On 20 November, Bede’s Boys Swim Team took part in the English Schools National Swimming Championship. Matthew Chan, Oliver Charman, Matthew Metcalfe and Max Cooper made up the Intermediate boys team and participated in the Medley Relay and Front Crawl Relay.
The Secondary Schools Team Relay Championships is the longest running championship series organised by the ESSA. It is open to secondary school aged swimmers from across England. The Bede’s Boys Swim Team had already succeeded in the Sussex Regionals – ranking 14 out of 20 in the medley relay and 15 out of 20 in the front crawl relay. This meant that they made it through to the finals, which were held at the London Aquatic Centre – the home of swimming for the 2012 Olympics.
In the first Intermediate Boys 4x50m Medley race, the team upheld their position from the previous round – 14. In the Intermediate Front Crawl race, the team performed brilliantly and finished the race within the top 10! This meant they had made it to the final – where they swam even faster than the previous race and ended in 9th position! They completed the race with an incredible time of 1:49:21. These results are outstanding, especially considering the wide scope of partaking schools – some being specialist swim schools. Bede’s finished as the 9th fastest in the country!
The boys were chaperoned to the Championships by their Coaches, Phil Osborn and Tabby Reed. Mr. Osborn, Bede’s Head of Swimming made the following comment, “In the last two years, we have made enormous gains on the swim team. This is hopefully the start of more success to come. Our performance at the English Schools National Swimming Championships was incredible. Tabby and I are very pleased with the results.”
