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A busy weekend for Diss Otters swimming club saw swimmers take part in two competitions.

On Saturday the club took part in the County Relay Gala at the UEA in Norwich. With several older swimmers either ill or unavailable, coach Jamie Rush relied on his young squad to step up and swim in older age groups. By producing some excellent swims the club held their own against the bigger clubs such as UEA, West Norfolk and Norwich Swan.

Out of fifteen races the Otters gained four third place finishes – three of those by the 9/10 year old teams, and another seven top six finishes, a superb return for the club.

Following on from Saturday came the East Region ASA Open Water Championships at a sun drenched Whitlingham Country Park in Norwich on Sunday. Three juniors and two masters swimmers from Diss took part in what is a step out of most swimmers comfort zone.

William Johnson took part in the 14/15 years 3km race, finishing 2nd for Norfolk and 12th in the region. William also qualified for the National Championships.

Callum Blair (4th Norfolk/16th region) and Maddie Wood (1st Norfolk/10th region) both took part in the 800m novices race in their respective age groups.

Masters swimmer Sebastian St. John Clarke (1st Norfolk/3rd region) competed in the 1500m race and finally coach Adam Lelean (1st Norfolk/1st region) took the honours in his age category in the 5km race.

Diss Otters made the long trip to Kings Lynn on Saturday evening to take part in the first round of this year’s Fenland Senior League open to children aged nine right through to adults.

Ten clubs took part in the gala – five at Kings Lynn and five at Mildenhall with the two venues swimming simultaneously and points for each event awarded based on times achieved by the ten competing teams.

Diss had some extremely testing opposition with West Norfolk running away from the rest of the field at Kings Lynn returning a total of 36 wins from 47 races.

Although the Otters finished fifth in the Kings Lynn event they returned a score better than three of the clubs at the Mildenhall gala to finish a creditable seventh place overall.

It has to be said that the Otters team performed amazingly well in the circumstances, as due to unavailability several of the girls had to swim up an age group, which made a tough task even tougher but the whole team, girls and boys put in the effort to get some good times and results.

After all of the points from the two galas had been collated the Otters are seeded second for the “B” final to be held in September.

The Diss Otters squad were Sam Neal, Isaac Bachu, Matthew Tatum, Cameron Day, Matthew Munnings, Harry Button, Callum Blair, Barney Clarke, Ottilie Miller, Lauren Taylor, Lottie Gates, Maddie Wood, Thea Irvine, Luella Brookes, Millie Bachu and Kathryn Wood.

Thanks to head coach Jamie Rush who was poolside, and to the clubs officials and swimmers parents for their help and encouragement.

Final scores were – West Norfolk 406, March 299, Chatteris 282, Thetford 281, Wisbech 278, Ely 260, Diss 243, Bottisham 222, First Strokes 172, Mildenhall 123.

A team of 17 swimmers from Diss Otters took part in the Norfolk ASA County Challenge Gala at Dereham over the last two Sundays.

In a very competitive competition the Otters can be pleased with their performances with every swimmer who took part gaining at least one new personal best.

The team as a whole produced some excellent statistics over the two weekends with 96 individual swims returning 50 personal bests, 34 top six finishes and 18 podium positions.

Medal winners were Callum Blair and Alise Small with four each, Rosie Munnings, Matthew Munnings, Ottilie Miller and Thea Irvine each picking up two, and Katie Halmshaw and Christopher Tatum winning one.

Thanks to all of the coaching team for their support and help throughout the two days.

The Otters squad members were Rosie Munnings, Olivia Chapman, Callum Blair, Matthew Munnings, Alise Small, Christopher Tatum, Cassia Miller, Kara O’Dell, William Brown, Lily Ellis, Luella Brookes, Max Brookes, Lauren Taylor, Ottilie Miller, Thea Irvine, Shannon Evans and Katie Halmshaw.

Anyone interested in joining Diss Otters can contact head coach Jamie Rush on 07738 427735.

Diss Otters had their swimmers out in force on Saturday night competing in two events in East Dereham and Norwich.

The Breckland Cup team gala at Dereham Leisure Centre attracted a strong field with two teams entered from hosts Dereham Otters and others from Norwich Swan, West Norfolk, North Norfolk Vikings and Diss.

From early on Swan and West Norfolk were fighting for top spot with Dereham, Vikings and Diss tussling for minor positions. Diss picked up maximum points in races won by Justin Bott, Matthew Tatum and Matthew Munnings – but when the final tallies were calculated the Diss team were beaten into 5th place by just one point by Vikings.
Final positions 1st West Norfolk 2nd Norwich Swan 3rd Dereham “A” 4th North Norfolk Vikings 5th Diss Otters 6th Dereham “B”.

The second event at Norwich’s Riverside pool was a development meet hosted by the Great Yarmouth club and a squad of Diss Otters swimmers were winning medals throughout the evening, coming away with 25 in total made up of 8 golds, 10 silvers and 7 bronzes. Stars of the night were Lily Ellis and Harvey Gates who both won 5 medals hotly pursued by Christopher Tatum with 4, William Brown, Finlay High and Kathryn Wood with 3 and Daniel Brown with 2.

The whole team can be proud of their achievements on the night. The Otters squad at Norwich were William Brown, Harvey Gates, Finlay High, Lily Ellis, Milly Bachu, Darcie Martin, Daniel Brown, Finlay Neve, Freya Button, Christopher Tatum and Kathryn Wood.

Diss Otters train at Diss Leisure Centre and anyone interested in joining the club can contact head coach Jamie Rush on 07738 427795.

The Otters are kindly sponsored by Hughes Electrical.

A team of 9 to 12 year old swimmers from Diss Otters took part in the Norfolk Junior League “A” Final last Saturday at Wymondham. Seeded third for the event the Otters maintained that position throughout the gala, putting in some strong performances during the evening.

The two clubs that finished ahead of Diss, namely UEA City of Norwich and Norwich Swan have a far bigger pool of swimmers to pick squads from and to finish third in this countywide event was an excellent achievement for the club.

The final event of the night, the 8×25 freestyle cannon relay always gets the crowd cheering and the Otters finished second behind UEA, getting their revenge for a narrow defeat in the first round gala by Swan by pushing them back into third place.

The Diss Otters squad members were Sophia Pickering, Rosie Munnings, Luella Brookes, Thea Irvine, Imogen Grimes, Ruby Greenhalf, Lottie Gates, Alice Palmer, Max Brookes, Barney Clarke, William Brown, Callum Blair, Harry Button, Daniel Bachu, Christopher Tatum and Matthew Munnings.

Final team scores – UEA “A” 404, Swan “A” 332, Diss 283, UEA “B” 244, Dereham 236.

Anyone interested in joining the club can contact head coach Jamie Rush on 07738 427795.

The Otters train at Diss Leisure Centre and the club are grateful for the continued support of Hughes Electrical as main sponsors.

A strong squad of swimmers from Diss Otters Swimming Club travelled to Newmarket at the weekend to take part in two days full of tough and competitive  swimming.

Saturday saw plenty of medal winning performances with 8 golds, 7 silvers and 10 bronzes out of 77 swims as well as several regional championship qualifications. More tellingly 65% of total Otters swims resulted in personal bests.

Sundays action included the skins elimination race for which Matthew Tatum and Cameron Day both qualified  and subsequently finished 3rd and 4th respectively. This was coupled with a further medal haul of 4 golds, 13 silvers and 9 bronzes from 72 swims plus further regional times achieved and pbs for 60% of total swims by the Otters competitors.

The Otters squad competing over the weekend were Kathryn Wood, Maddie Wood, Lottie Gates, Rosie Munnings, Mae Stanley, Alise Small, Thea Irvine, Katie Halmshaw, Amber Dewsbery, Luella Brookes, Kara O’Dell, Madison Dewsbery, Ottilie Miller, Ruby Greenhalf, Cassia Miller, Imogen Grimes, Olivia Chapman, Christopher Tatum, Callum Blair, Harry Button, Matthew Munnings, Daniel Bachu, Isaac Bachu, Sam Neal, Max Brookes, Cameron Day and Matthew Tatum who personally was second in the top boys points competition.

All in all a successful weekend for the clubs swimmers who were runners up in the top visiting club award and well done to all the parents for getting them there on time.  Finally, thanks to the coaching team for their time and support poolside.

Diss Otters train at Diss Leisure Centre and anyone interested in joining the club can contact head coach Jamie Rush on 07738 427795.

The Otters main sponsors are Hughes Electrical and the club are grateful for their continued support.

These results make for fabulous reading for the club.

Firstly the Junior League. We have achieved far beyond expectations. This year we are into the ‘A’ Final, the Copeman Cup. Not only that but we sit in 4th position in the County, beaten in Round 1 by only the 3 largest teams in the County, Norwich Swan, UEA City of Norwich A team and West Norfolk. Now whilst winning the A final is likely out of our reach I believe we can compete strongly in the final and take confidence from the first round results. This is a super achievement already, now keep training through the closure and save the date for the final – Saturday 25th April 2015. Results below.

NJL R1 Gala Results – Wymondham – 2015.xlsx

Secondly the County Relay. So many more terrific performances against the best in the County. We started the competition of with one of the biggest wins of the entire meet, the boys 13/14 years medley relay team consisting of Matthew Tatum (BC), Dominic Boylan (BR), Joel Clarke (FL) and Jude Ashken (FC) won this first relay by over 5 seconds! Throughout the meet we managed to better or at least equal all but one of our results from 2014, true progression and development. We finished 6th out of 8 teams overall and that’s having not competed in 5 relays through the night but one of the biggest achievements has to be the lack of disqualifications, not one single team of ours was disqualified, excellent skill and concentration! Results below.

County Relay 2015 Results

Diss Otters SC at the Norfolk County Championships 2015

8 Gold Medals (Joel) 3 Silver Medals (Dominic, Max, Joel) 13 Bronze Medals (Cameron, Mathew T, Max, Dominic, Lotty, Joel, Stephanie)
And a further 23 medals for places 4th - 6th (that's 46 medals in total)
 
81 swims out of a total of 224 were top 10 finishes with a fantastic 172 new personal best times set. That's 77% of all swims.

On top of all of this we also have 5 swimmers successfully qualified for this years East Region Championships (Joel, Dominic, Cameron, Matthew T, Max), the highest number for some years...

It's been a great year for us at Counties, now spread the competitive bug around your team mates in training as we work towards the Junior League, the County Relay, the Regionals and the County Challenge.

Onwards and Upwards - Success Breeds Success!