Open Water and Long Distance Swimming 2006
updated: 18th October 2006
The Open water season has now started where a number of hardy swimmers will take to swimming in Lakes, Reservoirs, Locks, Canals and the Sea for the next four month's or so. In 2006, the weather has been particularly poor, with temperatures way below what is expected.
The majority of our swimmers with compete in BLDSA events, with the exception of a few, more seasoned and experienced members, who will enter the British ASA Open Water Championships , as well other ASA organised events.
Colwick Park, Nottingham 4Km - 20th May 2006
The Open Water Swimming season has started with below seasonal weather conditions but this has not stopped some excellent performances from Scarborough Swimming Club members.
In heavy rain Adam Harvey produced an excellent performance at Colwick Park, Nottingham to win the 4 km race with a time of 50.03, more than 8 minutes ahead of the rest of the field. There had been very little let up in the torrential rain that persisted throughout the event, but this did not appear to hinder Harvey in anyway as he made his way around the one kilometre circuit to lead from start to finish.
Ivan Percival Open Water 2 Mile Championships, Albert Dock, Liverpool- 27th May 2006
With overcast skies and light drizzle at times, Liverpool S.C. hosted the Ivan Percival Open Water Championships at the Albert Dock complex, along side the River Mersey, with 40 swimmers taking part.
Sarah Roberts got off to a fast start and comfortably held the lead throughout the race, to finish first overall as well as winning the Senior Women's race in a time of 43 minutes 25 seconds, an improvement of nearly 2 minutes for her time on this course.
Marc Slack, competing in the Junior Men 2 mile race, also improved his time by 2 minutes to place 2nd in class, and 4th overall.
Adam and Sarah are back in action in Cheshire next weekend swimming the 3 mile race at the Warrington Dolphins' Budworth Mere Championships.
(Report and Photo by Steve Roberts)
BLDSA - 5Km Budworth Mere Cheshire - 3rd June 2006
Summer finally arrived for Scarborough SC's open water swimmers on Saturday at Budworth Mere, Cheshire. This annual event organised by Warrington Dolphins Long Distance Swimming Club uses a 1 mile lap course at this sailing lake.
With a field of nearly 60 swimmers and only a short distance to the first turn a good start was essential. Both Adam Harvey and Sarah Roberts, competing in the 3 mile Senior race, did just this putting clear water between themselves and the rest of the field.
After a steady 1st lap Adam upped the pace and then swam consistently to record a time of 1 hour and 34 seconds, nearly 9 minutes clear of 2nd place, last year's winner, Terry Cowburn from Winsford.
At the end of the 1st lap Sarah had established a minute lead over Jennifer Clegg (Halifax), a National medallist, and Laura Bagley (Barrow), which she proceeded to extend to more than 3 minutes by the end of the race which she won in 1 hour 6 minutes 13 seconds.
(Report and Photographs - Steve Roberts)
BLDSA - 2 Mile Wykeham Lake, Scarborough - 17th June 2006
A sunny Saturday saw four Scarborough swimmers compete in the British Long Distance Swimming Association Wykeham Lake Swim.
The men's two mile event saw 16 year old James Sowersby take to the water for the first time this year establishing a lead right from the start. James in his first outing as a senior swimmer continued to open the gap between himself and the rest of the field finishing first in an impressive 38 minutes 16 seconds more than 6 minutes ahead of the second placed swimmer. The junior event over the same course saw Marc Slack produce a solid performance coming home in fourth place and improving on last year's time by almost 5 minutes.
Later in the afternoon Marc returned to the water to accompany fellow Scarborough swimmers Robert Harvey and Tom Venner in the single lap novice event. Marc finished the event just ahead of Robert who finished the race very strongly and was placed sixth, whilst Tom on only his third dip into open water came home in a creditable ninth position.
(Report and photo courtesy of Kevin Sowersby)
Tom Venner, James Sowersby, Marc Slack, Robert Harvey
FINA WORLD 10Km Cup /LEN 10Km (British Championships) ASA 3Km International Open water swim - Royal Albert Dock, London - June 24/25th 2006
Three of Scarborough's most promising Long Distance Open Water Swimmers were in London recently, where they were on International duty, taking part in the 'Festival of Open Water Swimming' which was organised by the Amateur Swimming Association. London's venue for many of the 2012 Olympics water sports, the Royal Albert Dock, deep in the Capital's Docklands, was the setting for the Event which is ideal for Open Water Swimming as it offers excellent all round visibility of any event taking place within it's 3km length. The event was especially popular with a good audience, and much of this popularity is down to Open Water Swimming set to be an Olympic sport in 2012.
Twenty One Year Old Aaron Yeoman, who has just graduated from Hull University, was called up to represent Great Britain against World Class Opposition in the Federation of International Nations (FINA) 10Km Marathon Swimming World Cup which included Current World Number One, Petar Stoychev, Bulgaria, and Number Three, Mohamed El Zanaty, Egypt, along with Alan Bircher, the British Number One who is currently in 6th place in the title race.
Adam Harvey, twenty-two, took part in the League of European Nations (LEN) 10Km Open Water Cup which doubled as the British Championships, with Sixteen year old James Sowersby competing in the British Swimming Junior International 3km Championships, with the youngster representing England and Scarborough in the competition.
In Ideal swimming conditions, Harvey was the first in action, where a field of twenty swimmers made their way anti-clockwise towards the first turning buoy of the four circuit course. The leading pack of Spanish, Czech and German swimmers soon established a clear lead with Harvey getting amongst the other British Contingent in the race. After the first two circuits, Harvey found himself lying in 14th overall European place, but in a very respectful 5th place in the British Championships. A place he maintained throughout the remaining part of the race to finish in a good time of 2:17:44. Germany's Alexander Studzinski won the event in a very fast 1:57.25, with Britain's David Proud winning the Gold medal in the British Championships in 2:01.11, and in 6th place overall, with Scottish Swimmers Jamie Forrest and James Leitch securing the silver and bronze medals.
Later the wind had increased and conditions became more difficult for the swimmers with a moderate swell for them to contend with. During the 3Km event, Sowersby found himself up against a strong contingent of South African swimmers and two of the leading British Juniors, Matthew Vyse from Hatfield and Craig Jackson from Greenwich. A leading pack of six swimmers - four South Africans amongst them soon forged ahead, with Sowersby doing his best to keep with the pack. After the first 1500 metre lap, Sowersby found himself in a respectable 8th place overall, and in 4th place out of the British Opposition. A final push to the finish saw him come home in 8th place to finish in 38:39, improving his last year's time of 40:15. The event was won by South African Chad Ho in 35:48, with Vyse claiming the silver medal in 36:25, and Jackson taking the bronze in 36:34.
The afternoon even saw the wind speed increase to a force five which made for tricky conditions throughout the Marathon Open Water World 10km Championships in which Yeoman was making his debut at this level of competition. With Great Britain's Alan Bircher fighting it out with Argentinean Damian Blaum and Egyptian Mohamed El-Zanaty for the Gold medal, Yeoman tucked himself alongside British teammate Omar Hussain for half the race, but found the conditions tough, and dropped back off the pace to have a personal battle with China's Zhang Jian and Ge Haidong as well as Canadian Marc-Andre Leclerc. The conditions took their tool with Zhang Jian retiring from the race along with Israel's Daniel Katzir and Britain's Daniel Mason. With the race nearing its conclusion, Yeoman did well to pull away from Ge Haidong, but it was the Canadian who passed Yeoman in the last ten metres of the race to finish in 11th, leaving Yeoman finishing in 12th overall place in a time of 2:30.25, the 4th placed Britain in the race, with Ge Haidong, 13th, finishing in 2:36:33.
James, Aaron and Adam. (photo courtesy of Scarborough Evening News)
ASA Grand Prix & Midland Champs - 5Km Bosworth Water- 9th July 2006
16 year old James Sowersby and Aaron Yeoman, 21, along with Sarah Roberts, 18, travelled to Bosworth Water to take part in the Midlands Region Open Championships, where Sowersby took the Gold medal winning the 5km swim in 59:24, with Yeoman bringing home the silver medal in 60:33. Straight from the start, it was obvious that the Gold medal would be coming home to Scarborough with both swimmers leaving the rest of the field a lot of work to do to catch them. Yeoman, the Champion himself two years ago, set the early pace, and was the leader for the first 2 kilometres with Sowersby in hot pursuit. The younger swimmer was not to be denied however, and forged ahead to take the Championship. Roberts found herself in a strong field and tried her best to keep with the leading pack, but it was English International Erica Brown, Derventio Excel who took top honours winning in 61:01 with Roberts missing out of the medals in 4th place with a time of 65:05.
Photographs speak for themselves. Nice to see Scarborough swimmers up there!
BLDSA Bala 5Km (3 Mile) Swim - July 9th 2006
Marc Slack was our only competitor at the BLDSA event in Bala over the weekend. He did very well, and took the top Honours in the Juniors and took 1st place in 1hr 32mins on a really bad day with rain and three foot waves blowing down the course. The safety boat couldn't,t keep pace with the amount of swimmers being pulled out. At one point there was 5 swimmers in the boat at once. The photograph shows Marc receiving his trophy!
ASA Grand Prix and Northern Champs 5Km - Wykeham Lake July 15th 2006
A good turnout from our club's swimmers were expected to swim at the North Eastern Regional Open Water Championships held at Wykeham Lake, but unfortunately, Aaron Yeoman, last year's North Eastern Champion, was laid low with a bug and it was left to James Sowersby and 22 year old Adam Harvey to battle it out with Junior International 17 year old Matthew Vyse from Hatfield, for the Senior Men's 5km swim with Sarah Roberts and 20 year old Julie Owen to battle it out in the Senior Ladies 5 Km event. The club also had Emma Couch, 15, and Natasha Hunter,13, along with Marc Slack, 14, David Mort, 13, Liam Thraves, 13, and Tom Venner 13, tackling the Junior Men and Women's 2.5 Km events. Venner was joined by Hannah Couch in the 1.25 Km Novice's event.
After the first kilometre, Matthew Vyse had a clear lead, with Sowersby chasing hard to make the gap, and with the equally hardworking Adam Harvey also putting in the effort to break down the distance. The race leader continued to pull away from the chasing pair, and Vyse won the Open Gold medal in 61:48, with Sowersby content with the open silver and Regional Gold medal finishing in 63:02, and Harvey coming in with the Bronze and Regional Silver in 66:14.
The Women's race was dominated by 18 year old Erica Brown who won in 64:21, but was chased hard by Owen, who has returned to open water swimming after a few years absence, who took the open silver medal in 65:02, but enjoyed the Regional Gold, with Sarah Roberts not having one of her better swims to come home in 5th place in 73:38, but received some consolation in taking the Regional Silver medal.The Junior Men's and Ladies events were won by Wigan swimmers Alice McCall, 31:58, and Daniel Farrow, 36:52, but Marc Slack, David Mort and Liam Thraves took home the regional gold,silver and bronze medals won in 40:09, 40:22 and 41:04 respectively, with Tom Venner just missing out on the medals in 4th place in a time of 50:25.
First Scarborough swimmer to finish in the Junior Ladies event was 4th placed Emma Couch, 38:08 with Natasha Hunter doing well to finish in 6th place in 43:12. Hannah Couch finished in a respectful 5th place in the Novice event coming home in 22:54, with Tom Venner feeling the effects from his earlier swim to come home in 7th place to record 25:40.Winning his second event, James Sowersby has now moved into second place in the ASA Grand Prix event, with Aaron Yeoman in 6th and Adam Harvey in 8th. In the ladies event, Sarah Roberts is 4th and Julie Owen in 6th place overall. James has a good chance of winning this year's Grand Prix when it is expected that all our leading swimmers will be competing at the British 5km and Grand Prix final held at Holme Pierrepont in Nottingham on August 19th.
Warrington Albert Dock Open Water Swimming Championships - 5th August 2006
click on photo for bigger display!
In a clean sweep, four swimmers, James Sowersby, Adam Harvey, Sarah Roberts and Emma Couch, all won their respective races. Although the sun did not shine on this year's event, temperatures were high and conditions good for the 30 plus swimmers making their way round the course passing under 3 bridges through 4 different parts of the dock system to complete a one mile circuit.
With all the two and four mile events starting together Scarborough's swimmer's set a fast pace which strung the field out. Harvey and Sowersby established a commanding lead while Roberts put in a strong performance in the chasing pack, with Couch pushing hard to remain in touch only a short distance behind. As the races progressed all the swimmers pulled clear of the other contenders in their events.
First to finish was Sowersby, winning the men's 2 miles in 37:57, some 15 minutes ahead of the second placed male swimmer. Sowersby had a busy few days, where he had achieved tenth place (36:43) during the National 3 kilometre Swim held at Sheffield the day before.
Roberts finished next winning the ladies event for the third successive year in 41:47, more than 3 minutes quicker than last years time beating all but one of the male competitors over the distance. Couch quickly followed by winning the junior ladies title in 46:14 in her first attempt in this competition, finishing in a very creditable 6th position overall in the 2 mile distance.
Harvey repeated his success of the previous two years in winning the 4 mile event finishing in 1:18:23, eight minutes ahead of the second placed swimmer to give the Scarborough swimmers their 4th victory of the day.British 2Km Open Water Agegroup Championships - Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham 19th August 2006
During the Agegroup and County Championships, the swimmers were also representing Yorkshire during the 2Km event. It was left to James Sowersby and Julie Owen to fly the Scarborough flag. Sowersby found himself in Gold medal contention and contested the early lead with the eventual winner Hatfield's Matthew Vyse. The silver and bronze medals however were up for grabs with Bradford's Omar Hussain, Coventry's Daniel Mason and Cheshire swimmer Robert Gater joining James Sowersby in the hunt for a medal. Hussain finally broke away from the chasing pack to secure the Silver medal with the bronze medal being fiercely contested between Sowersby and Gater. Right at the finish, Sowersby was to be denied a medal when Gater just managed to get ahead of the Scarborough swimmer to take the bronze medal, with the young Yorkshireman edged out in 4th place with a time of 26:50. The club however, was to come home with a medal when Owen, who was competing against Leeds swimmer Rachel Jack and Suffolk swimmer Rebecca Harris for the medals, came home with the silver medal, with Jack winning gold in 26:29, and Owen touching home in a dead heat time of 27:00 with Harris, but it was the Scarborian who was given the silver medal.
British 5Km Championships - Holme Pierrepont - 19th August 2006
The 2006 British Open Water Championships and Agegroup Competition were both held in Nottingham at the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports centre, where in 2005, club swimmer 21 year old Aaron Yeoman secured the club's first British medal for the 5Km at this level. However, with Yeoman unable to compete for personal commitments, the challenge for glory was to come from 22 year old Adam Harvey and James Sowersby, 16, competing in his first 5Km British Championships, and eighteen year old Sarah Roberts in the ladies competition. Many of the other swimmers were established Internationals in their own right, with Manchester's David Proud and with Jamie Forrest and James Leitch from Glasgow the main medal hopefuls. Sowersby got off to a good start, and found himself in good company in the form of Hatfield's Matthew Vyse and Coventry's Daniel Mason. As the race reached its conclusion, it was a sprint for a top ten place at stake. Vyse finished in 1:05.02 in 8th place, with Mason coming home in 9th, 1:05.21 and Sowersby to finish in a very respectable 10th place in a time of 1:05.39. Harvey, however, retired from the race after suffering from severe cramp. The ladies race was also represented by known British Internationals, with the former English number 1, Paula Wood making her comeback at this distance, with Leeds swimmer Rachel Jack and Derventio's Erica Brown expected to make podium finishes. Sarah Roberts was also looking for a top ten place, and achieved this despite a challenge from Glasgow's Susan Black to deny her. However, Roberts was to prevail to finish in 1:12.42 to come home in 10th place.
Open Water Season Roundup 2006
Now that the Open Water swimming season is passed, Scarborough swimming club can reflect in what's been another fine year of competition. The club enjoyed representation at the highest level, with Aaron Yeoman, and Adam Harvey selected to represent Great Britain in National events at London Docklands. Club members, in all, have won seven regional medals, 16 individual events over the season and 4 team trophies at venues all over the country. James Sowersby and Sarah Roberts were placed second and fourth respectively in the British Open Water Grand Prix, with Aaron Yeoman seventh and Adam Harvey in twelfth place. Julie Owen gained a silver medal in the national age groups competition capping another outstanding summer for the club.
Click on Photograph for Bigger Picture. (Photo from Kevin Sowersby)
Pictured with just some of the trophies they had won this year are: - Adam Harvey, Julie Owen, Sarah Roberts, James Sowersby, Emma Couch, Marc Slack, Natasha Hunter, David Mort, Robert Harvey, Liam Thraves, Thomas Venner, Hannah Couch, Aaron Pattison, and Richard Thraves. (Aaron Yeoman missing from Photo)
Last edited: 18th October 2006
