Bridlington Open Meet
Recently Louth Dolphins Swimming Club attended the 3-day Bridlington open meet. Normally around this time of year Louth dolphins would attend the international Eindhoven meet, however due to covid it wasn’t possible for us to swim there this year. So instead the club opted for a more local meet as an alternative. However the club decided to keep the friendly competition that would normally shine through at Eindhoven by introducing a competition for most pbs, as part of this all Louth competitors were split into 4 teams; and points were counted for every pb obtained over the course of the weekend.
The weekend started on Friday with the boys and girls 800m and 1500m freestyle events. 8 swimmers took part in at least one of these events and the club took home 7 medals that evening. At the end of day one, 3 teams were leading with 2 points, and one team was at a close second with 1 point. The meet continued on the Saturday morning bright and early for warm up. The events competed in the morning session consisted of: mixed 400m freestyle (3 medals), boys 200m freestyle (1 medal), girls 200m fly (2 medals), boys 100m breaststroke (9 medals), girls 100m breaststroke (7 medals) and girls 200m freestyle (5 medals). The start of the afternoon session began with the mixed medley relay. This was a unique aspect to the meet, where we had 4 of our senior swimmers represent our club. Leon Bailey for the backstroke, Olivia Anstey for the breaststroke, Lotti Wright for the fly and Jake Adams for the freestyle. Not only did these swimmers get the opportunity to compete but came away in first place and with £100 for the club. The afternoon session then continued with the events as follows: boys 100m IM (8 medals), girls 100m freestyle (13 medals), boys 100m fly (6 medals), girls 200m IM (8 medals), boys 50m freestyle (6 medals), girls 50m freestyle (9 medals), boys 200m breaststroke (3 medals) and the girls 200m breaststroke (5 medals). This then concluded day 2. Team Jo was in the lead with 20 points ,Team Danny was in second place with 17 points, Team Ian was in third with 15 points and in fourth position was team Mark with 12 points.
To finish the day in good spirits, the swimmers, coaches and their families all decided to have fish and chips on the beach followed by a game of rounders (ran by Kate Richardson) in which all the swimmers took part. Another early start the next day for girls and boys to warm up, well rested and raring to go, the swimmers get ready to race. The day was kicked off with the mixed 400m IM (2 medals), and then the rest of the morning session consisted of girls 200m backstroke (4 medals), boys 200m backstroke (3 medals), girls 100m fly (7 medals), boys 100m freestyle (9 medals), girls 50m backstroke (12 medals), boys 50m backstroke (11 medals) and the girls 100m IM (11 medals).
After lunch the juniors got their chance at the relay, with mass support from the rest of the Louth swimmers. Competing in this event and representing the club was Layton Annison-Snowden on the backstroke, Maisie Matthews on the breaststroke, Matthew Tompkinson on the fly and Georgia Middleton on the freestyle. It was a great swim from all the junior swimmers who came back in second place and won £60 for the club. The afternoon session then continued with the final races: boys 100m backstroke (7 medals), girls 100m backstroke (11 medals), boys 50m breaststroke (8 medals), girls 50m breaststroke (11 medals), boys 200m IM (3 medals), girls 50m fly (16 medals) and to finish off the session we had the boys 50m fly (8 medals).
At the end of the weekend the points were counted up and the positions were as follows:
4th position was team Mark with 26 points
3rd position was team Danny with 40 points
2nd position was team Jo with 41 points
And the winner on the weekend was team Ian with 42 points
Over the course of the weekend Louth brought home a grand total of 215 medals! Not only was it a great success for the club, but it was also a fun-filled weekend on and off poolside. It was a brilliant alternative to Eindhoven and although we intend to return to Eindhoven next year, we hope to return to Bridlington in the future.
Special mention must go out to Blair & Angela Southwood of Brackenborough Rd One Stop Post Office for their very generous sponsorship of the team strip! By far the standout kit at the event
(Also to Olivia Ansty 14yrs and Evie Roscoe 15 yrs. club vice captains for writing this report – brilliant! )
If anyone wants to learn more about Louth Dolphins Swimming Club and what they are all about, make sure to click here to view their website!