Holywell took a small team to the Derby Excel 2026 British qualifying event in Sheffield on the weekend of the 6th, 7th and 8th March.
The Team:
- Poppy Johnson
- Elen McCoole-Jones
- Oliver Langridge
- Thomas Baldwin
- Charlie de Haan
Session 1 day 1:- Thomas Baldwin led the way having a solid swim in the 400m Free. Thomas started well and held his position throughout the race and finishing with a PB.
Session 2 – Day 2:- Day 2 started well with Charlie de Haan hitting a PB and taking bronze in the 50m Freestyle – Not Charlie’s main stroke but still a super swim.
Charlie was followed by Elen McCoole-Jones in the 50m Backstroke where she also hit a very well deserved PB. Oliver Langridge arrived fresh for his first swim and did not disappoint, Oliver was in one of the most subscribed age groups at the meet, the male 17-year-olds. He was up against 76 other swimmers, and a good swim gave him a PB and brought him down to 26.74 seconds.
Charlie returned to the pool to have another great swim and PB in the 100m Backstroke surpassing his earlier efforts winning a well-deserved Silver medal.
Poppy Johnson raced her first swim; 200m Breaststroke, after a long layoff with injury. 200m. Technically Poppy swam a very good gutsy swim on her comeback, the first one is always the hardest.
Session 3 – Day 2:- Another great swim from Oliver in the 100m Freestyle in a time of 58.34 seconds. Oliver has been working on his 100m freestyle processes in training, and it paid off for him. Thomas Balwin then went on to finish the 100m Free only 0.14 off his long course PB time. Poppy was still feeling it from her 200m Breaststroke but recovered enough to put in a good swim in the 50m Breast. Elen McCoole-Jones finished off the session with a solid 200m Backstroke, astonishingly good swim finishing only 0.63 of a second off her PB time.
Session 4 – Day 3:- A bright and early 8am start and the team jumped into a very busy warm up session. First up racing was the girls in the 50m Freestyle. Elen McCoole -Jones started, and started well, hitting a good time being only 0.53 off her PB time.
Poppy Johnson came in with purpose; she was very focused for her 50m Free setting a long course PB (personal best) time. Returning for session 4 was Charlie de Haan in the 50m Backstroke, another great swim and a PB for Charlie, winning his 2nd Bronze medal of the weekend.
Session 5 – Day 3 :- The final session of the weekend.
Elen McCoole-Jones’ last race of the weekend was the 50m Fly, Elen looked good throughout the swim and finished only 0.92 off her PB time to end a tough weekend of racing.
Charlie de Haan saved his best swim until last, a technically very good 200m Backstroke race. Coaches are always pleased when a swimmer applies all the work done at training in a race. Pacing and turns were Charlie’s strong points in this race and a healthy PB and a 2nd Silver Medal were his reward.
Poppy Johnson ended the meet with a 100m Breaststroke swim, a difficult weekend for Poppy but she applied herself very well, her processes were good and it is nice to see a swimmer accept where they are when coming back after injury, and not expecting unrealistic outcomes.
Head Coach Terry Boardman said, we missed having Reggie Park with us, Reggie has moved on and we wish him all the best. The team bonded well and gave strong support to each other over the weekend.
Overall, the team did great, all our swimmers hit PBs, we won a few medals and we gave a good showing against some top clubs in the UK against very high level swimmers.
