England Talent Development Programme swimmers from all regions were in action last weekend throughout the country in the first of 3 weekends of intense competition and training, which would allow athletes and coaches on the programme to evaluate the performance of individual swimmers in order to further support their ongoing progress and personal development as the next generation of high level performers.
ASA Talent Coach mentor and Lincoln Vulcans Head Coach, Fred Furniss was delighted when 7 of his own swimmers retained or gained places on the England Talent Development Programme this summer:
Brothers Charles and Oliver Bitowt return for their third year on the programme, while clubmates Jack Burnell, Mollie Temple and Grace Conlon return for their second year, together with new additions Hayley Williams and Lauren Freeman who takes up a place on the Open Water programme.
The Vulcans swimmers competed on the East Midlands Level 2 team together with swimmers from Nova Centurion, Derventio and Northampton. All swimmers were filmed during their races in order to provide valuable race analysis at next camp due to take place in November.
Notable performances came from Jack Burnell who established a strong lead in his 400m freestyle race coming in at 4.00.83 while teammate Hayley Williams took first place in a tight 100m freestyle race in 58.65 holding off two close challenges from the 2 East Region swimmers.
Grace Conlon also swam a well-paced race moving from 7th to 3rd place in a time of 4.34.26 with a strong final 50m swim. In the 200m freestyle Charlie Bitowt posted a solid 2.00.83 performance holding 3rd position from start to finish while brother Oliver also held 3rd position in his 100m fly with 1.02.32. Oliver was back in the pool within minutes of the finish for the 200 Individual medley where he held onto the 3rd position again picking up the pace in the second 100m to finish in 2.18.32.
In the women’s 200 Individual Medley Mollie Temple demonstrated her strength in backstroke, by moving up 3 places to first position during the backstroke leg, posting a final time of 2.25.30 and taking second place at the finish. To complete the Vulcan individual performances Hayley Williams again proved her strength in freestyle by taking first place in the 50m with a time of 27.60.
Vulcans swimmers were also members of the successful East Midlands relay teams.
Head Coach Fred Furniss noted:
Our swimmers performed exceptionally well this weekend against strong performances from some very talented athletes. Our swimmers have demonstrated that they can compete at this level which is good for them, good for our club and great news for British swimming who now have a huge range of talented swimmers to work with.
Final Results
Level 1 East 264
Level 2 East 244
Level 1 East Midlands 236
Level 2 East Midlands 254
Lincoln Vulcans is a Swim 21 performance club which welcomes swimmers who wish to develop their competitive swimming abilities. A progressive training programme based upon the ASA Long Term Athlete Development framework underpins the ethos of the club. For further details about the club, please visit the website – www.lvsc.co.uk
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