Ashdown House
PREPARATORY SCHOOL


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Sport Results Swimming

Thursday, 16th February

 

Swimming v Copthorne

1st    Copthorne A       193
2nd    Ashdown A        169
3rd    Copthorne B        93
4th    Ashdown B          81       

After seven team changes due to illness, the Ashdown team took their places on the start line for this gala. Many thanks goes to those who stepped up to the plate at the last moment! Also grateful thanks to Julie and Andy Rigg who helped enormously in the running of the gala and as always Daniel Stephenson for his scoring expertise.

33 personal bests were broken by the Ashdown swimmers today which is a huge amount from the 48 individual swims. Those who broke their PBs in the U9s were Freddy Floyd x2, Jolly Koska x2, Arthur Lyndsay, Cordelia Moore x2, and Roland Bourne. The U10 PB breakers were Emily Bland, Josh Burvill, Scarlett Fox x2, Lucy Hargrave, Charles Harrison and Elizabeth McCarthy. U11 PB breakers were Sam Allen, Aaron di Comberti Black, Federico Giesler, Georgie O'Brien, Andrew Taylor, and Chloe Yorke x2. PB breakers in the U12s were Inju Chang x2, Alexander Coglin, Felix Deere and Alexandra Mathison. Senior PB breakers were Holly Allen, Libby Galloway, Katerina Mathison x2 and Lily St John x2.
Our race winners were Arthur Lyndsay in the U9 butterfly, Freddy Floyd (U9 front crawl), Emily Bland (U10 backstroke), Scarlett Fox (U10 breaststroke), Josh Burvill (U10 front crawl), Georgie O'Brien (U11 front crawl), Alexander Coglin (U12 breaststroke), Inju Chang (U12 butterfly), Cameron Galloway (U12 front crawl).

Everybody gave of their very best as can be seen from these super statistics!   PMc

Friday, 3rd February

Friday, 3rd February

IAPS Regional Qualifing Gala
Today the Ashdown swimming team took part in the IAPS Regionals at Cumnor. We took 33 swimmers to the event and every swimmer really gave of his or her very best.  They were all nervous as befits an event of this magnitude, but they conquered their nerves with a little help from Mrs Upton, Mrs Rigg, Mrs Fox and myself. I was extremely proud of their commitment and perseverance.  The Cumnor pool is 25 metres long and we held our own in most races up to our usual swim length of 34 metres but found the last 16 metres a bit of an endurance test. We had four victories in the event:  Inju Chang in the U12 Butterfly, Georgie O'Brien in the U11 Front Crawl, Lily St.John in the U13 Breaststroke and in the U10/11 small schools relay the girls were victorious.


Huge thanks goes to the parents who came to support only to find themselves evicted due to the number in a small pool area for health and safety reasons. You are true champions - 2½ hours in sub zero temperatures with your noses pressed to the glass as you watched the Ashdown children perform!  PMc

Swimming

Monday, 7th November

 

Swimming v Brambletye

1. Ashdown A 130

2. Brambletye A 91

3. Brambletye B 59

4. Ashdown B 52

A fabulous gala was held at Ashdown today. Everybody really gave of their best and 18 personal bests were broken:

· Individual Medley - Mollie Beale, Georgie O'Brien, Will Brockman, Luke Berry, William Strutt and Georgie Higson Smith

· Backstroke - Sasha Nikolaeva and Tilly Butcher

· Breaststroke - Chloe Yorke, Andrew Taylor and Helena St.John

· Butterfly - Mollie Beale, Luke Berry and Georgie Higson Smith

· Freestyle - Georgie O'Brien, Federico Giesler, Will Brockman and William Womersley

The icing on the cake was a Girls’ School Record being broken by Mollie Beale in the Individual Medley with a time of 61.19. Everyone can be really proud of the way they behaved and the way that they swam. You were all a pleasure to be involved with and a great credit to Ashdown.

PMc

 

Thursday, 6th October
Swimming v Handcross Park
Won 200 – 170
A really great effort by all those involved in this match. We started brilliantly with a 1/2 from Mollie Beale and Georgie O’Brien in the U11 IM. During the next few races we had to be content with some 2/4 placings. Our next first place was Freddy Floyd in the U9 Breaststroke, followed immediately by another 1/2 from Elizabeth McCarthy and Scarlett Fox in the U10 Breaststroke and a 1st from Chloe Yorke in the U11 Breaststroke. In the Butterfly, Arthur Lindsay picked up another 1st for us, with Mollie Beale and Andrew Taylor taking another 1/2 in the U11 Butterfly and Will Brockman a 1st in the U12 Butterfly. In Front crawl we picked up a 1/2 in U10 from Marcus Prest and Charles Harrison, a 1st in the U11 from Georgie O’Brien and another 1/2 from our Swimming Captains, William Strutt and Georgie Higson-Smith. Our relays were an enormous success with 8 wins out of the 10 relays! Sadly we only managed to beat 8 PBs today as all the junior races were over just one length. PMc

Saturday, 14th May
IAPS Swimming National Finals
On Saturday afternoon we had two girls away in Crawley at the IAPS National Swimming Finals. The event was the culmination of 33 regional qualifiers held throughout the UK during January and February. At our regionals in Eastbourne in early February, Leah Mellor qualified 8th fastest out of 16 in the Under 13 50m backstroke and Aimee de Havas qualified 15th out of 16 in the Under 13 50m breaststroke. The finals were held at the excellent K2 sports complex and were superbly organised.
In the backstroke Leah was in a very strong heat and was not quite able to replicate her superb performance from the regionals. With several girls in the other heat swimming faster, she did not manage to make the final late in the afternoon. In the breaststroke Aimee put in a terrific performance. Having qualified 15th, she would have been expected to come 7th in her heat on qualification form, but she swam with real determination to come 5th and effectively finish 13th overall. She recorded 44.84 seconds, taking 1.04 seconds off her Regionals’ time. Aimee also did not make the final, but both girls did brilliantly to reach the Nationals and should be very proud of their efforts. MH


Monday, 21st March
Swimming Quadrangular (U-11, U-10, U-9) at Copthorne
3rd

Thursday, 10th February
Swimming v Copthorne
Copthorne A 210
Ashdown A 163
Ashdown B 78
Copthorne B 78
Today's swimming match was a truly wonderful event. All the children represented their respective schools with a wonderful mix of competitiveness and good humour. Ashdown swam well narrowly losing out to Copthorne in many a good contest. We managed to secure a win in U9, U10and U13 Backcrawl courtesy of Emily Bland, Chloe Yorke and Leah Mellor. In breaststroke we won U9 and U11 thanks to Scarlett Fox and Ellie Koska. Inju Chang won the U11 butterfly and we came first in the U10 and U11 frontcrawl thanks to Chloe Yorke and Cameron Galloway. The U11 and U13 frontcrawl relay teams also covered themselves with glory winning the third last and last races of the meeting. However the most pleasing part of the day was being able to note that 30 individual swimmers managed to beat their own personal best times out of a possible 48. It was also very nice to see a few new faces make their debut swims at this meeting and I should like to thank Tilly Grace, Cosima Keen, Maria Espinosa and Michael Berry for stepping up to the plate with only five minutes notice. PMc



Thursday, 3rd February
IAPS Regionals
On Thursday evening we travelled to Eastbourne for the IAPS regional swimming qualifiers at the Sovereign Centre. It was a pretty impressive venue, with a 25-metre, six lane pool and a large area of tiered seating for spectators along one side. This was the first time that we had entered the IAPS swimming and we took a squad of 22. Leah Mellor, Aimee de Havas, Elena Breeze and Laura Kendall in the Under 13s; Georgie Higson-Smith, Annabel Hickson, Lily St John, Katerina Mathison, Katie Sood, Jeehoon Chang and William Womersley in the Under 12s; Inju Chang, Annabel Edwards, Ellie Koska, Camilla Wilkins, Sasha Nikolaeva, Helena Foord, Dominic Prest, Will Brockman, Archie Boyle, Cameron Galloway and Luke Berry in the Under 11s.
There were some very good swimmers there from Moira House, St Andrew’s, St Bede’s, Brighton College, Burgess Hill and Vinehall. Our swimmers gave a very good account of themselves. Although we are waiting for the final results to come through, we gained a number of second and third placings. However, our outstanding performances came from Leah Mellor, Inju Chang and the Under 13 girls’ freestyle relay team. Leah won the Under 13 girls’ 50m backstroke with a brilliant swim, destroying the field by a staggering ten metres. Inju won the Under 11 girls’ 25m butterfly with a very good swim. The Under 13 girls were superb in the 4x25m freestyle relay with Aimee, Leah and Elena all swimming very well to give us a good lead, which Laura defended without alarm as she gave it everything in the final leg.
Regional qualifiers are taking place all over the country up until the end of February. Fastest times will decide who qualifies for the national finals in Crawley on May 14th, so we will have to wait several more weeks to see if we have anyone through. Many thanks to Mrs Rigg, our swimming coach, for her work with the squad and for managing the team so well at Eastbourne. MH


Monday, 29th November
Swimming v Brambletye

Brambletye A 119
Ashdown A 105
Brambletye B 66
Ashdown B 41
The swimmers gave everything they had in today’s closely fought contest with Brambletye. Thirteen personal bests were broken out of a possible 30 which is very pleasing. There were two fabulous events that occurred. The first that Inju Chang beat the U11 girls' Individual medley school record - it now stands at 62.03. The second being Aimee de Havas beating the girls' U13 breast stroke record which now stands at 26.68. With a little more effort she could take the whole school breaststroke record as she would only have to knock 0.1 seconds off her time to do so! PMc

Thursday 30th September
Swimming v Handcross Park

Handcross Park 152
Ashdown 151
This was a very closely fought match which was swum by both teams in great spirit. Race winners were Georgie O’Brien and Leah Mellor (IM), William Brockman and Leah Mellor (Backcrawl), Scarlett Fox, Andrew Taylor and Aimee deHavas (Breaststroke), Georgie O’Brien, Inju Chang and Gabi Skinner (Butterfly), Luke Berry and Aimee deHavas (Frontcrawl), the U11 medley relay team, the U11 and U13 frontcrawl relay teams.
We were only able to try for personal bests in 17 races as we were swimming only one length in all but in the U13 races 11 people beat their PBs; these were Georgie O’Brien (both her races), Luke Berry, Sophie Sood, Greg Atkinson, Aimee de Havas, Lucy Hargrave, Charles Harrison, Fred Cox, Laura Kendall and GabiSkinner.
Everyone gave of their very best - WELL DONE EVERYONE. PMc
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