{"id":11271,"date":"2024-10-16T19:45:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-16T18:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/?p=11271"},"modified":"2025-11-19T10:06:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T10:06:40","slug":"national-county-team-championships-report-2024-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/?p=11271","title":{"rendered":"National County Team Championships report 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surrey swimmers finish a close fifth at this year\u2019s National County Team Championships in Sheffield, writes team manager Hannah Davies<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We held our team building afternoon in September, dressing up as mummies from toilet rolls and quickly learnt that some swimmers can draw and some can\u2019t. Team bonding had begun!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"We met in Guildford and headed by coach through slow traffic around the M25 and up the M1. On arrival at our hotel we allocated rooms and settled in. It wasn\u2019t long before dinner followed by the all-important team talk.<\/span><\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s amazing finish of third overall, we needed to build even more team spirit to get the most from our swimmers. Split into four teams of mixed ages, a few quizzes soon got the competitive juices flowing, especially with the Percy Pig and Pals prizes up for grabs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our team captains were announced. Congratulations to Christian (Guildford City) and Sophie (Reed\u2019s). Team colours were also given to more than half the team, which just goes to prove that anyone can be selected at any time. We had 12-year-olds and 17-year-olds selected for their first national county team event here.<\/span><\/p>\n

After breakfast the next morning, donning our distinguished harlequin tops, the official team photo was taken on the hotel steps, and thankfully everyone could just about be seen in it. Then the dressing up started so we could arrive at Ponds Forge in style: garlands, tutus, jester hats, leg warmers and tasselled antennas.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are already thinking about what can be added to this collection for next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"When we got to our allocated seating the swimmers got to work on their face painting. Coaches, team managers and swimmers all joined in the team spirit and wore the blue and yellow county colours with pride. I think some still had tinges of blue and yellow the next day at school (sorry about that).<\/span><\/p>\n

The competition begins with the parade of teams in alphabetical order. Surrey walked out proudly led by our captains to the biggest cheer by far. Not that I\u2019m biased. After a few dance numbers, which Surrey definitely need some work on for next year, the main event had arrived. The swimming!<\/span><\/p>\n

The meet is split into two divisions competing simultaneously. Division One swims nearest the scoreboard and Division Two nearest the diving pool. Every event is split into two heats, with the 10 slowest-ranked swimmers competing in heat one and the 10 fastest in heat two.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many future Olympians and British junior team members were out in force representing their counties and we knew the competition would be fierce. Surrey competed in Division One to deafening noise levels, blasting air horns, drums and vuvuzelas \u2013 although these were not to be sounded at the start of a race.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for the excitement to build and for our swimmers to start performing better than their rankings. In event three, Savannah (Guildford City), 12\/13 100m breaststroke, climbed six places and smashed her PB by over three seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Our first win and maximum points came in event seven from Sophie, 16\/17 100m backstroke, who dominated the field with a winning margin of over a second. That was followed by a third place from Aidan (Sutton & Cheam) in the 16\/17 100m backstroke.<\/span><\/p>\n

More outstanding swims followed from the younger swimmers, and my voice had practically gone by the time we reached event 10. The best surprised face and celebration went to Peter (Croydon Amphibians), 12\/13 100m freestyle, who smashed his entry time and the minute barrier, touching in at 57.78 to claim sixth.<\/span><\/p>\n

We didn’t have to wait long for another win. The boys\u2019 16\/17 medley relay of Aidan, Max (Reed\u2019s), Xander (Leander) and Christian dominated from the start and no one came close to catching them.<\/span><\/p>\n

More solid swims from the team jiggled our overall standings between third and fifth on the leaderboard. It was that close and every point counted.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"In event 23, Max was back in action for the 16\/17 100m breaststroke, clocking an eye-watering 59.29, claiming maximum points for the team. This was by far the most outstanding swim of the competition from any competitor. And thankfully for Surrey, he is still only 16 and has another year to be considered for team selection (nothing guaranteed).<\/span><\/p>\n

All our swimmers had played a huge part for the team as we headed towards a tense finish. The end result was a very close fifth place for Surrey, only 4\u00bd points separating third to fifth.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lead coach Stuart McCrea (Leatherhead) said: \u201cThis group of swimmers demonstrated all the qualities we look for when taking away a team. Many of them did not know each other before that weekend but were still quick to get behind and support their team-mates. They raced hard and had fun doing it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Stuart was supported in coaching this year by Amy Davies (Sutton & Cheam). Many thanks to you both for inspiring the swimmers and helping to bring out the best in them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every team had to supply volunteer officials to help at the meet. So we say a very big thank you to Carmen Georgescu-Spiers (Elmbridge Phoenix) and Milda Balse (Guildford City).<\/span><\/p>\n

On a personal note, I would like to round off by thanking my fellow volunteer team managers, Amanda Partridge (Epsom District) and Justine Ryan (Guildford City), for their wonderful support over the weekend. Without them the trip simply could not have run.<\/span><\/p>\n

The results are available here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hannah Davies<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Team manager Hannah Davies reports on this year\u2019s National County Team Championships, one of the most exciting events in the competitive swimming calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[15,14,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-news","9":"category-swimming","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11271"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12140,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11271\/revisions\/12140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surreyswimming.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}