Guernsey Island Games and Youth Commonwealth Games Swim Team Kit Presentation Members of the Guernsey Island Games Swim Team gathered at Beau Sejour last night to receive their new swimming kit.
The kit was presented by Mr Oliver de la Fosse of OAK who generously sponsor the Guernsey Amateur Swimming Association as well as the Barracudas.
President of GASA Mr Chris Butt welcomed Mr de la Fosse and all the swimmers, coaches, parents, and members of the Guernsey Island Games Association.
The presentation began with three swimmers receiving their Island Colours – the Games being their first time representing their Island – they were: Owain Edwards, Maddie Russell and Delphine Riley. The captains were named as Ross Yeates and Tatiana Tostevin.
There were also new swimmers “new caps” representing Guernsey in the Island Games for the first time who were acknowledged: Owain Edwards Luke Le Cras Joshua Dunning Jemima Green Hannah Jones Delphine Riley Maddy Russell Hannah Kennedy
It was also announced that Tom Hollingsworth will have the honour of leading out the whole Island Team as the flag bearer. Hannah Kennedy will play her part for Guernsey as the Water Carrier, where the mixing of water from each of the 24 islands competing forms part of the opening ceremony on Saturday.
The swimmers representing Guernsey in the Youth Commonwealth Games in Trinidad and Tobago in August were also introduced: Erin Watterson Oriana Wheeler Hannah Kennedy Joshua Dunning Luke Le Cras Jemima Green Delphine Riley Hannah Jones
Luke Le Cras and Oriana Wheeler have also been awarded the honour of flag bearer for the Island Team.
The evening concluded with thanks to the coaches, and especially to Alison Frankland who is heading the organisation of the swimming events – a huge task!
Final thanks were to Oliver de la Fosse and to OAK for their generous support – Tatiana Tostevin presented him with a small gift of our appreciation
Congratulations to all of you who took part in the GASA 50m Sprint 2022. It was a great turnout at Beau Sejour and some fantastic swims and personal bests were logged across all of the age groups.
The object is for swimmers to achieve the greatest possible distance within one hour. The results are then collated with those received worldwide by the BLDSA in the following age groups. 9 and under, 10/11, 12/13, 14/15, 16/17, 18/19, 20/24, 25/29, 30/34, 35/39, 40/44, 45/49, 50/54, 55/59, 60/64, 65/69, 70/74, 75/79, 80/84 years and 85 and over. Age as at 1st January in the year of the swim.
The British Long-Distance Swimming Association receives entries from throughout the world in this event. Our participation in previous years has resulted in the Barracudas receiving a great haul of gold, silver and bronze medals.
If you wish to take part, please sign up in the Postal Swim register at the Swim School office. Please note only those who sign up and register on time will be permitted to swim.
Seven young swimmers from the Beau Sejour Barracudas Swimming Club, who achieved the qualifying times to compete at Hampshire County level, excelled last weekend. The event staged at the Mountbatten Centre, Portsmouth, saw tough opposition coming from 23 top Hampshire County Clubs.
Following on from his success the first weekend of the Championships, 11-year-old Zachary Maiden continued his winning ways. Competing in 10 events, he won a further gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals and produced 100% personal bests. Zachary’s first success came in the 200m Individual Medley where his mastery of all four strokes and efficient starts and turns, resulted in him posting a great time of 2.56.82 – a lifetime best by 5 seconds, crowning him Hampshire County Age Group Champion – 200IM.
In the 50m and 100m events swimmers had to compete in heats and finals and next up for Zachary, following a successful heat was the 50m freestyle final. He placed second with a time of 31.74. Further silver medals came in the 50m butterfly – 36.38, 200m freestyle – 2.37.64, 100m freestyle – 1.11.72 and 50m backstroke – 37.50.
The 200m and 100m backstroke and 100m and 50m breaststroke all earned Zachary bronze medals.
A Covid depleted team of 6 Barracuda swimmers travelled to Winchester to compete in the first County Championships since the start of the pandemic. Covid stricken Jonathon Beck was disappointed not to be able to defend his 50m freestyle title, along with Oriana Wheeler who was seeded number one in both the 400 and 200 Individual Medley events.
The outstanding performances of the weekend undoubtably came from Commonwealth Games hopeful, Orla Rabey. Despite having only recently recovered from Covid, the butterfly specialist produced outstanding swims in all her butterfly events. Her swim in the 200m butterfly saw her do a personal best time to become the 2022 Hampshire County Champion. She followed up this impressive performance with silver in the 50m and 100m events and a new Island Long Course record in the 50m butterfly, which had previously been set by Laura Le Cras in December last year. In the 100m freestyle final she was joined by younger sister, Ailish Rabey and Molly Staples, where the Barracuda trio took bronze, 4th and 5th places respectively.
