Category: Competition Reports

A busy spell of competitions in the pool ended this weekend with success in the Steel city of Sheffield.

To start off the club's run of galas was the Summer Splash Development Gala with twenty nine swimmers competing at Diss Leisure Centre. Designed to enable inexperienced and novice swimmers take their first steps on the competitive ladder the Otters came away with plenty of medals and new personal bests and most importantly of all some invaluable experience of the gala environment.

The club also took part in the Senior Fenland League which got underway with two heats held at Kings Lynn and Thetford respectively. Diss were drawn in the Thetford event and were up against squads from the hosts Thetford, City of Ely, March Marlins and Mildenhall.

After an evening of great racing at Waterworld it was Thetford who won the event with 375 points followed by Ely 325, Diss 257, March 242 and Mildenhall 89. The Otters now progress to the B final as top seeds and will race against March and Mildenhall from their heat together with St Neots and Bottisham from the King's Lynn event.

Finally as mentioned at the start of this report a team of Diss Otters performance squad swimmers made the journey north to Sheffield for the Derventio Excel Summer Spectacular held at the prestigious Ponds Forge International Venue.

Amazingly the club came away with twenty seven medals and also won the top visiting club award beating off competition from all over the country to triumph.

Eleven swimmers from Diss Otters took to the pool at Dereham Leisure Centre last weekend in the Norfolk ASA County Challenge Gala.

In a competitive event comprising swimmers from nearly all of Norfolk's clubs the Otters came away with some excellent results, including twelve medals from just fifty two individual swims.

More of a guide to a swimmers progression is their ability to improve their own times and the squad produced thirty six new personal bests over the weekend.

The squad and medal winners were Olivia Chapman (2S), Oslo Chapman (2S,3B), Harry Button (1G,1S,1B), Amber Daly (2B), Ella Townsend, Lily Ellis, Laurie Shearer, Ciaran Strike, Nathan Hunt, Portia Bloomfield and Phoebe Tovell.

Diss Otters Swimming Club held their inaugural Springboard Development Gala at Diss Leisure Centre on Saturday 9th March.Being a development gala means that the event is aimed at the less experienced swimmers in the Junior squads, and it gives them the chance to get races and times under their belts away from the bigger Open Galas which in the future they will progress to.

Over 60 swimmers took part in the gala with swimmers from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft & Oulton Broad joining the team from Diss.

Races in all strokes over 25m and 50m together with a 100m Medley race made up the programme and the Otters had a terrific evening. Out of 146 individual swims saw a medal return of 29 golds, 31 silvers and 23 bronzes.

Many parents and older swimmers gave up their time to volunteer with various tasks, in addition to the ever supportive band of race officials, which saw the gala run smoothly and it was so well received that planning is underway for another similar event in the summer. 
Thanks must also go to the events main sponsor which was Dipple and Conway Opticians.

The Diss Otters squad members were David Cosgrove, Forbes Irvine, Toby Townsend, Henry Cripps, Jon Barber, Blossom Day, Faye Wilson, Ella Townsend, Heidi Noakes, Phoebe Tovell, Molly Wilson, Elizabeth Looker, Emma Neve, Freya Button, Molly Kershaw, Evan Tovell, Donald Perrin, Reuben Looker, Edward Hoy, Gabriel Thompson, Jacob Shadbolt, Kyla Dalliston, Amber Daly, Eleanor Godbold, Portia Bloomfield, Abi Chisman, Laurie Shearer, Ella Goodswen, Mya Sidwell, Tiggy Miller, Lucas Blair, Alex Jackson and Harrison Fall.

Two weekends, two galas and lots of success for the swimmers from Diss Otters.First up was the Warwick Thompson County Gala held at Waterworld in Thetford. Fifteen swimmers aged between 9 and 17 from Diss took part with some terrific results in the pool. From only 68 individual swims the squad managed to accumulate 27 (11G, 8S, 8B) medals. 

Nathan Hunt and Lily Ellis both bagged six medals each and nine other swimmers collected medals - a really good achievement, which coupled with a mountain of new personal bests meant a really pleased coaching team.
The Diss Otters squad members were Amber Dewsbery, Ella Townsend, Phoebe Tovell, Alex Jackson, Lily Ellis, Ellesha Close, Ellen Davidson, Laurie Shearer, Toby Townsend, Katie Halmshaw, Nathan Hunt, Eleanor Godbold, Jon Barber, Lauren Taylor and Harrison Fall.

Last weekend saw a team of 21 Diss Otters take to the 50m UEA Sportspark pool for the City of Norwich March Long Course gala.

120 individual swims saw 58 top 8 swims, including 6 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze medals. The team also achieved 58 new personal best times over the weekend, which considering a lot of the team had peaked for the County Championships only a few weeks earlier was a great return.

Noah Blair, Oslo Chapman, Thea Irvine, Rosie Munnings, Heidi Noakes, Ciaran Strike and Matthew Tatum were the medal winning swimmers with great performances from the rest of the team who were Callum Blair, Harry Button, Olivia Chapman, Harry Daly,Shannon Evans, Harrison Fall, Imogen Grimes, Nathan Hunt, Forbes Irvine, Alex Jackson, Cassia Miller, Ottilie Miller, Tiggy Miller and Kara O'Dell. 

Nine clubs took part in the gala with Diss Otters finishing fifth in the team standings behind the big four of City of Norwich, West Norfolk, City of Cambridge and West Suffolk but well clear of the other comparably sized clubs taking part in the event.

Twenty eight swimmers from Diss Otters Swimming Club took part in the recent Norfolk County Championships held at the UEA Sportspark's 50m pool, in front of large crowds of spectators and supporters.
Although competing against the cream of the counties swimmers from club's across Norfolk the Otters can hold their heads up high as they came back to Diss having had a very successful gala.

159 individual swims resulted in 101 new personal best times, 46 top eight finishes which included 5 gold medals, 4 silver medals and 4 bronzes.

The Otters medals came courtesy of Rosie Munnings (4g,4s,2b) and Finlay Neve (1g,2b). As well as medals, 3 swimmers - Rosie Munnings (50m Free, 100m Free and 50m Breast), Matthew Munnings (50m Fly and 100m Fly) and Daniel Bachu (50m Fly) swam times fast enough to qualify for the East of England Regional Championships to be held in May.

To top her gala off Rosie Munnings was presented with the top girl award in the 13 years age group for her overall performances during the Championships.

The Otters squad members were Callum Blair, Finlay Neve, Oslo Chapman, Lucas Blair, Noah Blair, Ciaran Strike, Harry Daly, Matthew Tatum, Matthew Munnings, Lily-Anne Jones, Rosie Munnings, Lottie Gates, Imogen Grimes, Nathan Hunt, Thea Irvine, Forbes Irvine, Daniel Bachu, Alex Jackson, Tiggy Miller, Amber Daly, Kathryn Wood, Olivia Chapman, Cassia Miller, Angus Betts, Harry Button, Millie Bachu, Jude Ashken and Ottilie Miller.

Swimmers from Diss Otters have had a busy month trying to get qualification times for January's upcoming Norfolk County Championships.Newmarket Swimming Club's December Open earlier in the month saw a squad of 28 Otters take to the pool in 169 individual swims.

These led to an impressive haul of 84 top 6 finishes which included 10 gold medals, 21 silvers and 19 bronzes.

This was followed last weekend by 16 swimmers competing at Great Yarmouth's Winter Wipeout gala at the UEA Sportspark. 

Another competition of terrific performances saw 79 individual swims result in 49 top 6 finishes, including 6 golds, 11 silvers and 6 bronzes.
Numerous county qualifying times were achieved over the two galas, which should ensure that the club send a large squad of swimmers to take part in the showcase competition for Norfolk's junior swimmers over two weekends in January.

On top of their individual aspirations the club were also represented by a team at the recent Thetford Dolphins Invitational Gala. The squad put in some great performances during the evening ultimately finishing in third place behind winners and hosts Thetford Dolphins and just a solitary point adrift of runners up Great Yarmouth.

Diss Otters are always looking for new members and currently train up to four nights a week at Diss Leisure Centre.

For further details please visit our enquiries page 

Diss Otters held their annual Open Gala at the UEA Sportspark pool on Sunday and the event was a great success for the club and it's swimmers.

The organisers were swamped with entries this year and there was a packed programme of events to keep everyone busy throughout the day.

Visiting clubs included City of Cambridge, West Norfolk, Thetford Dolphins, Great Yarmouth and Huntingdon Piranhas. 

The spectator gallery was at capacity and they witnessed some great racing in both the morning and afternoon sessions.

The Diss Otters team were out in force with 47 swimmers taking part in a total of 292 individual swims which resulted in 101 top 6 finishes. Out of those 101 the swimmers bagged 8 gold medals, 28 silvers and 19 bronzes.

Full results are available here

Medal winners  on the day were Noah Blair, Oslo Chapman, Daniel Bachu, Matthew Munnings, Max Ashken, Matthew Tatum, Jude Ashken, Ella Townsend, Grace Cook, Evie Kemp, Rosie Munnings, Thea Irvine, Lottie Gates and Shannon Evans.

The team also achieved numerous qualifying times for January's County Championships which the coaching team look to as one of the swimmers main targets.

The club are looking to increase the number of galas that they stage in the coming year so that they can give swimmers more opportunities to swim competitively,  as local galas put on by other clubs are usually over subscribed.

A busy weekend of swimming for Diss Otters saw the club take part in numerous events across the region.

Saturday saw two squads roll into Norwich and Newmarket respectively. The squad at Norwich took part in the Midsummer Madness Gala at the UEA Sportspark. Fifty two individual swims resulted in thirty one new personal best times and twelve county qualifying times for 2019.

The evening saw a Fenland League gala take place at Newmarket Leisure Centre with teams from Diss, Bottisham, First Strokes and St Neots competing.

Diss led the gala from start to finish with some tremendous swimming across the team, resulting in twenty nine race wins from forty seven events, including in the traditional finale, the cannon relay which always sees the swimmers and supporters raise the roof and Saturday was no exception with team Diss storming to victory cheered home by the crowd.

Final scores at Newmarket were Diss 182, Bottisham 161, First Strokes 154 and St Neots 124.
The Otters now progress to the second round on September 29th and will be one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

Sunday saw two more events with a team going to Crown Pools in Ipswich for the July Surprize Gala which saw forty six individual swims produce twenty six new personal best marks and another host of County Championship qualification times.

Finally also on Sunday, Otters Callum Blair, Adam Lelean and Sally Lelean took part in the Cambridge Mill to Mill open water event with Callum finishing 2nd in his category clocking a hugely respectable 43 minutes for the 2.5km course.