The Edmonton Open Winter Sprints competition proved a very warming event for Anaconda swimmers on Saturday 21 January.  They came home with 46 medals and 30 personal best times, competing against 15 clubs from north London and surrounding counties.
Tommy Donovan, 10, topped the medal table, striking gold in all eight of his events. His time of 1.36.45 in the 100m breaststroke set a new Anaconda club record for his age-group, and places him near the top 10 swimmers of his age in the UK in this event.
The younger swimmers all showed great determination in this very busy competition. Aleksandra Qosja, 10, won a silver and a bronze, Disney Harker, 9, touched home first in a close 50m backstroke event, and Alexa Kennedy clocked a PB in the 100m IM.
Fred Goudie, 12, won three golds and four silvers in seven swims, with a good PB in the 50m breaststroke, while fellow 12 year old Redi Qosja powered to a silver and a bronze, and Maya Spence’s personal best in the 100m back earned her a silver.
Alexandra Dixon, James Spence and Katie Fitzgerald all gained two PBs, with Katie narrowly missing out on a medal in the 50m backstroke.  Simge Arslan, 11, improved her times in all three of her events, and Harry Robinson came fifth in the 100m breaststroke with a personal best.
Andrew Bartha, 14, continued his strong recent form with three PBs and three medals, including a gold in the 50 breaststroke. Other 14 year olds adding to the mighty medal haul included Alex Brown with a gold in the 100m fly, Angela Fieldman with two silvers and two bronzes, and Sian Donovan with a bronze in 100M IM. Lydia Pearce, swimming in the 50m breaststroke, also gained a PB.
The more senior swimmers also swelled the medal count, with Sam Dixon, 15, winning three silvers and a bronze, all with personal best times, and Jessie Potter grabbing a brace of silvers.  Killian Fitzgerald swam a good PB time of 32.91 in 50m fly, just missing the bronze.
In the very competitive open section, against some very strong swimmers, Brett McLean completed a fine Anaconda display, with four golds, a silver and bronze.
Head coach Wayne Lock said that he was very pleased with the club’s performance, adding that he had not expected many personal best swims at this event, because many of the swimmers are in the middle of a very heavy training cycle. And it was great to see a big group of Anaconda swimmers of all ages reaping the benefits of their hard work.

MIDDLESEX COUNTY ASA AUTUMN DEVELOPMENT MEET 2011

3^RD /4^TH DECEMBER 2011      SOUTHBURY ROAD

The Middlesex autumn development meet was held over the weekend of the 3^rd / 4^th December and Anaconda was represented by 17 eager swimmers hopeful of PB’s, medals and acquiring county qualifying times and they were not to be disappointed.

Redi Qosja (12) certainly had the most demanding schedule for the weekend with a total of eight events. Of those eight he amassed six speeding tickets (county times), a gold and silver medal and eight PB’s with a combined total of 76 seconds off his former best times. Jasper Den Dulk (10) carried on his great form with four speeding tickets and PB’s in the 100IM, 50 and 200 back and 400 free. Fred Celul (13) had two great swims in the 100 and 200 back to get his speeding tickets comfortably, with Andrew Bartha (14) winning silver in the 100IM and a speeding ticket in the 100 free in a time of 1:04.26.Luke Dudley (10) had success with PB’s in both the 50 free and 50 fly. His time of 46.88 in the fly secured Luke the gold medal. Tommy Donovan (10) tried his hand at three new events, the 400 free, 200 fly and 200IM and came away with three speeding tickets. Fred Hockey (11) added two PB’s in the100IM and 200 free as did Alex Brown (14) in the 100IM and the 100 free. Joseph Haines (11) also bagged himself a PB in the 100IM.

The girls were equally as productive with some outstanding performances. Angela Fieldman (14) earned herself a PB and speeding ticket in the100 back. She followed that up by bagging herself two gold medals and a silver medal in the 100 and 800 free and the200IM respectively. Emily Thomas (10) managed PB’s in both the 50 breaststroke and 200 back, her time of 3:44.50 in the 200 back captured the bronze medal. Emily then put on a gutsy performance in the 400 free and her first attempt at this distance was rewarded with the silver medal.  Alice Hockey (9) secured herself another county time with a speeding ticket in the 50 free and went onto gain PB’s in the 200IM and 200 free and also won finalist rosettes for the200IM and the 50 fly. Sydney Celul (9) also won finalist rosettes in the 50 fly and 200free. Sydney’s  time of 3:31.00 in the200 free was 8 seconds under her previous best and put her in 4^th place just missing out on a medal. Alexa Kennedy (9) was another of the girl’s squad to win a finalist rosette in the 200 free and was joined by Agnes Benedict (11) who won a rosette with a 3 second PB in 100 back with a time of 1:39.23.

The weekend was a great success with the Anaconda swimmers amassing 36 PB’s, 18 county qualifying times, 9 medals and 10 finalist rosettes. Well done to all the swimmers who took part over the weekend you put on a great show. The only negative to be taken away was the fact that we only had 17 swimmers. Those numbers were well down on previous years and we should have a larger number attending these open meets. Let’s hope the efforts and success of all our swimmers this weekend inspires more to participate in future events. A date for your diaries, the spring development meet is on 15^th/21^st /22^nd April at Southbury road, let’s make sure we have a big turnout for this event.

Last but by no means least a big thank you to head Coach Wayne who was in attendance for the whole weekend making sure the swimmers were well prepared and supported throughout the weekend.

WATFORD MIDDLE DISTANCE AND 50M OPEN MEET

SUNDAY 27^TH NOVEMBER 2011

On Sunday a group of swimmers from Anaconda made the journey up the M1 to Watford,  to compete in near tropical conditions at a very hot Woodside Leisure Centre for the Watford Middle Distance and 50m Open Meet.

Alice Hockey (9) started off a great day of swimming with a Bronze medal and PB in the 50m backstroke. She followed that up with Gold medals in both the 200m and 50m breaststroke. Her time of 3:40.76 in the 200m was a 15 second PB and put her 18 seconds clear of her nearest rival. Alice’s time of 49.52 in the 50m breast puts her at number 1 in the county rankings. Emily Thomas (10) swam in the 50m and 200m free events and gained PB’s in both.  Her time of 3:19.95 in the 200m was 6 seconds under her previous best. The girl’s squad was completed with Sian Donovan (14) and Iona Ocak (13). Sian had three top ten finishes and a PB in her 200m free.  Iona picked up a 4^th and 5^th place in the 50m free and back respectively, and ended the day by capturing the Bronze medal in the 50m breaststroke with a time of 43.66. Iona also gained county times on both her 50m free and back.

The boys squad started the day with Alex Manolopoulos (15) grabbing the Bronze medal in the 50m backstroke and he followed that up with a PB in his 50m free. Tommy Donovan (10) had a good day at the pool with a Gold medal in the 50m fly. This time of 37.77 (PB) was also the Watford Open Meet record for 10yr olds. He achieved two Silver medals in the 50m and 200m breaststroke and two Bronze medals in the 50m and 200m free events. Jasper Den Dulk (10) had four top ten finishes and PB’s in the50m fly, 50m breaststroke and 200m free. Jaspers time of 2:57.96 in the 200m free beat his previous best by 11 seconds and also gave him a county qualifying time. Fred Hockey (11) completed the squad and had good swims in three events,  especially the 200m breaststroke where he came 9^th and just missed out on beating his PB by the narrowest of margins.

So after a long day at the pool the Anaconda swimmers came away with a haul of 10 medals, 14 PB’S, 12 county qualifying times and a Watford Open Meet record. A very good return from a small group of swimmers who all should be proud of their performances in the pool and the way they represented the club out of the pool by cheering and supporting each other and showing a great team spirit.

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