11th
European Deaf Swimming Championships, Saransk, Russia (2014)
Head Coach Report -
Congratulations to GB squad who participated in the Europeans in Saransk, Russia. This year 12 swimmers, 7 girls and 5 boys including myself were selected in the team to represent Great Britain at the Europeans. The team had a mixture of older experienced swimmers and some young potential swimmers. Mel Davis as team manager for the first time was also with the team.
The team embarked on a 2000-mile arduous journey by plane and then an overnight train to the city of Saransk. On arrival team in GB kit as guests of the city were taken to the hotel in a 50 year old ancient mini bus! The team then had two days to recuperate and settle into the hotel.
The competition was held at the modern Water Sport Palace, which met international standards was very impressive. The 50m pool, which had modern adjustable footrest blocks with a cool down pool facilities were all very impressive which met the standards of the competition.
The first race of the competition started with one of the starting lights failing and gave one of the GB swimmers a slow start. This was disappointing, in fact an embarrassment for the organisers particularly with it being a high standards competition for deaf swimmers.
However despite this overall the team GB achieved 32 individual finals and 2 Gold, 4 Silvers and 3 Bronze medals:
Danielle Joyce: (2Gold) 200BK/50BK
(4Silvers) 100BK/400IM/100FC/200FC
(3bronze) 100FCRelay/200IM/50FC
(5th) 50FLY
Lucy Walkup: (1Bronze) 100FCRelay, (4th) 50BR, 100BR, 200BR, (6th) 100FLY, (7th) 200IM
Emily Noden: (1Bronze) 100FCRelay, (4th) 50FLY (5th) 50BK, 400FC, 800FC (6th) 200FC
Emma Lees: (1Bronze) 100FCRelay, (7th) 800FC, 200BK (8th) 400FC, 100BK
Ciara Tappenden: (8th) 200BR
Jasmine Seamarks (8th) 200BK, 400IM
Polly Saines: (5th) 200FLY
Oliver Kenny: (6th) 400IM, 200BK (8th) 100BK, 400FC
Kieran Holdbrook: (7th) 1500M
Tom Baxter just missing out on the final coming 9th in the 200 freestyle and swam a PB in the 200IM event. Luke Nisted also missed out on the final coming 9th in the 200 Medley and swam a PB in the 100FC relay. Matthew Oaten also swam well gaining a PB in the 50FC.
The team swam many new personal bests and broke many records during the competition.
Danielle Joyce smashed the World Deaf Record, European Deaf Record and European Deaf Championship record in the 200BK. Danielle was the only female swimmer that broke a World record in an individual event out of the whole competition.
Danielle Joyce also achieved European Deaf Championship Record in the 50BK
Overall team broke a total of 8 individual British and Youth Deaf records and 1 relay British Deaf record.
British Records-
Danielle Joyce- 100MBK- 1.06.95
50FC- 27.45
200BK- 2.25.38
100FC- 59.83
50BK- 31.53
400IM- 5.19.40
Lucy Walkup- 50 BR- 35.46
200BR- 2.51.63
Along with 17 British Age Group records broken by Ciara Tappenden, Emma Lees, Jasmine Seamarks, Oliver Kenny, Polly Saines and Matthew Oaten. There were also 9 Welsh Deaf records broken by Emily Noden and 13 Scottish Deaf records broken by Danielle Joyce and Lucy Walkup.
Emma Lees, Lucy Walkup, Emily Noden and Danielle Joyce broke the British and British Youth record in the 4 x 100 Medley Relay in a time of 4.43.38 previously 4.45.67 in Melbourne 2005.
In other the relays:
Emma Lees, Lucy Walkup, Emily Noden and Danielle Joyce came (4th) in the 4 x 200 FC Relay in a time of 9.28.53 just missing out on the British record previously 9.28.36!
Luke Nisted, Kieran Holdbrook, Oliver Kenny and Tom Baxter also did well achieving (5th) in 4 x 100 FC Relay
On the last day during the Banquet Danielle Joyce received a special award as top women, for gaining most points in whole competition.
Overall team GB did excellent and achieved PBs 59 times in both heats and finals out of 103 swims. In the medals table Great Britain came 5th place out of 11 countries with a total of 9 medals. This was a huge improvement compared to the last Europeans in Germany 4 years ago where team only won 2 bronzes. This shows how the standards of Team GB has improved over the last 4 years.
Finally I would like to thank all the swimmers efforts, the parents fantastic support and in particular Mel Davis for managing the team. As this was my first time I felt privileged and proud to be head coach for the GB deaf team. I have learnt and gained a lot from the valuable experience as head coach. I wish all the swimmers success for in the future to hard train and improve for the World Championships next year.
Sam Chamberlain GBDSC Head Coach
Head Coach Report -
Congratulations to GB squad who participated in the Europeans in Saransk, Russia. This year 12 swimmers, 7 girls and 5 boys including myself were selected in the team to represent Great Britain at the Europeans. The team had a mixture of older experienced swimmers and some young potential swimmers. Mel Davis as team manager for the first time was also with the team.
The team embarked on a 2000-mile arduous journey by plane and then an overnight train to the city of Saransk. On arrival team in GB kit as guests of the city were taken to the hotel in a 50 year old ancient mini bus! The team then had two days to recuperate and settle into the hotel.
The competition was held at the modern Water Sport Palace, which met international standards was very impressive. The 50m pool, which had modern adjustable footrest blocks with a cool down pool facilities were all very impressive which met the standards of the competition.
The first race of the competition started with one of the starting lights failing and gave one of the GB swimmers a slow start. This was disappointing, in fact an embarrassment for the organisers particularly with it being a high standards competition for deaf swimmers.
However despite this overall the team GB achieved 32 individual finals and 2 Gold, 4 Silvers and 3 Bronze medals:
Danielle Joyce: (2Gold) 200BK/50BK
(4Silvers) 100BK/400IM/100FC/200FC
(3bronze) 100FCRelay/200IM/50FC
(5th) 50FLY
Lucy Walkup: (1Bronze) 100FCRelay, (4th) 50BR, 100BR, 200BR, (6th) 100FLY, (7th) 200IM
Emily Noden: (1Bronze) 100FCRelay, (4th) 50FLY (5th) 50BK, 400FC, 800FC (6th) 200FC
Emma Lees: (1Bronze) 100FCRelay, (7th) 800FC, 200BK (8th) 400FC, 100BK
Ciara Tappenden: (8th) 200BR
Jasmine Seamarks (8th) 200BK, 400IM
Polly Saines: (5th) 200FLY
Oliver Kenny: (6th) 400IM, 200BK (8th) 100BK, 400FC
Kieran Holdbrook: (7th) 1500M
Tom Baxter just missing out on the final coming 9th in the 200 freestyle and swam a PB in the 200IM event. Luke Nisted also missed out on the final coming 9th in the 200 Medley and swam a PB in the 100FC relay. Matthew Oaten also swam well gaining a PB in the 50FC.
The team swam many new personal bests and broke many records during the competition.
Danielle Joyce smashed the World Deaf Record, European Deaf Record and European Deaf Championship record in the 200BK. Danielle was the only female swimmer that broke a World record in an individual event out of the whole competition.
Danielle Joyce also achieved European Deaf Championship Record in the 50BK
Overall team broke a total of 8 individual British and Youth Deaf records and 1 relay British Deaf record.
British Records-
Danielle Joyce- 100MBK- 1.06.95
50FC- 27.45
200BK- 2.25.38
100FC- 59.83
50BK- 31.53
400IM- 5.19.40
Lucy Walkup- 50 BR- 35.46
200BR- 2.51.63
Along with 17 British Age Group records broken by Ciara Tappenden, Emma Lees, Jasmine Seamarks, Oliver Kenny, Polly Saines and Matthew Oaten. There were also 9 Welsh Deaf records broken by Emily Noden and 13 Scottish Deaf records broken by Danielle Joyce and Lucy Walkup.
Emma Lees, Lucy Walkup, Emily Noden and Danielle Joyce broke the British and British Youth record in the 4 x 100 Medley Relay in a time of 4.43.38 previously 4.45.67 in Melbourne 2005.
In other the relays:
Emma Lees, Lucy Walkup, Emily Noden and Danielle Joyce came (4th) in the 4 x 200 FC Relay in a time of 9.28.53 just missing out on the British record previously 9.28.36!
Luke Nisted, Kieran Holdbrook, Oliver Kenny and Tom Baxter also did well achieving (5th) in 4 x 100 FC Relay
On the last day during the Banquet Danielle Joyce received a special award as top women, for gaining most points in whole competition.
Overall team GB did excellent and achieved PBs 59 times in both heats and finals out of 103 swims. In the medals table Great Britain came 5th place out of 11 countries with a total of 9 medals. This was a huge improvement compared to the last Europeans in Germany 4 years ago where team only won 2 bronzes. This shows how the standards of Team GB has improved over the last 4 years.
Finally I would like to thank all the swimmers efforts, the parents fantastic support and in particular Mel Davis for managing the team. As this was my first time I felt privileged and proud to be head coach for the GB deaf team. I have learnt and gained a lot from the valuable experience as head coach. I wish all the swimmers success for in the future to hard train and improve for the World Championships next year.
Sam Chamberlain GBDSC Head Coach