The morning after the night before, weary GBM swimmers who were involved in the successfully defending their win in 6 host Olympic borough meet, rose early to attend the Maidstone Open, and yet again performed well under fatigue. The club achieved 39 PB’s from 58 swims. Chanel Robinson achieved a100 breast  regional time knocking almost 2 seconds  off her pb, Joe Doublet also taking 2 seconds off his 100 back going under the KQT  and only 0.96 off his regional time . Mr “PB” Lukas Antanavicius continued his run of amassing pbs in every event he performs with PB’s in 50 breast, 100 free and a whopping 10 second pb on his 100 fly. Jake Forrest continued the theme with PB’s in 50 breast,100 fly and a 2 second pb on 100 free.

The younger swimmers also performed exceptionally well showing great skills, Annabel Walker , Ben Barras, Liam Raabe, Tim Leberl,  Matilda Jarvis all making good PB’s, Chris McGlade took a second off his 50 breast and Alex Ball dipped under 50 seconds for 50 breast to 48.20 and Callum Sullivan also taking 2 seconds off his 100 IM PB.

With the little rest from the night before I would like to congratulate all swimmers who took part and the squad teachers for preparing them so well this week. Thanks also to Suman and Lorraine for doing their usual efficient job marshalling.

As a team we achieved 39 PB’s from 58 swims

Pete Withey
Head Coach

Representative swimmers from all parts of the Borough of Greenwich met at the Eltham centre and came together as one team from four. After a kit change into black team Greenwich (team GB) to reflect the colour black on the Olympic circles the team received a motivational speech and then boarded the coach towards Clissold Leisure Centre, East London, where we were to defend the title from the inaugural event the year before. Along the way we encountered a 4x4 stuck up the side of a post, with Simon the Greenwich coach purposefully striding down Amhurst Road in his team kit, flip flops and shorts to enquire or assist with police officers on the scene, proving super heroes exist in South London – but to no avail we had to reverse back. Luckily it was the only reverse of the night.

After arrival and warm up Michael Gregory and Natasha Sinha got us off to a winning start with the 100 IM, this set the mood for the rest of the meet with only 5 swims not podium finishes on the whole night. Greenwich maintained first position for the whole event with Waltham Forest snapping at our heels all the way. Michael Gregory going 0.4 under his pb for 100 back to achieve a 55.51 was the highlight, all younger swimmers should take note of the concentration prep focus and fabulous underwater phase using the whole 15 meters and Will Philpot who just missed out his British Olympic trials 50 m free by two tenths of a second.

Natasha Sinha could not be knocked off the top spot on the podium with two outstanding individuals, Ben Maslin going under 60 sec for the first time on 100 free also worth noting Leanne Hennessy was just 0.6 of a second off her season best for 100 back but still gaining Greenwich another valuable first position. Leanne also managed a season best on 100 free with a 63.30, rapidly approaching her old pb from last year. Richard Blatchford stepped in to replace Harvey Irvine on the 15/u 100 fly while carrying ankle  injury but fronted up well, Alex Di Mascio brought down her 50 free time to 30.79 in the relay and gained a first place for 50 fly with another pb. Aaran Baggia went 27.10 on the free relay after being out of training for two weeks ill , Natalie Smith also got a pb on 50 free 30.37.

Kara Salih picked up a pb on her 50 fly at 38.03 and Joe Doublet dropped 0.8 to improve his 50 back time. Alex Ball achieved a second spot for the team in the 50 back & 50 fly, Riya Das put in a solid performance with the 50 back going 0.3 under her pb. With Waltham Forest chasing hard it came down to the mixed squadron relay, we had to acquire a second place or be within 1 position of Waltham Forest to win. It was an exiting race where Greenwich managed to get the required result and a victory by 4 points.

A big Thank you to Maggie, Angela, and Lorraine for keeping the team running smoothly with no hiccups Simon for his knowledge of the Borough team and their abilities and Suzanne who was quick to realise Waltham Forest strategy of putting their two fastest swimmers in the relays first, enabling us to adapt and change our tactics to suit . Thank you also to Jane and the two Karens who gave up their time to officiate and record at the event.

Next year in March the event will be held at the Aquatic centre Stratford used as a test event for the Olympics.

This group of swimmers arrived at Eltham as individuals but left as a team, sharing one goal and then achieving that goal, accepting responsibility for their performances and accountable to their teammates. Well done team Greenwich (GBM 9 pb’s from 13 individuals)

Pete Withey
Head Coach

Two GBM swimmers attended the Crawley early bird meet. Joe Doublet opened GBM’S account with a solid 1.27.20 (l/c) converted to 1.24.15 for the 100 breast under the KQT again. Leanne Hennessy followed up with a 1.12.09 for 100 back again under KQT, Joe finished of the morning session with a 2.47.90 for the 200IM pb but just out side the KQT.

The afternoon session saw Leanne swim the 100 free with a time of 1.07 .75 s/c conversion 1.06.53, Joe finished off with the 200 breast 3.01.99 (l/c) converted down to 2.59.48 a good pb and another KQT for Joe , well done to both swimmers on the first long course event of the season.

Pete Withey
Head Coach GBM

GBM swimmers made the trip to Medway Park for the second week running this time to attend the Dartford Open. We took 17 swimmers from 3 squads who competed in 65 events across the two sessions  lasting a long 10 hours achieving 50 PB’s including Jake Forrest and Liam Raabe bringing down their Kent Qualifying Times even further. Despite a few problems with the electronic timing, our swimmers were not distracted and achieved success with our medal tally amounting to 6 golds,1 silver, 6 bronze, 6 fourth places ,6 fifth places, and 3 sixth places. A mention must go to Callum Sullivan and Kara Salih who were both less than a second off their Kent Qualifying Times.

Well done every one, keep it up, continue to commit to training attend as much as you can and concentrate within your sessions and you will achieve your goals.

Pete Withey
Head Coach