A Small group of Dover Lifeguard swimmers trekked north to the international pool at Ponds Forge in Sheffield to take part in the Level one City of Derby open meet. There were some of the best of British swimmers taking part including World record holder Liam Tancock, Fran Halsall and Jo Jackson all attempting to gain entry times for the upcoming British Championships which are doubling up as Olympic trials this year.

The Dover swimmers were not distracted by the stars of the swimming world and they set about producing some impressive results.

Sophie Waller grabbed a National qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke and she was right on her personal best times with all of her other swims including an impressive 400 freestyle swim when she missed national qualification by 3 hundredths of a second, a good result so early in the season. Devon Amos improved on her 100 backstroke national qualifying time and Megan Basford narrowly missed her time for the 100 back by under a second but Coach Tim Hyde believes she will grab this within the next couple of months. Devon also looked strong in the 50 fly and 50 freestyle taking new best times. Sara Wain led from start to finish in her heat of the 50 breaststroke and recorded a new personal best along the way.

Mathew Farran was in an exciting race in the 50 butterfly and in a blanket finish Matt grabbed a new best time. Alfie Herrington clocked impressive times in his first ever outing in a long course (50m) pool. He now has bragging rights to the fact that he swam in the same event as Liam Tancock (50 freestyle) although he was quite some way behind him, understandable when you take into account Alfie is just 10 years old.

Hannah Wain continued her good form with fine swims every time she hit the water and although just off her best, this was good practice to compete at this level in a long course pool.

Milly Funeaux came away from Sheffield with some fine swims under her belt and she also sped to an Olympic trials qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke.

Dover now have Milly Furneaux, Megan Lee and Sophie Waller in qualifying for the Olympic trials in March. An impressive result from a club run entirely by volunteers.

Photo's

The group is our girls with Liam Tancock world record holder for 50 Back. He was awesome in the pool. Also attached is a pic of Adam Brown , a member of the Great Britain team at Beijing (100 freestyle and 4 x 100 free relay) who is the 2nd fastest brit freestyler ever after Mark Foster and is hopeful of gaining a place in this years squad. He is with Alfie Herrington from Dover (Adam is the bigger one showing off his Olympic Tattoo!)

Dover Lifeguard Club jointly hosted the annual Icebreaker Gala with City of Canterbury swimming club at the Kingsmead pool last weekend.

The gala was to prove a huge success for Dover as the swimmers clocked up personal best times, county qualifying times and South East regional qualifying times.

Saturday saw the gala open with Edward smith taking 5th place in the 12/13 200 fly and brother James taking the Gold medal in the 14/15 age group. The girls 100 breaststroke saw Poppy Carr grab a Kent QT on the 1st 50m and finish a creditable 18th. The 13/14 age group has Sara Wain 6th and Sophie Card 7th, India Ribbans looked strong as he came in 10th in the 14/15 age group.

The boys 100 back had Max Pettifer 10th in the 12/13 age group with Josh Morgan and Ben Fidock having a very close race between them in the 14/15 age group to finish less than half a second apart. Matt Farran grabbed a new best time in the heats and then improved on this again in the final where he took the Gold Medal. The 200 back for girls had Keleece Bull take a massive 14 second personal best to take 2nd place in the 9 year age group with Hannah Wain taking bronze in the 10/11 age group.. Lee Sheppard had an impressive swim in the 200 breast to take 5th (10/11), Ed Smith took 3rd (12/13), and Josh Morgan 2nd (14/15) . Hannah Wain looked in control as she grabbed a massive pb in the 400 freestyle , only just touched into 2nd place in the 10/11 age group by less than a second, India Ribbans took 11th in the 14/15 age group.

Ed Smith was a comfortable 3rd with a new best time in the 400 IM with James Smith 7th in the next age up.

The girls 50 freestyle had Keleece Bull 6th and Sian Leech 10th in the 9 yr age group. Hannah Wain won the 10/11 age group by a clear margin over the rest of the field, Poppy Carr and Helen Smith both recorded personal best times in the event. Sophie card continued her rise up the rankings as she took gold in the 12/13 age group with Sra Wain 14th. Sarah Quinn was 2nd in a close race in the 14/15 age group with Abi Collins 4th in the 16 and over age group.

Max Pettifer took 3rd in the 100 butterfly(12/13) with an impressive new best time, Ed Smith was 7th, James Smith also grabbed a new best time when he finished  9th , with Ben Fidock 13th and Josh Morgan 14th in the 14/15 age group. Lewis Young was 9th in the open age group. The 200 Im produced more great swims from the Dover team. Keleece Bull was 2nd 9yr old with India Ribbans 14th ( 14/15). Lee Sheppard was 6th in the 100 freestyle (10/11) , Ed Smith 5th (12/13) and James Smith broke the one minute mark for the 100 freestyle for the first time in the heats and the went even faster in the final to take 4th place in 59.64.

Keleece Bull continued to impress with 1st place in the 9yr age group for the 200 butterfly and Abi Collons took 2nd in the open age group.

Keleece Bull opened the session on Sunday with another fine swim to take 3rd in the 200 breast, Sra Wain was 8th in the 12/13 age group and Poppy Carr 14th in the 10/11 age group. The boys 100 breaststroke had Kieron Mennis 4th and  Ed Smith finish 5th ,Max Pettifer 13th, Josh Morgan stormed through to take 2nd place in the 14/15 age group. Lewis young took 7th in the open age group. Hannah Wain took another gold medal in the 100 butterfly with Sara Wain well placed in 4th. India Ribbans finished 4th with a new best time in the 14/15 age group and Abi Collins also took a PB to finish 4th in the open age group. The boys 200 back saw Ed Smith  finish 5th and James Smith 8th in the older age group. Keleece Bull then took another gold medal in the 200 freestyle , with Sarah Quinn 5th (14/15), Megan lee took Gold in the open age group with Abi Collins 5th.

The boys 400 freestyle had Lee Sheppard 6th ( 10/11), Ed Smith 3rd (12/13) and Lewis Young 3rd (open) in their respective age groups. India Ribbans then took 5th in the 14/15 400 IM , with Megan Lee taking another Gold in the open age group. The Boys 50 freestyle had Harry Thirkettle 2nd and sam Fidock 4th in the 9 yr age group. Max Pettifer was 2nd in the 12/13 age

The final session opened with the girls 100 freestyle and Sophie Card took 3rd in the 12/13 age group with a fine swim. Sarah Quinn touched in 4th in the 14/15 age group and in the open age group Megan lee took Gold with megan Basford 2nd and Abi Collins 5th. Ed Smith was 3rd in the 200 IM and in the girls 100 back Megan Basford destroyed all comers in the open age as she took Gold with Megan Lee 3rd . Sophie card also took 4th in the 12/13 age.

Dover Lifeguard’s went into the last round of the National Arena League sitting at the top of the league with a pack of 5 clubs hot on their heels. The final Gala comes with double points for all teams meaning that the slightest slip up punishes the club’s harshly with all hoping for promotion to the premier league.

Bromley were hosting the Gala at the Crook Log pool and they were to take full advantage of the home pool from the outset. Megan Lee for Dover opened proceedings with a fine personal best time in the 100 IM and grabbed first place, the team then had some good results from the . The relays 13/u girls medley relay team finished 2^nd when Brooke Amos led the team off on the backstroke leg with Sara Wain producing a strong leg on the breaststroke, Sophie Waller on the fly and Zelie Quinn on the freestyle. The ladies open Medley team saw Devon Amos take the lead for Dover on the backstroke and Megan Lee extending the lead on the breaststroke, Megan Basford swam a strong fly leg and then Abbie Collins fought off a strong fight back from the other teams to garb the first place in a very close finish. The gala was proving to be a very close race too with all teams within a shot of the first place and Dover’s youngsters focussed on the job in hand. Hannah Wain romped to victory in the 11/u fly and freestyle. Milly Furneaux and Megan Lee continued their domination of breaststroke in the area when they both recorded victories in the open and 15/u breast. Megan Basford was in blistering form on the night and she took first place in the open freestyle and open Backstroke. Sophie Waller took first place in the 13/u butterfly and 2^nd in the 13/u freestyle and 15/u fly. Sra Wain took 2^nd place in the 13/u breast and more 2^nd places were delivered by Devon Amos (open fly) and Evan Waters in the 15/u freestyle. Sarah Quinn grabbed 3^rd in the 15/u back with Milly Furneaux 3^rd in the 15/u freestyle and Josh Morgan 3^rd in the 15/u breast. Going into the last set of relays it was all still to swim for as 5 clubs were now in contention for top spot. The 13/u girls freestyle team of Zelie Quinn, Hannah Wain, Brooke Amos and Sophie Waller took 2^nd place and this was emulated by the 15/u medley team when Gemma Lawson led out the team with Milly Furneaux, Megan Curtis and Sarah Quinn  just being touched out in a close finish. The girls squadron relay team were in the thick of it as the team all vied for the top spot. Devon Amos, Megan Lee, Sarah Quinn, Milly Furneaux, Sophie Waller and Megan Basford exchanged the lead with the other clubs and ended up just being touched out again into 2^nd place. This was to be the story of the night as when the points were totalled the Dover team had finished 4^th in the league. This was just 10 points from 1^st spot ( equivalent of 2 races) Indicating how close this top level gala was with 4 teams in with a shout of promotion right up to the last 2 races.

“I am immensely proud of our swimmers, our team gave their all but the close results went against us tonight. we will be back next year fighting for promotion again”

The last of the year’s development galas saw Dover’s youngsters in action at the Medway park pool when Black Lion swimming club hosted the event.

The Gala opened well with the breaststroke squadron relay team looking strong and coming in a very close 2^nd to the hosts. Evie Herrington led the team out and Ali Corbo, Helen Smith, Sam Fidock, Poppy Carr, Luis Corbo, Rosie Kilmurray, Alfie Herrington, Sophie Card, Ben Fidock, Sara Wain and Josh Morgan fought hard to be narrowly pushed into 2^nd place.

Abbie Collins grabbed a 1^st place in the first of the individual events in the 18/u back, this was quickly followed with more 1^st places for Harry Thirkettle (9/u free) and Helen in the 10/u back. The 9/u freestyle relay team of Sian Leech, Tom Fisher, Sasha Kilmurray and Harry Thirkettle then grabbed another first to grab more points for the team. Sara Wain opened the 2^nd quarter of the gala with another fine swim to take 1^st place in the 18/u fly, Luis Corbo (11/u back) and Rosie Kilmurray (12/u IM) both also took 1^st places. There were 2^nd place finishes for Sam Fidock (10/u fly), Eleanor Spence Welsh (15/u back) and Luis Corbo 12/u IM leaving the ‘guards in 3^rd place overall. The 15/u Medley team looked awesome as Dan Latham, Sophie Card , Ben Fidock and Sadie Milton stormed to victory The 18/u freestyle relay team of Max Pettifer, Dan Latham, Abbie Collins and India Ribbans looked impressive as the finished a very close 2^nd. As the gala progressed there were more 1^st places for Harry Bartram (11/u fly), Sian Leech (9/u back), Sophie Card (15/u fly), India Ribbans (18/u breast), James Smith (18/u breast), Keleece Bull (11/u free), Rosie Kilmurray (12/u back and Helen Smith (10/u breast).

The 15/u freestyle team of James Smith, Max Pettifer, Eleanor Spence Welsh and Gemma Lawson swept all of the opposition away as they took an impressive first  2^nd places from Kieron Menniss (18/u free and 15/u fly),Ashleigh Menniss( 10/u free), Finlay Evans (10/u free), Maria Evans (9/u fly), Ali Corbo (9/u fly), Alfie Herrington (12/u back) and Sadie Milton 15/u free the team had moved into 2^nd place overall. A win for the 18/u medley relay team of James Smith, Kieron Menniss, India Ribbans and Abbie Collins had the team closing on the hosts going into the last relay. The final event was the squadron freestyle relay and the Dover team fought hard with the lead changing hands over the 12 legs. Sian Leech, Sadie Smith, Keleece Bull, Lucy Nicholas, Gemma Lawson, Ali Corbo, Harry Thirkettle, Harry Bartram, Luis Corbo, Ben Fidock and James Smith were just edged into 2^nd place in the relay and the gala overall. There were medals of honour in the form of speeding tickets for, Josh Morgan (18/u back), Harry Bartram (11/u breast), Sam Fidock (10/u back), Ben Fidock (15/u breast), Sian Leech (10/u I.M), Max Pettifer (18/u fly), Keleece Bull (11/u back), Lucy Nicholas (12/u free), Dan Latham (15/u back), Sara Wain (18/u free & 18/u I.M) and Harry Thirkettle (10/u breast).

Coach Tim Hyde was impressed with the team’s performance, “Despite 12 speeding tickets where we get 0 points, this team still managed an impressive 2^nd place. This high number of speeding tickets is an indication of just how fast this junior squad is becoming. They are now knocking on the door of the senior squad.”