us to the point where we could swim at the Kents as well as making sure we were where we
needed to be at the right time and for all the pep talks given to us. Also a big thank you to
everyone who made the effort to come down and support and create a real buzz. And finally
well done to all the swimmers and good luck with the rest of the season!”
Natasha Sinha and Harry Ingamells
Elementary Gala
The Beckenham Swimming Club Elementary Gala is to be held at Trinity Pool on Sunday
17 May & is ideal for swimmers that are new to Galas or have not yet competed. Please see
the last two newsletters and for entry forms.
GALAS
RESULTS
Beckenham International Open Meet
“Well done to all those swimmers who competed at our Easter International Open over the
weekend. Whilst the meet was more quiet than usual it didn't stop the brilliant Easter
atmosphere that went from the poolside seats to the spectators gallery. The Easter 'spot'
prizes were a big hit with the children and I thank all those people who
donated eggs/chocolate to enable this to happen. Once again, Maxine Elliott (Top Squad Mum) hosted our Officials for the weekend in a rather
hot and stuffy 'green room' and presented the food / refreshments superbly. Thank you to all
those bakers out there who donated cakes / pastries / biscuits to boost this. I hear all the
homemade donations were amazing. Well done and THANK YOU. The raffle was made to look amazing by Claire Burbidge (Gold Squad Mum) who has
also worked hard getting prizes from outside sources. Easter bunting and flags made the
table look fantastic and was a huge success with both parents / coaches and officials. To all
those people who also made donations to make this raffle a success - THANK YOU. All our Volunteers who represent Beckenham Swimming Club at all our Opens were, once
again, brilliant from start to finish (some of them volunteered for the whole three days!). You
all looked great in your 'Beckenham Meet' Tee-shirts and these events just couldn't take place
without you - please keep these tees for future use ;-) You all make my job easier so a huge,
huge THANK YOU.
The Top Visiting Club trophy this year went to Ealing with Sevenoaks in 2nd place and
Bromley 3rd.
Results are on the website at
http://www.beckenhamswimmingclub.com/Results/20150403%20Easter%20International%20
Open/Results%201/webpages/index.htm”
Julia
AND THANK YOU MOST OF ALL JULIA
THIS WEEK’S GALAS
Bexley Open Meet
In addition to the British Swimming Championships good luck to all our swimmers competing
at the Bexley Open at Crystal Palace on Saturday and Sunday.
UPCOMING GALAS
11/12 April
Bexley Open Meet (Level 1 at Crystal Palace)
2/3/4 May
London Summer Swimming Championships (Level 1 at Crystal Palace)
9/10 May
London Summer Swimming Championships (Level 1 at London Aquatic
Centre, Stratford)
23/24 May
Sheffield No Frills Meet (Level 1 at Ponds Forge Sheffield)
30 May
London Summer Swimming Championships (Level 1 at London Aquatic
Centre, Stratford)
N.B. Only those Meets marked in bold are being entered as a Club entry. Queries regarding
entries to Open Meets (only) by the Club should be directed to our Gala Secretary Sarah
McClymont
The above list will be expanded over coming weeks but other important dates are as follows:
th
Elementary Gala on Sunday 17 May
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th
st
Kent Junior League Dates – 13 June 2015, 12 September 2015, 21 November 2015
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th
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Arena League Dates – 10 October 2015, 14 November 2015, 12 December 2015
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Beckenham Development Meet – 5 July 2015
Beckenham Rising Stars Meet – 22
nd
November 2015
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Kent Development Meet – 25 October 2015
Details of these galas and other forthcoming galas can be viewed on the fixtures page of the
Club’s website
OTHER AQUATIC MATTERS.
We will, endeavour to provide general information about swimming in the weekly update
covering matters such as officiating, the types of gala etc but if any parents (or swimmers
have any questions they would like answering about swimming of a general nature please
email them to [email protected]
THERE WILL BE NO WEEKLY UPODATE NEXT WEEK DUE TO HOLIDAYS
REMEMBER –
Please do continue to view the website as it is regularly updated at
www.beckenhamswimmingclub.com and pass on any questions, feedback or requests for
information that might be useful to David Grant our webmaster at [email protected]
Please send news and comments to John Handley on [email protected]. The
deadline for inclusion in the weekly newsletter is Midnight on the preceding Wednesday.