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British, County and Royal Navy Masters Swim Championships (March 2010)
![Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College (DSFC)](javascript:PopupPic("/sports/images/swimming1.jpg");)
On the weekend of 20th/21st March, whilst most of the Lower Sixth were on Exercise in Portsmouth, I competed at the final stage of a three weekend long tournament racing against people from all over Derbyshire in the County Championships.
The Saturday consisted of individual events. I raced in the 50m freestyle, 100m I.M, and 100m Butterfly gaining two 1st places and one 2nd in the 100m Butterfly.
The Sunday was relay day. I raced, along with 3 teammates from Derby Phoenix, in the 4x100m Freestyle and the 4x100m I.M. The morning session was the heats for the freestyle relay and we easily made it to the final at the end of the session. With most of the team swimming personal bests we came home to win the relay with a comfortable lead over the rest of the teams.
The afternoon session followed the same layout, heats to start off with then the finals at the end. Once again we were comfortably into the finals, having the quickest qualifying time by around ten seconds. A closer look at our main rivals, City of Derby, revealed it was going to be a close race. They had faster backstroke and breastroke legs but we had faster butterfly and freestyle legs. The difference in times actually cancelled out. I swam the final leg (freestyle) and had approximately a body length to catch up after an extremely good swim from my teammate. With 25 metres to go I hadn’t really made that much distance. You rarely hear the crowd cheering in swimming as the water blocks out the majority of the noise, but on this occasion it was so loud that being in the water made no difference. I had it all to do in the last length and we levelled out with 5 metres to go. Unfortunately we lost by just 0.2 seconds.
On the 28th of March I went to Millfield in Somerset to compete in the Royal Navy Masters Championships. This event showcased the talent from all of the Armed Forces as well the Fire Service and Police. Although I had my own age group (which meant I technically won everything) I managed 2nd or 3rd in all my races if you compared my time with everyone else. This was a great competition and my first masters event representing the Royal Navy.
On the 29th of March I competed at the British Championships. This is the largest and highest quality event in the calendar within the UK. It’s also where the team for the Commonwealth games will be selected. I competed in the 4x100m freestyle relay for Derventio eXcel, the elite swimming squad in Derbyshire. We managed 3rd place winning my first British Championship medal.
Since being at Welbeck I have had a significant drop in performance. Going from training twice a day to 3 times a week in the water has had a big impact. However, all the other types of physical activity undertaken here have helped me to keep in shape and I am now seeing an improvement and the start to a return to form. I am now looking forward to competing in the Midlands Championships in 2 weeks and the National Championships in August.
Robert Guest, Nelson 09E
