A strong squad of sixteen City of Oxford Swimming Club swimmers travelled to Sheffield to compete in the National Winter Championships over five days last week. This was the biggest English level 1 swimming meet of the winter months, involving Britain’s top senior swimmers.
This year’s meet was held in a long course 50m pool, with swimmers heading to the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia expected to fine-tune their preparation in Sheffield.
The champs offered a Christmas feast of fast swimming with the prestigious swimming trophies handed out to event winners.
City of Oxford swimmers who qualified on individual events were: David Murphy (19), Connor Bryan (17), Tobomoray Mackay- Champion (20), Callum Smart (17), Lewis Gilchrist (17), Ellie Millington (18), Emily Ford (15), Nick Skelton (14), Mimi Morley-Izsatt (14), George Rudd (15), Natasha Fenton (15). Relay only swimmers: Dan Jenkins, Luke Wilby, Chris Wood, Kate Mills, Yasmin Tajalli.
For several of the younger swimmers it was their first time competing in the senior finals. The junior age category medals (awarded to the top age 15 and under swimmers) were won by Mimi Morley-Izsatt who took gold and Nick Skelton who took junior silver. All Oxford swimmers performed superbly progressing from the heats to the finals. Tobomoray Mackay-Champion took bonze in the 200m breaststroke A final and gold in the 100m breaststroke B final. The Oxford 4x100m medley relay team (Lewis Gilchrist, David Murphy, Connor Bryan, Callum Smart) set a new county record in the last session of the week.
Finalists:
Mens 200m Breaststroke A final: Tobomoray Mackay- Champion 3rd and Bronze medal, David Murphy 7th
Mens 200m Breaststroke B final: Callum Smart 4th
Mens 100m Breaststroke A final: David Murphy 4th
Mens 100m Breaststroke B final: Tobomoray Mackay- Champion 1st, Callum Smart 5th, Connor Bryan 8th
Mens 4x100m freestyle relay: 8th
Mens 400IM B final: Lewis Gilchrist 8th
Mens 50m Breaststroke A final: David Murphy 6th
Mens 50m Breaststroke B final: Tobomoray Mackay-Champion 5th, Callum Smart 6th
Mens 4x100medley relay team: 4th and new county record.
Womens 50m backstroke A final – Mimi Morley-Izsatt 9th
Womens 4x100m relay team: 4th
Full results can be found on the Swim England website.
Hillingdon Winter Level 3 Meet, 16-17 December
Meanwhile, another impressive team of City of Oxford swimmers made great impact at the Hillingdon Level 3 Meet 16-17 December, finishing in one of the top positions overall and winning an array of medals. Oxford girls took the top club place across the women’s events, with Oxford boys close behind in 2nd place for the men’s. Full results can be found on the Hillingdon Swimming Club website.