August 30, 2019 By Deb Smit

City of Oxford Swimmers shine at end of Season’s Welsh Nationals, 2019

Over 5 days of competition, Oxford’s, Logan Bryan (15) made it a clean sweep for medals at his Home Nation’s National Championships. He led the charge for medals by progressing from morning heats to finals in the 16yr age group, making podium in all his 7 races.

Logan Bryan (16yrs)

50/100/200brst– Gold

200m Freestyle – Gold

200/400 Individual Medley – Silver

50 freestyle – Bronze

Welsh swimmer, Megan Peake (14) won a well-deserved Bronze medal in a tightly fought race for the 50 backstroke she also qualified to compete in 100back and 200back.

Andrew Taylor(14) (200free,100fly,100free,400free)

Connor Bryan (open) 50fly,100fly

Other (non-Welsh) Oxford swimmers that qualified for the open meet (running parallel to the Home Nation competition), were, Jasmine Johnson (16yrs 50fly, 100fly,200back), Willa Mertens ( 14yrs 400free, 200breast,50back,50breast,100back) Morgan Smith (15yrs 100back,50breast, 100breast, 200back) and Juliet Anthony (13yrs 200free,200back,400free)

Lily Brabbin 14yrs won a Silver medal in the 50m Freestyle and also competed in 100fly,200back,200breast,50back,50breast,100back100breast,200IM)

Lily Brabbin/Logan Bryan

Megan Peake

Julie Bryan 5/7/19

July 8, 2019 By Deb Smit

Young Oxford Swimmer Connor Bryan answers international call up

Connor Bryan (18) was selected as part of the Welsh Senior Elite team to compete at the 56^thAnnual Sette Colli meet in Rome, Italy. This meet is the pinnacle meet in the Italian calendar and was used this year as a qualifying meet for the World championships in Gwanji next month in July.

As one of the youngest International competitors, Connor was competing against the World’s best breaststrokers Adam Peaty (British Swimming), Nicolo’ Martinenghi (Italy), Felipe Lima (Brazil) and Michael Andrew (USA).

The focus for the meet was for Connor to experience what it’s like to be swimming and training at the senior performance end of swimming.

In the 100 breaststroke Connor finished 39^thout of 69 Adam Peaty 1^{st ( GB)}, Felipe Lima 2^{nd (Brazil)}, Joao Gomez 3^rd^(Brazil)

In the 50 breaststroke Connor finished 49^thout of 68 Adam Peaty 1^{st ( GB)}, Felipe Lima 2^{nd (Brazil)}, Joao Gomez 3^rd^(Brazil)

In the 200 breaststroke Connor finished 31^stout of 50 with Marco Koch 1^st^(Germany), Yasuhiro Koseki 2^nd^(Japan), Luca Pizzini 3^rd^(Italy)

The young Oxford Performance swimmer held his own and is set up nicely for his end of season meet at British Nationals this July to be held in Glasgow.

June 21, 2019 By Deb Smit

City of Oxford swimmers make their mark in Scotland.

Set over 3 days, 840 swimmers from 90 National and International Clubs came together to compete in the Tollcross Commonwealth Pool, in Glasgow. Improving and posting good times qualifying times were the targets as well as race practice; but money was there to be won too!

This last weekend of the ‘qualifying window’ meant Oxford swimmers needed to put in great performances to qualify for the British and Home Nation Nationals in July. City of Oxford had 17 swimmers attend this meet getting a chance to compete with world class swimmers including Olympic Medalist Duncan Scott and Commonwealth Champions Aimee Wilmott, Ross Murdoch and Hannah Miley.
Nearly all COSC swimmers made numerous finals; a massive total of 42 in all; several Jnrs (male: 17yrs and females: 16yrs) punching above their weight, making it to A and B, senior finals. The C-final was made up of juniors only. All the swimmers were untapered (un rested) for the event as their target is the big competition in the summer.

Safiya Sillah (16) made top junior in the 50 free, coming 9th in the A-final, thus winning prize money ££££
Nicola Ryan (21) excelled making 4 x A-finals, which included 2 x 2nd places winning some money in her main events (800m + 1500m) ££££
David Murphy (21) made 3 x A-Finals; the 50brst earning him 2nd place winnings and 100brst 3rd place prize money. ££££
Other Final winners:
Connor Bryan (19) won the B final in 50brst.
Evie McLean (15) won the C-final, 50free

Other COSC team swimmers were:

Max Bolcato(17), Emily Ford (17), Dotty Goodgame(18), Gretel Goodgame(15), Kenji McDade (17), Chris Motha(19), Illizane Pinfold(15), Geo Ratouly(16), George Rudd(17), Megan Smit(16), Max Underwood(18), Freddie Wilkinson(18)

June 21, 2019 By Deb Smit

City of Oxford High Performance swimmer takes on the World’s best

City of Oxford Swimming Club continue to develop and see our High Performance Squad Swimmers take part in meets where they’re pitted against the World’s best swimmers. This vison of our Head Coach Amanda Booth, to develop and give swimmers pre and post age 18 the opportunity to compete at International Meets, is providing learning experiences and allowing the club to be recognised within the competitive swimming community as a club that is performance focussed and allowing swimmers to continue within the sport while studying at University or College.

Just last weekend, Amanda Booth took David Murphy to the Barcelona Mare Nostrum Series 2019 (considered the best international meet outside of the Olympics and World Championships) to compete with the World’s best breaststrokers Adam Peaty, James Wilby (British Swimming) Felipe Lima (Brazil) and Tobias B Bjerg (Denmark). Amanda explained that this meet was a true learning experience for the club, David Murphy, herself and how she has a clear vision for utilising this meet to develop and give other swimmers opportunities to experience what it’s like to be swimming and training at the performance end of swimming.

In the 50m Breaststroke David Murphy finished 20th out of 55 swimmers taking part, the top three were Adam Peaty 1st, Lima Felipe 2nd & Nicolo Martinenghi 3rd.

In the 100m Breaststroke David Murphy finished 25th out of 55 and the top three were Adam Peaty 1st, James Wilby 2nd & Lima Felipe 3rd.

March 14, 2019 By Deb Smit

City of Oxford finish 7th in the National Arena Swimming League Final 2019

City of Oxford Swimming Club joined 9 other teams from Cardiff, Derby, Millfield, Northampton, Guilford, Plymouth, Stockport, Wycombe and Hatfield at the National Arena Swimming League Final 2019 at Cardiff International Pool. This premier event in the swimming calendar decides the top ten clubs nationally and is the conclusion after three previous rounds in the corresponding district leagues, with Oxford taking part in the Southern League alongside Wycombe and Guilford.

Left to right, Oli Conway, David Murphy, Bully (George Rudd), Emily Ford, Tiana Porter and representative from arena.

This fast-paced event showed great team spirit and proved that our raging bull swimmers were up for the challenge and ready for serious fast racing in the 50m pool. Outstanding performances or steals as they’re known in the league occurred in the following events and helped the team finish 7^th overall with a point’s total of 257. The overall winners of the event were Plymouth and Leander with 361 points.

Steals:

Girls 11 and under 4 x 50m freestyle relay (Pearl Sophastienphong, Zara Porter, Scarlett Shorter and Bella Green) were ranked 7^th and finished 4^th.
Girls 13 and under 4 x 50m medley relay (Megan Peake, Ellen Bagley, Lilly Brabin and Mila Burovska) were ranked 8^th and finished 3^rd.
Women’s open 4 x 50m medley relay (Emily Ford, Illizane Pinfold, Kate Mills and Safiya Sillah) were ranked 3^rd and finished 2^nd.
Boys 13 and under 100m breaststroke, Oli Conway was ranked 9^th and finished 7^th.
Women’s open 100m Fly, Kate Mills was ranked 4^th and finished 3^rd.
Men’s open 100m Fly, Chris Motha was ranked 10^th and finished 9^th.
Boys 13 and under 100m backstroke, Chris Skelton was ranked 9^th and finished 7^th.
Girls 15 and under 100m Fly, Delphine Little was ranked 7^th and finished 6^th.
Men’s open 100m backstroke, Dan Jenkins was ranked 4^th and finished 2^nd
Girls 11 and under 100m breaststroke, Zofia Conway was ranked 10^th and finished 9^th
Boys 11 and under 100m breaststroke, Jeffery Cheung was ranked 6^th and finished 1^st.
Boys 13 and under 100m freestyle, Chris Skelton was ranked 8^th and finished 5^th.
Men’s open 100m freestyle, Dan Jenkins was ranked 10^th and finished 9^th.
Boys 11 and under 4 x 50m medley relay (Monty Salmon, Jeffery Cheung, Ted Bowling and Faaris Sharif) were ranked 7^th and finished 6^th.
Boys 13 and under 4 x 50m freestyle relay (Andrew Taylor, Kayden Sillah, Lachlan Middleton and Chris Skelton) were ranked 9^th and finished 8^th.
Boys 15 and under 4 x 50 medley relay (Nick Skelton, Billy Wotton, Geo Ratouly and Logan Bryan) were ranked 4^th and finished 2^nd.
There was also a 1^st place position for David Murphy in the men’s open 100m breaststroke.