Following on from the British Summer Championships in July, where the respective home nation championships for England, Scotland and Wales.
Sedgefield 75 swimming club had two swimmers qualify for the Swim England Summer Championships held, again, at Ponds Forge International Swimming Centre. Swimmers came from clubs from all over England based on times set at high-level qualifying competitions between March and May this year.
Filip Wilczynski swam first, doing 50m backstroke in the 13-14 years age group. Filip, at 13, was one of only two swimmers of that age that managed to qualify in amongst England’s best 14-year-olds and he narrowly missed out on qualifying for the final.
Emma Price, still smarting a little from just missing medals with three fourth-placed finishes at the British championships, attacked her 100m freestyle heat with determination and beat her PB by over a second to qualify for the final fastest. Perhaps more significantly to Emma was her time dipped below one minute for this event for the first time, a much-coveted milestone!
In the final, she was challenged all the way to the wall as a Wigan swimmer made a bid for the gold but Emma found a big finish and took the win, dropping her PB by another three-tenths in a time of 59.67 seconds.
Both swimmers are Newton Aycliffe residents and have benefitted from top quality swimming coaching at Sedgefield 75. Many other local swimmers are achieving their goals, improving fitness, learning life-skills and having fun but this is under unnecessary threat. Aquatic sports clubs using Durham County Council pools, including Sedgefield 75, are under massive financial pressure, due directly to increases in pool hire by up to 300%. It is so obviously not sustainable. We call on DCC to promote and support swim clubs rather than bring down the axe and hope that if Newton Aycliffe residents feel that this local institution is worth saving they could let their councillors know.