This year’s County Relay Swimming Championships were held on 30^th June at Wolverhampton Central Baths.  WFSC were very proud to see all our relay teams make it through to the finals in their age groups, with our teams going on to win 9 County medals and six 4^th place finishes; Our 11/12 yrs girls were crowned County Relay Champions in their age group in both the Freestyle and Medley relays. The Freestyle team was made up of Marieke Parker, Maya Winfield, Bella Hoare and Lillie Grover, while the Medley team saw Brecon Westwood and Lily Colley teaming up with Bella and Lillie to take the Gold in both events.

Our 15/16 yrs boys, Nathaniel Crowther, Daniel Hardiman, Charlie Brown and Robert Darbyshire took the Silver in both the Freestyle and Medley events with Rob recording a time of 23.92 on his freestyle length!  Our 11/12 yrs boys Freestyle team of Ryan Bloomer, Shay Parker, James Vaux and James Green won Silver.  Our 13/14 yrs girls Freestyle team of Tegan Hands, Alex Hayes, Alice Walker and Martha Stead took the Bronze, with Tegan, Alex and Martha teaming up with Jasmin Yates to take another Bronze in the Medley relay.   Our 13/14 yrs boys Freestyle team of Joel Hands, Tyler Elwell, Jeremy Summers and Owen Westwood also took the Bronze. In the girls open age group, the freestyle team of Lucy Nicholls, Alice Walker, Martha Stead and Abbie Rowley took the Bronze.

Head Coach Brian McGuinnes added, ‘All swimmers listened to advice given, applied it and the takeovers were brilliant. Very satisfied, big improvement on 2018 – well done all.’    

Wyre Forest Swimming Club attended the 2019 West Midland Regional Swimming Championships which were held for the final time at Coventry Sports and Leisure Centre over the weekends of 4/5/6th May and 11/12th May. A new £10.5m Olympic size pool being built at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry and expected to be opened some time later in 2019.

Wyre Forest Swimming Club saw their number of Regional Qualifiers jump from 12 in 2018 to 20 in 2019. Working hard throughout the year to qualify were:- Tegan Hands, Matilda Calder, Joel Hands, Nathanial Crowther, Adam Newey, Robert Darbyshire, Lillie Grover, Alice Walker, Jasmin Yates, Charles Brown, Martha Stead, Lucy Nicholls, Isabella Hoare, Mollie Kilgour, Jeremy Summers, Will Guest, Ryan Bloomer, Abbie Rowley, Lily Colley and Alex Hayes who unfortunately fractured her elbow days before the start and sadly was unable to compete.

Lillie Grover had an outstanding Championship winning Gold in the 11/12 yrs 50m back final to become Regional Champion in her age group. Lillie also picked up Silver medals in the 100m fly, 200m fly, 200m back and a Bronze in the 100m back. Joining her amongst the medallists were Nathaniel Crowther (16) who won Bronze in the 200m back and Jeremy Summers (15) who won Bronze in the 1500m freestyle distance event. Wyre Forest Swimming Cub also picked up medals in the relay events with the men’s 14/16 yrs 400m medley team of Nathaniel Crowther, Charlie Brown, Owen Westwood & Rob Darbyshire winning a Bronze; the men’s 14/16 800m freestyle team of Nathaniel Crowther, Charlie Brown, Jeremy Summers & Rob Darbyshire won Silver and the women’s 14/16 800m freestyle team of Lucy Nicholls, Tegan Hands, Jasmin Yates & Mollie Kilgour also won a Bronze.

From our 20 qualifiers, an amazing 15 of them made it through to one or more Regional Finals or placed in the top 8 at longer distance events which were heat declared wins. Our Finalists were:- Lillie Grover , Jasmin Yates, Nathaniel Crowther, Adam Newey, Alice Walker, Charles Brown, Martha Stead, Lucy Nicholls, Isabella Hoare, Matilda Calder, Joel Hands, Mollie Kilgour, William Guest, Jeremy Summers and Rob Darbyshire. Our number of top 8 placings/finalists more than doubled from 18 in 2018 to 41 in 2019!

Head Coach Brian McGuinness stated, ‘As Head Coach, it was heartening for me to have colleagues coming to me from Clubs far & wide in the Region, saying how impressed by the Club they have been. So well done to all of the swimmers, win or lose you have done Wyre Forest proud!’

Wyre Forest Swimming Club celebrated yet another ‘Top Visiting Club’ award, this time at the Crystal Open Meet run by Stourbridge Swimming Club.  The team won an amazing 36 Gold, 22 Silver & 27 Bronze medals and are on top form ahead of a big couple of months in the swimming season which sees them travel to Sheffield, Cyprus and the Regional Championships in Coventry.

Lead Coach for the Meet Dylan Smith was extremely pleased with the attitude and focus of the swimmers who also achieved more regional qualifying times and set lots of new personal best times.

Medal winners were:- Isabella Hoare, Lillie Grover, Alexandra Hayes, Lily Colley, Matilda Calder, Lois Stevens, Ryan Bloomer, Joel Hands, Daniel Hardiman, Chloe Manning, Brecon Westwood, Lauren Stewart, Chloe Lawson, Owen Westwood, Marieke Parker, Mollie Kilgour, Eve Williams, Erin Freer, Charles Brown and Thomas Brown.

The Top Club award final points were:-

1^st Wyre Forest            504

2^nd Northgate               484

3^rd Redditch                 402

A big thank you to Dylan Smith, Rosie Lane and Donna Stevens for all their help and support at the Meet.

WFSC swimmers travelled to Wales over the weekend of 16/17th February for the Swansea Aquatics Spring Long Course Open Meet at the Wales National Pool.

For this meet all swimmers travelled together to Swansea without their parents, which was a new experience for many of our younger swimmers. There was a slight drama when one of the two mini buses carrying the swimmers broke down but again swimmers handled this with great humour and were a credit to the club.

The aim of this meet was not only to give swimmers the experience of swimming in a 50m pool but also to reinforce team spirit and give them a brief independence from their parents, encouraging them to think and plan for themselves in an environment where they could enjoy themselves but also gain valuable experience with their team mates.

Swimmers had the added bonus of watching Commonwealth 1500 medallist Dan JERVIS swim an impressive 3:52 400m freestyle on his own!

Medal winners at Swansea were Ryan Bloomer, Rob Darbyshire, Joel Hands, Lily Colley, Lillie Grover, Tegan Hands, James Green, Owen Westwood, Millie Gardner, Jasmin Yates, Lucy Nicholls, Matilda Calder, Lois Stevens, Brecon Westwood and Alexandra Hayes. Completing the team were: Jeremy Summers, Tyler Elwell, Marieke Parker, Will Guest, Isabella Hoare, Adam Newey, Lucy Connolly, Erin Freer, Lauren Stewart, Lucy Watkiss, Chloe Lawson, Abbie Rowley.

Head Coach Brian McGuinness stated, ‘Overall a great success, lots of experience gained and new friendships bonded. From 9 participating last year to 27 this year, with medals galore won and lots of long course experience gained it was another big success and shows that WFSC is continuing to go from strength to strength.’

Thank you also to Nigel Elwell, Becki Rowley and Donna Stevens for making this such a rewarding experience for our swimmers.

This year’s County Championships were held over three weekends at both Wolverhampton Central Baths and Perdiswell Leisure Centre.  Going into these Championships WF were the second most improved club in the county based on an 84% improvement of number of entries for the Championships from 2018 to 2019.

Races of 200m and above were heat declared wins in each age group, whereas races of 50m & 100m saw swimmers progress to finals consisting of the fastest 8 swimmers in each age group.

WF swimmers won an amazing total of 88 medals across the three weekends, 26 Gold Medals (+ 4 Championship Medals), 31 Silver Medals and 20 Bronze Medals (+7 Championship Medals).

WF also came away with both Senior and Junior County Champion titles.  Jeremy Summers (15) won Gold in both the 800m and the 1500m freestyle making him the Junior County Champion in both events; Robert Darbyshire (16) won Gold in both the 200m and 400m freestyle making him the Senior County Champion in both events (despite actually only being 15 years old on the day but placed into the Senior category) and there was great news for Lillie Grover (12) who amassed 10 Gold Medals and 4 Silver Medals making her the Top Girl across all ages in the 2019 Championships.

Our medal winners were:- Bradley Baddams, Ryan Bloomer, Charlie Brown, Matilda Calder, Nathaniel Crowther, Robert Darbyshire, Tyler Elwell, Millie Gardner, Lillie Grover, Will Guest, Joel Hands, Tegan Hands, Alexandra Hayes, Isabella Hoare, Mollie Kilgour, Lucy Nicholls, Abbie Rowley, Jeremy Summers, Brecon Westwood, Owen Westwood, Jasmin Yates.

Also making finals in their age groups or finishing within the top 8 in the county were:- Tom Brown, Lily Colley, Chloe Lawson, Adam Newey, Lauren Stewart, Emily Watkiss

Completing the 36 qualifying swimmers for these Championships were:- Lucy Connolly, Erin Duffy, Erin Freer, Chloe Manning, Marieke Parker, Shay Parker, Lois Stevens, James Vaux, and Evie Williams.

Fresh from receiving Wyre Forest’s Sports Award for Junior Team of the Year 2018, Wyre Forest swimmers were back in action at Wolverhampton pool this weekend at the Worcester County Distance Championships.

WF had five boys entered into the 1500m freestyle event and all five came away with medals in their age groups – Ryan Bloomer (13) Gold, Joel Hands (14) Silver, Jeremy Summers (15) Gold, Rob Darbyshire (16) Gold and Will Guest (17&O) Bronze.

Will Guest’s swim meant he finished 3rd fastest overall in the county in the Seniors and Jeremy Summers’ swim was the fastest overall in the Juniors, making him Junior County Champion.

The second session of the Distance Championships featured the 800m freestyle which saw WF win another 7 medals. Lillie Grover (12) won Gold and Mollie Kilgour (14) won Silver in their age groups, whilst Emily Watkiss & Isabella Hoare both swam personal best times. All five boys who had previously won medals in the 1500 came away with medals in the 800m – Ryan Bloomer (13) Silver, Joel Hands (14) Silver, Jeremy Summers (15) Gold, Rob Darbyshire (16) Gold and Will Guest (17&O) Bronze.

Rob Darbyshire’s swim meant he finished 3rd fastest overall in the county in the Seniors and Jeremy Summers’ swim was again the fastest overall in the Juniors, making him Junior County Champion in both the 800m and the 1500m events.

Congratulations to all our swimmers who have given us such a storming start to this year’s County Championships!