Photo – Lucy, Jasmine, Helena, Charlie, Holly, Megan and Liv

Mr Castro (Head of Swimming)

It's been a busy few months for our swimmers. The County Swimming Championships have been taking place since 8th January for our Hertfordshire swimmers and 22nd January for our Bedfordshire swimmers. The championships cover a full program of events for swimmers to compete in, ranging from the long-distance events 1500m and 800m freestyle right down to the fastest event, the 50 freestyle. The other strokes race over 200m, 100m and 50m, with 100m, 200m and 400m medleys as well as freestyle and medley relays!

For many of the swimmers, these championships have been the first major competition back after a few years of very disrupted training. It’s a huge testament to their commitment to swimming to show so much resilience and to keep training hard through all the changes to their training environment.

Across the two counties we had 13 swimmers racing nearly 100 events; they managed to swim just under 50 personal best times and between them won 57 medals. Our swimmers were Liv James (Year 6), Megan Barnicoat (Year 6), Holly Katasi (Year 7), Charlie Duce (Year 8), Tabitha Frame (Year 9), Phoebe Titchener (Year 9), Lauren Titchener (Year 10), Charlotte Brakenbury (Year 9), Jasmine Brakenbury (Lower Sixth), Lucy Young (Year 11), Helena Nicolaides (Upper Sixth), Isabel Jackson (Year 11) and Isabel Jones (Upper Sixth). All of the girls represented their own swimming clubs; Biggleswade SC, Leighton Buzzard SC, Linslade Crusaders SC, Modernian SC and Hitchin SC.

Many students achieved qualifying times for the Regional Championships, which will be held later in the spring. In the Bedfordshire ASA Age Group awards, which go up to 14 years, Holly Katasi achieved the highest FINA points for her swim in the 50m backstroke, meaning out of all of the races swum by 12-year-old girls across all strokes, Holly was the closest to a world record time.

View the podium finishes from the Country Championships here.