05 Aug 2024

Mercian League Final, 13th July

Sharks finished 9th in this last league of the season, with a VERY close gala final - only 28 points between 4th and first and Chase only winning on the very last race!

1. Chase 216
2. Orion 212
3. Bilston 210
4. Sharks 188
5. Rugby 147

This is the final league of the season. Clubs are placed into gala finals according to table positions after the first two rounds. Sharks went into Gala B. We saw some great swims with 9 first places from Katy (100 IM, 100 breast), Harrison (50 breast), Grace (50 Breast), Sam (100 free and 100 breast), Girls Open free relay( Hannah, Elle, Emilia, Katy), Boys 12 Medley(Barney, Sam, Harrison, Will), Oli (100 back).

There were a number of last minute swaps due to illness so thanks to the swimmers who swam out of their age group to fill in (Sam, Barney, Eve, Ruby, Amelia, Grace, Will and Harrison).

Cross Channel Swim

MASSIVE congratulations to Molly Bullock, Ben Robotham and Theo Skirvin who overcame sea sickness, sleep deprivation, night swimming, 17 degree water without wetsuits and strong tides to swim the channel relay.

Ben was in the Swim Shadys team with City of Coventry swimmers Bridie Regan, Niamh McIntyre and Hayden North. They reached France in a fantastic time of 11 hours and 10 minutes.

Molly and Theo were in the Jellyfish Jamboree team with Bryan McSharry and Lily Cobble from City of Coventry. With strong tides pushing them away from the coast of France towards the end of their swim, they were delighted to land 12 hours and 24 minutes after leaving England.These determined swimmers are raising money for the amazing local charity, Young Minds Matter, which provides mentors free of charge in many Warwickshire schools to support young people’s mental health.

To help Young Minds Matter reach their fundraising target, please consider donating by scanning this QR code to visit the Young Minds Matter JustGiving page, which is still open https://www.justgiving.com/page/young-minds-matter-channelswim2024

Graham Sykes Long Course meet, Alan Higgs pool. 20th-21st July

This end of season meet was run in the 50m pool and was a great opportunity for swimmers without qualifying times to get some experience of a long course event.

Sharks took a relatively small team but came away with a lot of medals and some big PBs.

1st- Arabella P(400 IM, 100 fly, 200 breast), Emilia P (200 fly, Harry C (50 Breast), Katy H(200 IM)

2nd- Harry C (100m breast, 200 breast), Evangeline H(50 back), Katy H(400 free), Alexa W (200 IM)

3rd- Isla T(200 back, 100 back), Eve E(100 back), Grace M (100 back, 100 free), Alexa (50 back), Evangeline H (100 free), Annabelle S(100 free)

Masters Nationals 28th July

Academy and Juniors coach Katie finished second in her age group for the open water 2k at the Swim England Nationals Open Water meet. Congratulations Katie, who was Sharks only masters swimmer competing at the meet!

Swim England Nationals 29th July - 3rd August

Huge congratulations to Jacob Smith who broke his own club record in the 200m breast at The National Summer Meet (50m)- Swim England’s biggest domestic swimming event of the year. The Summer Meet forms part of a swimming competition structure in Great Britain whereby the top ranked swimmers in each event are invited to compete at the British Swimming Summer Championships.

Jacob finished 31st in the UK in the 12/13 years age-group, a brilliant achievement.

Swim Mark

SwimMark accreditation is Swim England’s quality standard for clubs.  It recognises high standards of governance, sustainability and effectiveness. The club is audited every year on a number of items (finance, governance, policies etc) and has to obtain this to keep functioning as it is part of the terms of the club’s insurance. Thanks to Lisa Mitchel and Louise Wakeham for their hard work helping us to retain the accreditation this year.

Club shut down

Sharks are taking a summer break from Sunday 4th Aug - Sunday 18th Aug 2024 to recharge our batteries for the new season.

Training sessions start again on Monday 19th August.

New season head coach briefing

To kick off the new season head Coach Kim will give a presentation about competitions, open meets and how the club works on Friday 6th September 6.30- 7.30 pm in the meeting room of Stratford Leisure Centre. This is a great opportunity to ask Kim and other Sharks parents any questions about how the competitive swimming world works!

Competition calendar - coming up

The new season will kick off with Club Champs - Sharks 100s - on Saturday 7th September. Entries are now closed.

Academy Time Trials are on Friday 13th September

We run termly time trial events at Stratford for the academy swimmers to see how fast they can go over a length in different strokes.  There is no charge for these events and they are held in the normal session on a Friday night.  The aim is to get academy swimmers used to the starting process and racing and to see their progress.  The times are not licensed but are used by coaches when choosing younger swimmers for team galas.

Coventry Sprints (long course open meet) is Saturday 21st September. Entries have closed. The fastest 8 in each age group over all four strokes will go into a 200m Individual Medley final for medals.

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