Diss Otters at the Norfolk County Championships 2024!!

Swim England Norfolk County Championships 2024

Wow! What an incredible two weekends of racing at this year’s Swim England Norfolk County Championships. 39 swimmers took part from Foundation, Development, Junior Performance, County and Regional Squads. Firstly, I want to congratulate every swimmer for their amazing energy and enthusiasm throughout the championships. We have had laughter, singing, cheering, dancing, and lots and lots of support for all swimmers of all ages and we really have worked together as a team.

Saturday 29th January saw the start of our 39 swimmer’s county championship campaign and what an awesome start we had. Bronze medal in the 12 year age group 50m Backstroke from Tayla, 5th place for Fraser in the 10/11 year age group 50m Butterfly a great achievement considering he is still only 9 years old. Double finalist for Noah in the 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly setting new personal bests in the heats and bettering them in the finals. Another double finalist on day 1 was Donald who finished 5th in the 100m Breaststroke and 7th in the 50m Backstroke. Personal bests tumbled throughout the day across all strokes and distances. For some of our younger swimmers this was their first opportunity to swim in a long course 50m pool and they showed great determination and courage and really performed well.

Day 2 began with the men’s 100m Backstroke 5 Diss Otters took on this event with 100 % PB rate and many achieving a top 10 finish with Donald through to the final. As the final approached Donald showed great maturity and focus and again took a further 2 seconds off his personal best inching ever closer to his regional qualifying time, he finished in an incredible 4th place. Next up were the many Breaststroke swimmers. Demonstrating to other clubs how the under waters are supposed to be completed the swimmers did fantastic.

Session 6 was the fastest female event the 50m freestyle. Fast reactions, great dives and underwaters meant we had some brilliant new times recorded. Well done to Tayla who made the 12 year final finishing in a respectable 7th place and gaining another regional qualifying time. Big shout out to coach Emily who multitasked this session being a team manager and swimmer. Another great display of breaststroke from the Otters this time in the 200m Breaststroke well done to Millie and Ashleigh who had a listened well to the pre-race plan and executed this perfectly in the race. Nice top 8 finish as well for Ashleigh in the 13 year old age group. We also had a Diss Otters head-to-head in the Men’s 50m Breaststroke with Donald, Noah, Forbes and Laurie, all battling it out in the 1 length sprint. Forbes narrowly beating Noah to the touch by 0.01 and making the 16 year old final.

My highlight for weekend 1 was the new junior team captain’s energy and spirit. Special mention goes to Olivia who led and created a new story-based land warm up for the group.

Weekend 2 another action-packed weekend - 10 finalists, 2 more Bronze medals and loads more top 8 finishes. The men’s 50m Freestyle a particular highlight with Diss winning 5 heats straight. Again, in the men’s 100m Freestyle with all 11 entrants gaining personal bests times. Development swimmers Henry, Elliot, and Fraser all knocking 10+ seconds off their entry time with Noah and Donald both making the finals. Noah set himself a challenge to try to go under the 1-minute barrier for the first time and achieve his regional qualifying time. Although narrowly missing out on both his performance was fantastic coming back so quickly in the final 50m and with a great last stroke to finish in third place and take home the bronze medal. Well done to Oscar for also making finals in the 50m Breaststroke and Freestyle.

Some other great finals this weekend was Ruby in the 100m Butterfly. Massive 4.5 second PB in the heat Ruby swam the final with such determination that she knocked a further 2 seconds off her time to finish in 7th place. Emily also made the final in the 17 year and over 100m Freestyle final with awesome first 50 pace Emily finished in 7th place. Tayla went in the 100m Backstroke final a rapid first 50 finishing with the bronze medal and a new club record.

The final session of the County Championship was up next the…. Relays.

First though some special awards Coach Lee was awarded the Gold County award for representing Norfolk Swimming an incredible 16 times. Well done, Lee!

The relays were fast paced with a great team atmosphere the Otters put on an awesome display with many swimmers competing across multiple age groups. The camaraderie and team spirit were out in full force. We really do have the best swimmers. A massive well done to our 9/10 year age group who for some had never swum in a competition before, we hope you enjoyed yourself and will be back to compete again. Diss finished in an incredible 4th place.

Throughout the championships there has been some amazing swims from the whole club I think the performances were brilliant. We had 189 swims which resulted in 135 new personal best times (72% of all swims), 28 top 8 places (many 4th place finishes) and 3 Bronze medals. Plus, every final the Otters have swum in we achieved a faster swim in the final.

So many great swims over the past 2 weekends so massive thank you to all the swimmers for giving your very best effort, thank you to all the parents and supporters for continuing to support what we do and all the volunteers at the meet- it really wouldn’t happen without you!

Midsummer Madness Gala 8-9 July

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Another weekend another swim meet for Diss Otters Swimming Club. This time it was the Midsummer Madness meet held at the UEA SportsPark. For some of the 25 DOSC swimmers this was their first experience of competing in an Olympic Size (50m) swimming pool. They all relished this opportunity producing some of their best performances of the season. We had multiple 40+ second personal bests produced in the 200m and 400m events and a huge 70% of swims resulted in personal best times.

What is great to witness is the huge amount of effort in training beginning to show through in competitions. New races skills executed, pacing spot on and every swimmer fighting for the wall and attacking the last 5m of the race. Well done to Noah, Hollie and Donald who all picked up medals this weekend.

Head Coach Laura said,

It is great to have the large number of swimmers yet again dedicated to competing this weekend. We have had some amazing performances, but the nicest thing is watching our swimmers be supportive, encouraging towards each other. The team spirit we demonstrate is brilliant”.

There is one final meet of the season before our summer break. The Great Yarmouth and Norwich Swans Sprint meet. A great opportunity to finish our season on a high.

Diss Otters swimming club caters for all types of young swimmers and trains at Diss Leisure Centre. The programme offers young swimmers the opportunity to develop key skills and have great fun in the process. They will help refine skills and technique and will assist you to become a great swimmer. There are various squads for all types of abilities and ages starting from foundation squad for younger swimmers to master’s squad for over 18s.

For more information please visit www.dissotters.co.uk and anyone looking to join the club please email headcoach@dissotters.co.uk for a free trial.

Team Ipswich Novice & Surprize Meets 01-02/July

Wow, what an exciting and fun Saturday evening we had at the Ipswich Novice Gala!

Representing Diss Otters we had a team of 10 young swimmers aged between 8-13 from our Foundation and Development Squads. Many of the swimmers were competing for the first time away from Diss and were full of nerves and excitement at the start. We were up against teams from Clacton, Deben, Felixstowe, Leiston, Stowmarket, Ipswich and Team Waveney.

Our more experienced swimmers (those who had raced more than once before) set a great example for all the newcomers by leading the cheering on poolside and there was great support from all the parents and family in the spectator gallery. There were lots of high fives, fist bumps and smiles from all the swimmers and coaches. Everyone said they enjoyed the evening and had a lot of fun, which is the most important thing, and many of the swimmers said they had made new friends and met new teammates and were glad they came. Coach Scott was very impressed with everyone’s swimming and with the camaraderie and the great behaviour poolside.

Moving on to the Sunday’s competition we had 17 swimmers from Junior Performance, County and Regional Squad take to the pool. Taking home 13 medals and achieved an astounding 35 top 8 finishes, and an impressive number of new PB times, the 17 swimmers who competed did the club proud. Ipswich surprise certainly lived up to its name with 6 of the Diss Otters also taking home spot prizes including new kit bags, drinks bottles, hats, keyrings, goggles cases and even a new towel. There were certainly some happy swimmers throughout the day.

Head Coach Laura said “It was great spending the day with these swimmers they had an awesome attitude, great teamwork and there was some fantastic swimming and some huge personal bests. What I enjoyed the most was watching the swimmers take on board new feedback and implementing into their races”.

A massive thank you to Leanne for team managing and to all the parents who supported the swimmers. We hope you were all proud of your swimmers. We could really see the progress they have been making in their training sessions- great effort everyone!

Diss Otters swimming club caters for all types of young swimmers and trains at Diss Leisure Centre. The programme offers young swimmers the opportunity to develop key skills and have great fun in the process. They will help refine skills and technique and will assist you to become a great swimmer. There are various squads for all types of abilities and ages starting from foundation squad for younger swimmers to master’s squad for over 18s.

For more information please visit www.dissotters.co.uk and anyone looking to join the club please email headcoach@dissotters.co.uk for a free trial.

Coronation Masters Event 13/May/2023

On Saturday, May 13, nine Diss Otters Masters swam at the Coronation Masters event held at UEA Sportspark in Norwich.
It was a well organised and enjoyable meet with all nine Masters winning medals:
Emily:-2 golds, 2 silvers
Paulus:- 2 golds, 2 silvers
Paul:- 4 silvers
Simon:- 2 golds
Krista:- 1 bronze
Adam:- 1 bronze
Mike:- 2 silvers
Sally:- 2 golds, 1 silver
Lee:- 3 golds
We also did well in the team relays:
The men's 100m medley relay team of Simon, Paul, Adam and Paulus collected bronze.
The men's 100m freestyle team of Mike, Paul, Adam and Paulus claimed silver.
Thanks go to Sally and Adam Lelean for their organisation.
 Also, thanks to Amber Daley, Ella Townsend, Donald Perrin who helped on the day along with Timekeeper, Neil .
Some of us celebrated with a meal at the Black Horse afterwards.

West Suffolk SC Masters Gala

West Suffolk Swimming Club Masters Gala 2023

On the same weekend as the younger swimmers were excelling at the Warwick Thompson Memorial Gala,  five of the Club’s Masters swimmers competed at the West Suffolk Swim Club Masters Meet. Paulus Maukonen, having never raced before, came first in the 35-39 age category in the men’s 400m freestyle beating his entry time by 20 seconds.
In the 18-24 age category, Nathan Hunt won himself gold medals in the 50m and 100m backstroke. He also secured 4th, 5th and 6th places in the 100m freestyle, 50m freestyle respectively.
Holly Gregson was awarded three gold medals in the 50m backstroke, for which she also achieved a DOSC Masters personal best, 100m backstroke and 50m butterfly (joint first). She also picked up two silver medals in the 50m and 100m freestyle and achieved faster than entry times across all events in the 35-39 age category.
Adam Lelean competed in the 60-64 age category and secured five silver medals in the 100m and 200m backstroke, 100m butterfly, 100m IM and 200m freestyle.
It was six golds for Sally Lelean in the 70-74 age category in 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, 50m and 100m breaststroke and she achieved her best time since Covid in the 200m IM.

Well done Masters!

Warwick Thompson Memorial Gala 2023

Warwick Thompson Memorial Gala 2023 Report

Following the fantastic performances achieved by Diss Otters at the Norfolk County Swimming Championships at the UEA Sportspark last month, a team of 21 swimmers took to Thetford  on the weekend of 25-26th February for the Warwick Thompson Memorial Gala.
Personal best times were achieved by 19 of these swimmers in at least one of their events, which spanned distances from 50m to 200m and across all four strokes and the individual medley. A special mention goes to Ashleigh Fall, Connie Ellingham, Eleanor Godbold, Frances Guerin, Nia Jones, Olivia Brewer, Oscar Rush, Peter For and Sasha Spinks who hit new best times in every event they swam across the weekend including several improvements of 10 seconds or more. In total Diss achieved 69 new PBs from the 92 races swum.
Every meet the team enter is another stepping stone on their competitive swimming journey. These events give the swimmers the opportunity to put all their hard work in training to the test. We saw some superb development with our starts and turns and a real effort to hold form with their strokes as they sprinted each and every time they took to the pool.
The hard work resulted in all those new personal best times and furthermore Diss Otters picked up a total of 26 medals over the course of the weekend. We had bronze medals for Daisy Lewis, Jeanie Shurmer, Lily Ellis and Sophie Rochester, silver medals for Adam Lelean, Ashleigh Fall, Daisy Lewis, Eleanor Godbold, James Guerin and Liz Ferrier and gold medals for Adam Lelean, James Guerin, Liz Ferrier, Olivia Brewer and Oscar Rush.
Rebecca Fletcher showed resilience throughout the meet pulling off her best swim in the 50m backstroke with a 3 second PB whilst older sister Abigail Fletcher smashed 3 PBs in 4 races in quick succession in the morning session on the Sunday. Ananya Chaudhary also set 3 new best times with her a massive 12 second PB in the 100m front crawl. Strong swims for Ruby Welch saw her set big personal bests in the 200m individual medley and 50m backstroke, Seren Jones hit 4 new best times, shining in the 50m and 200m breaststroke and finally Sophie Rochester who hit 3 out of 4 events with new PBs only missing out by half a second in the 4th.
Jamie Rush, Coach at the event, said, “Undoubtedly this is a superb set of statistics. Everyone works so hard in training, and all the swimmers turned up prepared. We had some brilliant splits in 200m races showing great fitness, we smashed some big PBs in 100m events showing improvements in speed endurance and terrific racing in the 50s listening to race strategies and performing under pressure.”

Diss Otters Swimming Club once again holding their own in the County!

Norfolk Inter Club Gala 2023: Date Change to 3rd June

Norfolk Inter Club Gala 2023: Date Change to 3rd June

The date of the above gala has been changed from 14th May to 3rd June.

This change has been driven by the East Region Championship gala moving to the 13th-14th May weekend to avoid the King's Coronation weekend.

The events calendar on the website is now updated.

DOSC Competition Dates Announced!!

DOSC Competition Dates in 2023

The following Diss Otters Galas have now been scheduled - get them in your calendar!

  • Diss Open Gala 2023 @ the UEA Sports Park, Norwich: Sunday 15th October 2023
  • Diss Otters Club Championship Gala 2023 @ Diss Swimming Pool & Leisure Center, Diss: 5th to 19th November 2023 (Event held during the regular training times. 800m and 1500m Free on 5th and 19th November respectively). Check the calendar on this site for more details of dates.