Hertfordshire swimmers came away with a total combined 32 medals, of which there were 28 individual medals and 4 relay medals. There was a total of 61 top 10 placings in the meet for Hertfordshire swimmers/relays.

Starting with our Regional Inter County team, we travelled again to UEA Norwich for another battle with our regional adversaries. It was fantastic to see the team return home with the winners trophy having finished 4^thlast year. A great start to the season and a great start to Janets’ Presidency.

Over the three competitions we gave 78 swimmers the opportunity to represent the county. This is a fantastic chance for the swimmers to swim at a different level with different team mates and more often than not different coaches in charge of them as well as Team Managers around as well.

The county would like to thank the following without whom these events woud not have happened:

Coaches: Amy Thompson, Magda Klosowska, Jack Donoghue & Andrew Woodhouse.

Team Managers: Kate Burchell, Anna Baker, Sam Housden, Beata Klimaszewska, Tracey Bradshaw, Jem Laguda, Anna Belsey & Tony Moore

Officials: Louise Hughes, Phil Murtagh, Tony Chada, Matthew Brundle, Julie Baggert, Shirlayne Dunwoodie, Helena Pretious-White & Clare McCarty

As a county we appoint the coaches to select the swimmers and cover the events and Kate carries out the administrative side of things. We ALWAYS have issues recruiting Team Managers & Officials. 

If you are qualified as an Official or Team Manager and would like to get involved please get in touch, in an ideal world we would like Team Managers on board now to be booking travel and accommodation for next years events.

The day started off meeting up in Hitchin to find the pool overlooked the booking, and we had 33 very tall teenagers filling out the lobby. Great improvisation using 2 lanes with no blocks was a great excuse to practice their take overs, starts and turns especially as they had all been training hard all week. 

After the session it was bags packed and on the coach to Sheffield we go. Lots of singing on the way up and a few heads taking their opportunity to sleep through the noise. A quick drop bag meant dinner which was every swimmer's dream. Eyes were lighting up seeing burgers, steaks, ribs and more Oreo Sundays in one place than I’ve seen. Was a great way to settle and wind down before bed and a busy day Sunday!        

The competition: As we walked through the Pond Forge doors we could hear the excitement and crowd for the day. Various teams were filling up the lobby waiting for entry to the pool. Once in and after a quick warm up the face paint came out, and if it wasn’t plastered all over swimmer's faces it was leaving racing streaks in the water. 

SE Hertfordshire came 7th on the day with 408 points. 3 spaces out of promotion which needed a minimum of 430 for the top 4 finish. We had some great swimmers performing well so early on in the season. Started off with our first win from Sara Kalawska on her 100 fly which then followed by a sub minute 100 back for Jude Liddiard, a massive pb for Sam Pyefinch for his 100 free and pbs from Erin O’Meara and Ben Green on the 100 Breast.

We had some great relays splits too with Jess Woodward clocking a 26.44 and Reece Housden coming home in a 23.56 in the 6x50 relay. Medley relays saw Zachary Patel dropping a low 26 on his 50 fly, Michael Ripper a low 24 in 50 free and Emily Lush getting a 27.43 in the 50 free. The 14/15yrs girls stormed their medley relay to win from the start with Lily Merrett and Erin O’Meara swimming great pbs.

With all done for the day and swimmers and staff tired from all their hard work, we made a detour (thanks Ralph for service station information!) for some ‘healthy’ food, thanked our bus driver who was brilliant all weekend, and I would like to thank swimmers for their dedication and hard work over the weekend, and being good ambassadors for SE Hertfordshire. I would like to give a huge thank you to Anna Baker & Sam Housden for without them the weekend wouldn’t have gone so smoothly, a big thankyou to Janet, Clare and Helena for offering their services to help officiate and represent SEH. Also a big thankyou to all the parents for their support with some coming to watch for themselves. Without these people working hard behind the scenes, it wouldn’t have been so successful. 

Jessica Keogh (Hatfield, 3K), Peter Soczewka (Hatfield, 2K), Harrison Lees (Watford, 5K) and Billie Grant (Hatfield, 5K)

The official SEEROW and National qualifiers results can be found here.

The Swim England Hertfordshire Open Water County Championships results can be downloaded below.

{phocadownload view=file|id=915|text=Swim England Hertfordshire Open Water Championships 2018 Results|target=b}

This huge undertaking by the County Association is in the early stages but will ideally be a facility that caters for ALL our aquatic disciplines. The focus of the facility will be competitive training and events.

The county have set up a limited company Hertfordshire Aquatics and are in the process of registering it as a charity. This company will oversee the project and run the facility when it is built.

A preferred location has been identified with a very enthusiastic partner. We have been advised not to reveal the location/partner until contracts have been signed

Swim England Herfordshire are now seeking support from various bodies in order to help us raise the necessary funding.

To view a copy of the presentation made at the ACM click here.