Chippenham ASC club Championships – 200 metres breast stroke

Chippenham swimming club held its club championship 200m breast stroke races on Sunday night (13th Nov) at Corsham.

Boys age group winners were Luke Brown, Andrew Hare, George Claverley, Peter Holden and Matt Cruse.

Girls age group winners were Tegan Cairns, Natalie Pidgeon, Bryony Cairns, Katie Smith  and Evie Preece.

Fastest swimmers on the night were Holden in 2 mins 56.80 secs and Smith in 3 mins 1.80 secs.

56 swimmers competed in 14 heats.

Chippenham Swimming Club 2011 Club Championships – 400 metres Individual Medley

Chippenham ASC held its 400 metres IM championships on Saturday night (29th Oct) at the St Marys pool in Calne

Swimmers had to race 400 metres using all four strokes in order, butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and front crawl.

Age group winners were Andrew Hare, Matt Hare, Peter Holden, Henry Moore, Puruvi Ruparel, Jessica Stafford, Chelsea Chard and Evie Preece.

Fastest swims of the night were Moore in 5 minutes 17.28 seconds and for the girls Preece in 5.47.14.

Chippenham swimmer Branwen Harris has recently returned from representing England at the Commonwealth Lifesaving Championships in Durban, South Africa following an invitation to an England trial - after doing well at the University Championships (BUCS) and the nationals earlier in the season. Despite being an accomplished swimmer this was a remarkable achievement having only taking up the lifesaving discipline during the previous year.

Branwen represented England in the following events:

• 4 x 50m Obstacle Relay - Finished with silver medal in a time of 2:00:15 LC (British record) - 1 metre fences placed 12.5 metres from each end of the pool - so there are 2 for each relay swimmer.
• 4 x 25m manikin relay - Finished with bronze medal in a time of 1:39:52 LC (British record) - Have to pass the manikin within a 5m allotted space, and the manikin's head can't go under.
• 4 x 50m medley relay - Performed the third leg which used a thorpe buoy and finished with a bronze medal in a time of 1:52:00 LC (British record) - 1st swimmer = 50m freestyle, 2nd swimmer = 50m freestyle with fins, 3rd swimmer = 50m with thorpe buoy, 4th swimmer = 50m with fins and towing the thorpe buoy with the 3rd swimmer holding on to it
• 50m manikin carry (Individual) - Ranked 6th and finished 4th with a new personal best time of 39:00 LC - 25m freestyle, dive down 1.8m pick up the 7.5 stone manikin pull to the surface then tow the manikin on your back to the end (25m).

Branwen competed in the England national team which finished 3rd overall behind Australia and South Africa national teams respectively.

Chippenham ASC Support the British Gas ASA National County Team Championships

The British Gas ASA National County Team Championships took place at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield on the 16th October 2011. The event is based around the 33 English Counties from the 8 ASA Regions, the 4 Administrative Districts of Scotland and 2 of Wales making a total of 39 'Counties' competing across two divisions. Individual selection for each County Team is based on National Rankings calculated after the regional competitions held earlier in the summer.

Matt Hare was Chippenham ASC's only representative on the Wiltshire County Team this year and competed in the Individual 100m Fly and 4x50m Medley Team (50m Fly).  Matt won his 100m Fly heat finishing 11th in the division and 28th fastest in Great Britain for his age group on the day. His medley team finished 6th in the division and 19th fastest in Great Britain - Matt's Fly time was 24th fastest across all Division 1 & 2 Teams.

Wiltshire put in a strong performance leading division 2 for the first few races finishing 10th in division 2 at the end of the Championships. Selection for the 2012 Championships will take place next summer based on National Rankings at that time. Chippenham ASC looks forward to supporting the County Team again next year.

Chippenham Swimming Club 2011 Championships – 400m Freestyle

A good turn out of 43 Chippenham Swimming Club swimmers competed over 400 metres at its 2nd 2011 club championship event held at St Marys in Calne on Saturday night.

Age group winners for the boys were Luke Brown, Andrew Hare, Matthew Hare, Peter Holden and Henry Moore.  Moore swam the fastest time of the night with 4 minutes 37.45 seconds.

Age group winners for the girls were Tegan Cairns, Puruvi Ruparel, Jessica Stafford, Chelsea Chard and Evie Preece.  Preece was fastest woman on the night in 4.57.37.

Last week six Chippenham Synchro swimmers attended the Selection day for the South West Training Squads.    All six were selected.

2012 Squads will have the following Chippenham Swimmers:

Talent ID squad (for 12 and under synchro swimmers):

Jessica Smith, Natalie Dodd, Madeleine Bright, Lauren Makepeace, Soraya Chesworth

Academy Development squad (13 plus - Skill 1)

Liberty Moore, Marsha Burgess (pre selected), Ciara Irwin (pre selected)

Academy Squad (13 plus - Skill 2)

Rachael Lawrence (pre selected)

Elite Squad

Isobel Collings, Emma Holloway (both pre selected)

Chippenham Swimming club held its first 2011 club championship event with the distance swims on Saturday night (1st Oct)

Swimmers competed over 800m and 1500m at the St Marys pool in Calne.

Age group winners in the Girls 800m were Natalie Pidegon, Chloe May, Katie Smith and Evie Preece.  Andrew Hare won the boys 11/12 years 800m.

1500 metre age group winners were George Claverley, Peter Holden and Henry Moore.

In all 39 swimmers took part.

Head Coach Nigel Butler shortlisted for sports award.

Head Coach Nigel Butler took a well earned rest from taking training on Thursday ( 22nd Sept) when he attended the 2011 Wilshire Sports Awards.

The Awards ceremony held in Salisbury City Hall was hosted by former England and Bath rugby captain Phil de Glanville with prizes handed out by Danny Crates the 2004 Paralympics gold medallist in the 800 metres.

Nigel was nominated by the club for the High Performance Coach of the year award and although unsuccessful on the night reached the top 3 in his category.

Nigel was accompanied to the awards evening by Heather and Catherine Butler, Ruth Holden and Mike  Lewis.

For a full report on the awards winners see http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/sport/generalsport/9269118.WILTSHIRE_SPORTS_AWARDS__Francesca_lands_big_prize/

On Saturday 17th September four Chippenham swimmers travelled to Weston Super Mare for the B.N.J. Championships. The swimmers were Bryony and Tegan Cairns, Ethan Butterfield and John Davies. All four swimmers did very well with all of them achieving at least one final, three set new P.B's as well as Tegan bringing home a bronze medal for the 50 freestyle and John a silver for the 50 breaststroke. Well done to all swimmers, this weekend we return for the next set of events, let's hope all do as well if not better! Watch this space.....

Chippenham ASC sign Memorandum of Understanding with Aquae Sulis Performance Swimming Club

Chippenham ASC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bath University based Aquae Sulis Performance Swimming Club (ASPSC). ASPSC are one of the ASA South West’s performance club hubs formed from clubs who fall within a broad geographical proximity to the hub club.

What does this mean for Chippenham Swimming club?

The club will work with representatives from local swimming clubs including Corsham, Melksham, BoA, Bath Dolphins, Frome, Keynsham, Norton Radstock, Trowbridge, and Warminster on development projects around swimmers, workforces and clubs. The first task will be to identity priorities on which to work together with the network receiving ASA funding to enhance swimming opportunities.

Swimmer Pathways.

The network hub will also ensure that Chippenham ASC has the correct swimmer pathways in place (an essential requirement of CASC’s Swim 21 accreditation) in that it provides opportunities to develop talented swimmers further in consultation with and partnership of Chippenham’s Head Coach Nigel Butler.

Representation.

Chippenham ASC will be represented on the ASPSC Committee by Stephen Miller.

Further information on ASPSC can be found at http://www.aquaesulisswimming.co.uk/

Chippenham Swimming Club promoted in Summer league

Chippenham ASC have won promotion from Division 2 of the Wilts Summer league, after winning all four rounds of the 2011 competition.

On Saturday night Chippenham won the final round of the season at Corsham.  Chippenham won 22 of the 50 events scoring 164 points to Bradford on Avon's 131, Corsham 115 and Warminster 77.

Chippenham will now concentrate on its club championships which begin with the long distance events in October,   before turning its attention to the Winter league relay competition starting in November.

Chippenham's squad were Abby Cross, Benjamin Birkett, John Davies, Lucy Featherston, Bradley Coupland, Luke Brown, Natalie Pidgeon, Andrew Hare, Bryony Cairns, Harriet Olgivie, James Tucker, Sapphire Randerson, Tegan Cairns, Nathan Coupland, Sam Miller, Charity Moore, Chloe May, George Claverley, Jess Stafford, Katie Smith, Matt Hare, Beatrice Moore, Charlotte Myers, Chelsea Chard, Jack Cook, Matt Cruse, Peter Holden, Joe Bailey, Henry Moore, Evie Preece and Ollie, Maddie and Bronwyn Harris

Chippenham Swimmers due to Compete at British Gas National Team Championships

Following notification earlier this week, Chippenham Swimming Club’s John Branston and Matthew Hare have both been selected to represent Wiltshire at the British Gas National County Team Championships to be held next month. This highly competitive occasion will be held at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield on the 16th October 2011. Selection is based on ASA rankings following individual performance at the SW England Regional Championships held a few months earlier where both swimmers reached numerous finals following stiff competition in the heats.

Representing the County is a great honour and a significant challenge with a total of only 30 places available each year across all age groups. Head Coach Nigel Butler has passed on his congratulations recognising this major achievement by two dedicated and talented swimmers. This will be a debut appearance from Hare although Branston competed two years ago at the same event.

Wiltshire team training commences on the 25th September at the Trowbridge Sports Centre.