AST Burnham start 2023 with Cotswold League Round 1 Win

The Academy Swim Team travelled to Monmouth School in South Wales on Saturday evening for the first round of this year's Cotswold League hosted by Cinderford and District Swimming Club. After a great run in last year's competition where they ended up placing 5th in the A Final, another young team featuring some swimmers new to the competition took to the pool and again did themselves proud against some strong competition from the hosts, City of Bristol and Burnham-On-Sea Swimming Club's.

After a highly competitive meet AST Burnham were the narrow winners with Cinderford 2nd, COB 3rd and Burnham 4th. This was an impressive performance given that our National qualified swimmers are unable to compete in this year's competition and with our Regional swimmers swimming up an age group and in some events up 2 age groups in the Open category.

AST Burnham were very consistent throughout, getting off to a solid start in the first 12 individual events, finishing in the top 2 places in all but 2 of these races. Evie Vowles picked up the first win of the evening in the Girls Open IM, followed by Lauren and Harry Glanville winning the Girls and Boys Under 11 25M Free. When the first Relays began the Academy Team put in some strong performances with the Under 11 Girls and Boys and Under 13 Girls relay teams going on to enjoy a dominant evening, winning all 6 of their races.

The Under 11 Teams consisting of Evie Rowley-Wall, Imogen Mawby, Kandra Nicholas and Lauren Glanville for the Girls and Killian Faubel, Henry Matthews, Ryan Smout and Harry Glanville for the Boys won all of their races in the Medley and Freestyle Relay events. The Under 13 Girls Relay Team of Agnes Alexander, Phoebe Robinson, Matilda Taylor and Thea Faubel also won the Medley and Freestyle Relay's whilst the Under 13 Boys Leo Woodrow, Dougie Anderson, Xander Powell and Elijah Langley-Hobbs also won the Medley relay but were unfortunately DQ'd in the Freestyle relay after finishing Second.

After the first 4 relay events the Academy Team continued to be competitive with Kandra Nicholas winning the Girls Under 11 Butterfly along with Ryan Smout in the Under 11 Boys Event, although Ryan was somewhat unfortunate to have improved in recent months and finished with a Too Fast time, ducking just under the Cotswold Time Limit for the event. The Girls Under 15 Relay Team of Amelie Rowley-Wall, Kelsey Webber, Phoebe Poole and Macy Noad then also claimed an impressive win in the Medley Relay, before Under 11's Evie Rowley-Wall and Killian Faubel continued the strong showing by our younger swimmers with wins in the Girls and Boys 25M Backstroke.

Between the second and third round of relay races AST put together another run of First and Second places with Xander Powell winning the Boys Under 13 50M Butterfly, Eleanor Rees winning the Girls Under 15 50M Free and Kelsey Webber winning the Girls Open 100M Breaststroke.

As the evening went into the last 13 races the Academy Team held a narrow 6 point lead overall from Cinderford who were finishing strongly along with City of Bristol beginning to pick up some wins. However, AST Burnham continued to consistently finish most races in the top 2 with Eleanor Rees winning the Girls Under 15 50M Butterfly, Macy Noad winning the Girls Open 100M Free and Leo Woodrow winning the Boys Under 13 50M Backstroke.

With no one knowing what the latest points totals were going into the last event but knowing it was close, the 8x25m Mixed Cannon was completed with a lot of noise and enthusiasm from those watching and the Academy Cannon Relay Team of Kandra Nicholas, Leo Woodrow, Eleanor Rees, Xander Powell, Phoebe Poole, Kobe Budd, Mia Node and TT Magang duly delivered a great win to finish off the meet. Once the points were counted up the Academy Burnham Team finished 1st on 142, Cinderford 2nd on 136, COB 3rd on 132 and Burnham-On-Sea 4th on 105.

Coach Nic Hazelton praised the efforts and great attitude of the whole team throughout the evening and also gave an additional mention to TT Magang, Kobe Budd, Finley Fooks and Elijah Langley-Hobbs for stepping into a few extra events in the Open age group at the last minute. This meant that the team still competed in every race and ensured that they gained at least a point. At times they were getting out at one end from a race and heading straight back to the start for another, but their extra effort for the team made sure that AST still gained enough points to secure the win.

Results Summary

Full Results & Times

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