British Summer Champs, Sheffield
The British Summer Championships 2022 took place over 5 days at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield from 22nd-28th July, with three sessions a day comprising of heats followed by finals in the evening. All sessions were live streamed on You Tube.
Swimmers were invited to compete based on the national rankings following a qualifying period (11th March – 8th May) whereby the top 24 ranked swimmers in each age group for each event received an invitation to attend. This year Leyland Barracudas had three swimmers who qualified – Amelie Elliott, Tom Arkwright and Pia Murray. Pia made the difficult decision to withdraw from the event on her return from America earlier in July, but Amelie and Tom made the journey across the Pennines to swim.
Having received your invitation and submitted your entry (£15 per race!!) you received a link to print off the all-important accreditation pass which swimmers must take to the event and wear to allow them access onto the poolside. On arrival – and before getting to the pool, you pass ‘the shop’ where a steady stream of swimmers can be seen persuading parents from across the nation to part with more money so that Summer Nationals hats, hoodies and t shirts can be bought. Recognising that it’s quite an achievement to qualify it’s hard to say no so only once that’s done is it time to hand your swimmer over to Gillian and go and get a brew before watching warm up!
First to swim for Leyland was Amelie who competed in the ladies 50 metre breaststroke event. Amelie qualified with her swim at the Swim England North West Summer Regionals back in March. The pb she swam in Liverpool secured her spot qualifying in 22nd place out of the 24 16-year-old swimmers invited. Swimming in heat four Amelie had a great swim securing a new pb (34.41 seconds) and finishing in 15th place in her age group. She came out smiling (much to our relief !!).
The club then had to wait several days before Tom made his journey to Sheffield – on the same day as a certain team of lionesses played a very important football match in the City – to compete in the Men’s 50 metre freestyle event – having qualified in 9th position in his age group. Tom was swimming in the first session on the Wednesday morning – which necessitated an early start and no Travelodge breakfast for Gillian!
Swimming in heat 2 Tom blasted his way down the pool to beat his entry time and get a new pb (24.12 seconds) and secured a place in the final. After a long day’s wait (probably involving a little bit of shopping in Sheffield!) the finals took place with Tom swimming just after 7 that evening. For the club to be represented in the finals is fantastic and Tom did brilliantly – he swam another pb (24.04 seconds) and came ninth in the final. As Tom competed in the final Amelie was being chauffeur driven back across the Pennines for the final day of the competition where she would swim the 100 metre breaststroke.
Having managed to qualify in a ‘rubbish time’ – her words not mine – she was keen to get closer to the pb she had swum at Counties in January. She’d qualified in a time of 1.15.81 and swam 1.15.94 in her heat finishing in 15th place in her age group. Whilst she might have been disappointed it’s important to remember that you can’t pb in every race and to represent the club at Nationals is a massive achievement.
Well done to Tom and Amelie. Great to see swimmers from Leyland Barracudas amongst the clubs competing at this level.