15 year old Steph Reynolds of Clevedon ASC saw her dream come true last week when she travelled to Ponds Forge in Sheffield, the home of British Swimming, to take part in her first British Gas ASA National Youth Championships.

Having qualified in May, Steph had been training hard to make sure she was ready for her 100m backstroke event.  As part of the Somerset Talent Pathway programme, Steph has been having additional training at top club Taunton Deane and had also qualified to race with their relay team in both the freestyle and medley relays.

With her first race, the 4 x 100m freestyle relay, being on the Wednesday, Steph travelled up on Tuesday and had time to visit the pool and soak up the atmosphere before heading off to her hotel and a good nights sleep.

With only the top 30 clubs in the country allowed to enter the relays the freestyle girls were entered in 25^th place with Steph swimming the 3^rd leg.  All the girls were very nervous going into the race and unfortunately their inexperience of swimming together showed when they were disqualified for a faulty take over on one of the legs.

This was not the best of starts to her National campaign, but Steph had Thursday off to try and put this behind her and have a good couple of training sessions in the massive olympic sized Ponds Forge pool.

Friday came with an early start and a good warm up in the pool.  This was the day all the hard work had been for.  H aving suffered shingles at the end of last year and only having recovered fully a few months ago it was amazing that Steph had even qualified.  But all that determination and commitment had now paid off and Steph was going to make the most of it! 

With a time of 1:07:81 Steph was the 83^rd competitor out of 149 with only 7 seconds separating the fastest and slowest. Steph was in the 9^th heat with only 3/10ths of a second between the 10 girls.  The moment had arrived!  The referee blew his whistle and the crowd fell silent.  Family and friends tried to calm their nerves in the stands.  Steph had an excellent start, utilising her underwater fly kick to the maximum and surfaced in the lead.  The first 50m saw her maintain her lead into the turn with a personal best time on that first 50m and now it was the final kick for home.  Family and friends were now on their feet as Steph swam the race of her life. She kicked hard into the last 5m and everyone’s eyes were on the scoreboard.  She had come first in her heat and had smashed her best time to swim the 100m in 1:06:15.

Now there was the agonising wait whilst everyone else swam as the realisation had dawned that Steph could have made the top twenty and would be in the semi final.  A few minutes later and the dream just got better – Steph was 12^th in her age group and would indeed be swimming in the semi!!

The semi was later that day so after a swim down to release all that lactic acid, it was back to the hotel for food and rest ready to go again that evening.  This was a new experience for Steph.  Yes – she had done many races in a day before, but never at this level and of such importance.

Ponds Forge was beginning to feel like home as she arrived for the evening warm up and her semi final.  The atmosphere was different – more tension – as this was a night of semis and finals.  This was where British records were being broken – this was serious stuff! 

The atmosphere was building as the first event was the girls 50m freestyle semis with the very fast swimming and close finishes.  Where a finger nail separates dreams from nightmares! 

Now it was the 100m backstroke semi and the crowd fell silent once more.  Steph was in the water and waiting for the starters signal.  She was off – not the best of starts, but she was still in contention.  At the turn she was slightly down on her time earlier at that day, but she fought back and touched in 1:07:36.  Still a faster time than her entry time into the competition, but not quite enough to take her through to the final.  Although disappointed, when everyone considered what Steph had actually achieved in her first ever national competition, it was more than she had ever dreamed possible and well beyond what anyone expected.

But there was still one more swim left in the 4 x 100m medley relay.  So it was early to bed, ready for the final day of swimming.  With all the girls swimming well, they were looking forward to the relay and determined to get it right.  Steph, being the backstroker, swam the first leg and gave the team an excellent start, coming in 4^th out of the 10 teams for her part of the relay.  The team swam well and knocked 4 seconds off their previous best to finish in 5^th place – one hundredth of a second behind 4^th!!  They had swum well and Steph had more than justified her place in the team.  H aving entered in 22^nd place, their best swim yet saw them placed 17^th in the country which was an amazing result.

Commenting on her feelings after her first National Championships Steph said “I’m really happy to have even qualified for the Nationals and extremely pleased with how I raced during the week.  It was such a different experience and to have the support of my friends and family make it even more enjoyable.  I would like to thank Pete, my coach, for all his support, encouragement and time in helping me to achieve my dream.”

So the week was over and everything Steph had dreamed about had become a reality.   H aving entered the 100m backstroke in 32^nd place, Steph had finished 17^th fastest in the country.  Coach Pete Bowen commented on Steph’s performance “To match her personal best at this level with the nerves and the pressure of the occasion was a big achievement, but to smash it by 1.5 seconds was unbelieveable.  The confidence gained by this experience will take Steph a long way forward as we start planning for the future and many more trips to Sheffield .  I hope this will be an inspiration to the other swimmers in the club, many of whom could achieve similar goals if they want it and are prepared to work for it.”

Meanwhile at the Welsh National Pool Swansea, five Clevedon girls were representing the Bristol Hotspring Ltd sponsored club at the Welsh Summer Nationals. Amelia and Ellie Chappell, Megan Finnie, Danielle Appleford and Olivia Richardson had all qualified for this high level competition.  The competition proved to be a great experience for all five girls, who put in some impressive performances against very strong swimmers from all over the country. The competition is open to non-national qualifiers only, and is great preparation for what may come next year. The girls were able to team up with ex Clevedon swimmer and coach Suzi Bowen, who was there with a contingent of her swimmers from City of Leicester swimming club.

Graham Feboul

Press Officer