ESSA Primary Relays - National Finals

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Report

Five U11 St Hugh’s swimmers travelled to Sheffield on Saturday to compete at the ESSA Primary Relay Finals held at Ponds Forge. This prestigious event sees swimmers competing from across the UK. Our attendance at this was following qualification at our regional qualifier hosted by Repton School. The top two schools in each category within each region automatically qualify for the finals and it was great to see St Hugh’s achieve this for both events - 4x25m Freestyle and 4x25m Medley Relay. We fall into the ‘small schools’ category which stipulates there must be less than 60 pupils in Year 5/6 combined - we have 32!

The team was captained by Charlotte J (Grantham Swim Club) who did a superb job of supporting her team mates throughout the day. She took it upon herself to provide energy snacks for the team, run through land based warm ups and lead swim downs. Year 6 swimmers Tabitha H-S and George C competed in both events alongside Charlotte while Joshua F (Lincoln Vulcans) and Henry E (Louth Dolphins) had a race each (a great achievement to be swimming a year young). 

The team performed exceptionally well at this national event and they should all be extremely proud of themselves. They rose to the challenge and represented St Hugh’s incredibly well. We were delighted to finish 11th nationally in the 4x25 Medley event having achieved a place in the ‘B’ Finals. Our heat time in fact was faster than two schools who competed in the ’A’ finals. Our second event, 4x25m freestyle relay, would have placed us 13th nationally but unfortunately we had a DQ. While the team were disappointed with this they all acknowledged that these things happen at the very highest level in sport. It was great to see how they faced this set back with maturity and optimism - a great life lesson! 

A huge well done to all swimmers and thank you to Mrs Ellicker-Campling for her support on poolside and to the parents who travelled to support the children.