The dust has finally settled after what was an incredible weekend for Out To Swim and we have finally gotten round to writing a wee report about our lovely team.

22 men and 8 women from OTS were competing across the 3 days, which is the biggest team we have ever taken. All-round members competed in every discipline and distance available. Sprints, middle distance, long distance races; some even completed the maximum events allowed - 8 + relays!

Andrew B and Matt W completed the maximum allowed - 8 individual events; while Zuzanna M and Neal T both competed 7 individual events.

The team secret weapon: (and oldest competitor Christopher P competed in 6 individual events totalling 1650m of racing. This competition also marked Chris’ final competition racing with OTS for a couple of years. We are going to miss cheering him on at literally EVERY single competition. Come back soon Chris and enjoy NZ! 

Sarah C achieved remarkable results - 2 lifetime PB’s (let’s say at such a “wise age” it’s hard to get a PB, let alone a lifetime PB!) in 200m Breast Stroke and 100m Free!

The competition was fiercer than ever with our team up against the fastest masters swimmers in the UK. Despite this, our club members picked up 13 individual medals:

Andrew B (4) - Gold (200 Breast), Silver (400IM), Silver (800 Free) + Bronze (200IM)

Douglas F (3) - Gold (200IM), Bronze (100Fly), Bronze (100IM)

Steph R (2) - Gold (1500 Free), Silver (800 Free)

Viktoria Z (2) - Bronze (100 Breast), Bronze (200 Breast)

Chris U (1) - Bronze (200Breast)

Matt W (1) - Bronze (400IM)

In the relays, Out To Swim sent out 21 teams across all age categories, in mixed, female and men’s teams. Competition was fierce across board. Our Mixed 4x200m Freestyle took home a Bronze medal! The team consisted of Women’s Captain Steph R, SSC Chair TL, Newest Member Jack F and yours truly (with Michelle’s “permission” due to race injured).

But of course, it is not all about medals. Lots of Personal Bests were achieved: 12 men managed to take a grand total of 121 seconds off their personal bests (Thank you, Andrew B for your 45s PB in the 800m Free). In the women’s: Sarah F - 5s off the 100 Fly; Sarah C 24s off her 400 Free, Oonagh with 2 PBs.

Two swimmers truly melted away their sprint times. Jaime I took an unbelievable 18 seconds off his PBs and Mark N managed to improve his PBs by no less than 13 seconds. Both have been training very hard in 2019. I am very excited to see what they’ll do in 2020. Well done to them both.

A particular thank you to all the swimmers who joined us at Nationals for the very first time: Viktoria Z, Giulio F, Corentin D, Jack F, Pete W, Raphael C and Will R. We hope you will come back next year! 

Last but not least, a couple of special mention - firstly to Hilary who’s a founder and volunteer of our club who officiated all weekend at the Nationals, to Michelle our Head Coach who supported our swimmers throughout the day; and finally to Douglas F has been working incredibly hard over the past few months and oh boy, does it show - 58.46 seconds for 100m Butterfly (Bronze) was impressive enough (it was honestly electrifying to watch) but then to go 2:14.13 for 200IM (Gold) not long after. I think it is safe to say that Bafta winning Dougie has inspired a lot of people and so for that - thank you Dougie. We all love you!

Well that’s a wrap for this year’s report. Thank you to everyone who came along, competed, supported and generally spread a bit more love. It’s truly amazing to swim alongside such an inspiring group of people. Until next time!

Paul & Steph

Swim Competition Captains