12 swimmers went to Ponds Forge in Sheffield on 26th August for the first gala of the season, despite it being in the summer holidays. It was a great afternoon and everyone performed fantastically well - there were some very fast swims, amazing PB’s, new Yorkshire qualifying times, improved Yorkshire qualifying times and 5 medals.

Out of 39 swims there were 27 PB’s, which is amazing. PB swim of the day belonged to Maximus, taking almost 5 seconds off his 100m Freestyle time.

Medals were awarded to:
Fay Clark – Gold in 100m Backstroke and 50m Backstroke
Aidan Reilly – Bronze in 100m Breaststroke
Cormac Reilly – Bronze in 100m Breaststroke
Maximus Mawle – Bronze in 50m Butterfly

Our Age Group and Senior Performance Squads had a fantastic end to the season at Ponds Forge on 15/16th July.  Over half of the team achieved PBs in all of their races, and non-PB swims amongst the rest of the squad were very few and far between.  Joan, Jake, Laura, Amy and Aidan F all clocked up improvements of more than 20 seconds.  Joe C, Laura, Elizabeth and Joe S all came home jangling with medals, while several others swimmers won 1 or 2 each. 3 swimmers achieved new qualifying times for the Yorkshire Winter Competition: Laura in 50m Fly and 100m Breast, Jake in 100m Back and Joan in 100m Free; and the two Joes achieved new NER qualifying times: Joe C in 200m IM and Joe S in 400m Free, 400m IM and 200m Fly.  Well done team!

The short version: Best ever Team Jorvik performance at NERs! 3 swimmers (Callum Tonkins, Joe Callin, Aidan Fothergill) swam in 13 events, reached 12 finals and recorded 12 overall PBs, with Joe winning a Bronze medal in 100m Free. (longer version to follow...)

We were back at John Charles Aquatics Centre again, this time for the Level 1 April Fool meet.  Again our swimmers put in some fantastic performances, achieving a total of 63 PBs and managing to come away with 2 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze medals.  10 year old Heidi Fothergill achieved a clean sweep of 6 PBs, while 13 year old Amy Bettles continued her fine run of form with another 5 out of 5 excellent PB swims. Notably large PBs came in the longer events from Joe Callin (400 IM, 200 Free), Laura Bettles (200 Breast), Amy Bettles (200 Breast, 200 Free, 400 Free), Heidi Fothergill (200 Back, 200 Free), Joe Senior (400 IM), Abby Dennis (200 IM), Aidan Fothergill (200 IM) and Eve Clark (200 Free).  It was pleasing to see Maximus Mawle and Emily Hill returning to form, both swimming PBs and winning bronze medals.  Special mentions to Joe Senior and Rhiannon Wood for achieving NER times in 400 IM and 50m Fly respectively, and Fay Clark for a Yorkshire qualifying time in 50m Back. With medals awarded only to the top 3, Joe Callin could be considered the unluckiest swimmer with a total of five 4th placed swims!

The first of Team Jorvik's two Open Meets of the year was a big success, thanks to the hard work of the organising committee, all the parent helpers and the volunteer officials from visiting clubs.  Our swimmers had a good day in the pool too, winning a total of 27 gold medals (11 A grade, 10 B grade and 6 C grade).  Notable overall performances came from 13 year old Amy Bettles achieving good PBs in all of her 6 swims, sister Laura very nearly matching this feat, and 11 year old Joe Neary-Lamond updating some old times with huge PBs in his 3 swims.  In the 200m IM event, 10 year olds Charlotte Bell and Heidi Fothergill both made big gains, with other great improvements coming in the 200m Free for Eve Clark, Fay Clark, Imogen Wood and Laura Bettles.

The new kit is now available to order directly from Kukri: https://www.kukrisports.co.uk/teamshop/teamjorvik