Blackburn Centurions

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2012-01-23T00:03:00.001Z

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Regional Championships Round Up

2011-06-22T13:09:00.001+01:00

What an exciting pair of weekends the Centurions have had at the regional championships Held at the Manchester Aquatics Centre over 4th/5th and 11th/12th of June.

The Regional Championships come second only to the National championships for standard of competition and with the North West being the best swimming region in the country the gap between the two is not a big one.

We won no medals at this competition last year and only had 3 swimmers qualify to take part, this year we stepped up markedly! We had 4 swimmers qualify, with only one returning swimmer from last years trio and also brought home 2 medals!

On the first day we had an impressive PB record of 4/4. William Beaven (Beaver) got us off to a flying start in the 100m Breastroke with a new PB of 1:26.32 which was only just quicker than Elodie Smallwood's fantastic PB swim in the 100m Backstroke of 1:26.38. Josh Lambert stepped up next in the 200 Fly with a FINAL QUALIFYING PB swim of 3:00.67. Once again Elodie put in an excellent performance in the 200 FC with a PB of 2:46.68. In the 200 Fly final Josh did himself proud finishing in 7th position.

Day 2 started well with a pair of good swims from the boys in the 100 FC. Josh put in a PB swim of 1:10.50 whilst Beaver stuck in a solid 1:06.82. Elodie and Amber where up next in the 100 Fly and as expected cracked in a PB swim each, Elodie going 1:30.44 and Amber 1:23.74. Josh was up in the 200 Back with a very impressive PB swim of 2:53.74 and he did it wit a very impressive, nearly even split time, which is an excellent sign of maturity. In the 200 IM both boys out in PB efforts wih Josh qualifying for his second final. In the heats Josh put down an impressive 2:52.41 and Beaver a great swim of 2:40.73. Josh once again swam solidly in the final coming 7th for the second time.

After another weeks training and tightening up on skills we headed back to the Manchester Aquatics Centre with high hopes for our four young athletes and once again they did not disappoint.

Day 3 began with the 400 IM and its always hard to step up for the first event of the second weekend at a meet but Josh threw the gauntlet down with an 11second PB to qualify fo the final! Beaver put in a solid 5:43.46. These two swims were not to overshadow the two girls who went in the 200 Fly both putting in fantastic PB swims with Elodie posting an impressive 3:22.21 and Amber an excellent 3:05.96. Josh's 2nd PB of the day came in the 100 Back where he swam to 1:22.61. Both boys showed again in the 200 FC Josh giving another PB swim of 2:31.42 and Beaver a PB swim of 2:25.62. As we said earlier Josh quaified for the 400 IM final and he qualified in 4th position 2 seconds away from the bronze medal qualifyer. This said, never count a Centurion out! Josh battled hard from the gun, he went 0.3 quicker on the Fly than the morning, pushed on and went 1.8 quicker on the Back, an incredible 3.6 seconds quicker on the Brestroke leg and showed his determination for a medal steaming home 1.1 seconds quicker than his heat swim on the FC leg swimming 7 seconds quicker than his 11 second PB from the morning!!!!! This incredible effort helped him overtake the boy ranked third and saw Josh bring home the BRONZE MEDAL!!!!

The last day saw another abundance of fast tough swimming. It is incredibly hard to do a final swim as well as Josh did and motivate yourself to step up the next morning for another 400 but he popped in a solid 5:22.65 to get us off to a great start of the final day. Elodie was up next and flew through the 100 FC in a brilliant 1:16.97 followed by Josh in a PB and FINAL qualifying swim of 1:17.97. Elodie was almost immediately back in for the 200 Back with a fantastically grown up, even paced PB swim of 3:09.96. Beaver was in next in his best event the 200 Breastroke. Last year he was a NATIONAL FINALLIST in this event with a time of 3:01.02, however for the entirety of this season he had not been training within our programme until the start of April and had not broken 3:04 all season. He steamed out more than 2seconds quicker than his PB pace for the first 100 and clung on to go 2:59.52 and qualify for the final. Can you believe it our little toughie Elodie stepped up again to compete in the 200 IM battling her way to a very impressive PB of 3:08.42. This left only our two finallists Josh and Beaver. Josh this time had qualified in BRONZE MEDAL position but can you blame him, he wanted more! Fully committing to the race he blasted out the first 50 .6 quicker than his heat swim and blew away his second 50 time by 2.8seconds to finish in an awesome second place 3.5 seconds quicker than his earlier PB heat swim! Last in was Beaver who was told to be brave and get himself out in the race with a chance to ge himself an even faster PB, which he did. .3 quicker on the first 50, 2nd 50 .2 quicker, the 3rd 50 made the difference being .7 quicker than the morning and testament to how hard he has trained he held on down the last 50 to come home in a stonking time of 2:58.12 which was a new PB and a final position of 8th.

Well done to all our Centurions and lets make sure we all work our tails off to get to the regional championships in force next year and start to re-establish ourselves as a force to be reckoned with in the best swimming region in the country!

Lancashire County Championships - Centurions Battle Hard

2011-04-10T22:00:00.001+01:00

What a great demonstration of swimming we have had over the past two days! We saw our Centurions battle their way through 38 races this weekend with 33 of those being PERSONAL BEST TIMES!! Two more County MEDALS came our way along with a host of top 10 finishes!

The weekend kicked off with the boys 50m backstroke which saw Josh Lambert and new boy William Beaven (affectionately known as Beaver) power to PERSONAL BESTS of 37.68 and 36.37 respectively. Grace Orrell was next in with a PERSONAL BEST in the 100m Butterfly of 1:21.00, quickly followed by Josh and Beaver who were in again in the 200m frontcrawl, Josh stormed in to a PERSONAL BEST of 2:32.11 and Beaver a strong 2:25.86. Amber Cameron stepped in for her first race of the weekend, the 50 Breastroke, again a PERSONAL BEST of 47.00. If you can believe it the boys, once more, stepped up to show the county how the Centurions battle and fought their way to another pair of PERSONAL BEST times in the 200m I.M. Josh touching in an impressive 2:52.92 and Beaver in a remarkable 2:42.31.

The afternoon saw Grace back in for the 100m frontcrawl and although she breathed on the first stroke out of the turn swam an excellent PERSONAL BEST of 1:09.95 which was just outside her Regional Qualifying Time (RQT). One of the most impressive swims of the weekend was Josh who brought home our SECOND MEDAL of the competition fighting his way through and stealing SILVER in the 50m Butterfly in a PERSONAL BEST time of 34.26. Our youngest swimmer of the weekend, Jodie Beck joined the older girls for the next event, the 50m frontcrawl and stormed her way to a PERSONAL BEST time of 40.46 which was follwed by PERSONAL BESTS by Elodie Smallwood (34.61), Amber Cameron (34.58) and Grace Orrell, although she breathed 12 times in the one length, swam a brilliant time of 31.92 followed by her older sister Amy with a SEASONS BEST of 30.62. New boy Beaver rounded off the day with a strong swim of 1:29.02 in the 100m breastroke.

Sunday morning saw the immediate return of the two boys toughing it out and touching home in a pair of PERSONAL BEST times, in a real big boys event, the 400m I.M. Josh touched in 5:19.51 with Beaver hitting the pads in 5:02.39. The ladies 50m backstroke saw 6 PERSONAL BEST times and a SEASONS BEST time for our intrepid warriors!! Jodie PERSONAL BEST 46.29, Amber PERSONAL BEST 42.21, Elodie PERSONAL BEST 41.54, Grace PERSONAL BEST 36.79, Florence Slater SEASONS BEST 35.95, Lucy Beecroft and Amy Orrell from A1 group coached by Lee Orrell swam to some incredible PERSONAL BEST times of 33.94 and 34.04 respectively. What a great event! Next up where the girls Elodie, Amber and Grace in the 200m I.M. Elodie and Amber where in the same heat and fought their ways to first and second in the heat with Elodie finishing in a PERSONAL BEST time of 2:48.70 just behind Amber who lead the race start to finish with a time of 2:45.23! The morning had been hard and long but once again it was down to the boys to step up and show people what we are about and Josh lead the way with a PERSONAL BEST time of 44.85 and Beaver a very good 39.49, both in the 50m breastroke.

Amber set us off to a phenomenal afternoon with a total destructon of her PERSONAL BEST finishing 8 SECONDS faster than her entry time in 3:08.75! Elodie followed this with another PERSONAL BEST of 3:06.52 with Grace making it a hat-trick of PERSONAL BESTS finishing in 2:50.13... There is no stopping us! Beaver dived in next as our only boy in the 100m frontcrawl and again made us proud with a PERSONAL BEST performance of 1:04.02. The next event saw two more PERSONAL BESTS and our second County SILVER MEDAL of the weekend, making it our third of the competition. It was the ladies 50m butterfly and saw Elodie show us her power and growing confidence with yet another PERSONAL BEST of 39.65 which was followed by Amber who crashed the boards in a thunderous 36.58 which helped her claim both another PERSONAL BEST and her second County SILVER MEDAL. The day had been long but there was still more to come, Josh and Beaver in their last events of the competition posted PERSONAL BEST times of 33.43 and 30.58 respectively. Grace who had impressed much this weekend showed us how tough she can be and put in a solid perfomance of 1.33.81 in the 100m breastroke to close out the competition.

Next week sees us compete again with some fresh faces at the Satellite's open meet in Macclesfield so keep your eyes peeled for yet more exciting results.

GO CENTURIONS!!! You all battled hard, now its back to training because if we wish to follow up our great times with regional success then we will have to come back stronger than ever before, because our opponents will. SWIM TOUGH.

FLIPPIN' FANTASTIC!

2011-04-10T20:03:00.001+01:00

Saturday the 2nd of April saw Shadsworth leisure centre holding a huge open day showcasing all of the activities and classes they have to offer. Blackburn Centurions were invited to be a part of this as we put on a turns clinic for 19 of the council's young swimmers. Jan Glynn and Head Coach Andrew Addison ran the clinic and Jan did a fantastic job of interacting with the swimmers and helping them to watch and learn as Andy demonstrated some turning drills, then some full turns, and finishing by getting them into the water to have a go at what they had seen. Every single swimmer took something positive away from the day, they were all fantastic to work with and showed some serious talent. Many thanks to everybody that attended and all of the council staff that made it possible for the clinic to go ahead. We must remember we would not be here without this kind of support!

Lancashire County Championships - A FLYing Start

2011-03-28T15:55:00.001+01:00

This weekend in Liverpool's Picton pool saw a hard fought medal and several personal best times brought home from the Lancashire County Championships by Blackburn Centurions swimmers.

The weekend kicked off with a great swim from one of the stolwarts of the Centurions team Lucy Beecroft going in the Open age group ladies 100m backstroke. She returned to the County championships after a 3 year absence with an impressive SEASONS BEST of 1:14.37. This was followed in the afternoon by Josh Lambert in the 200m butterfly with Georgia Cooper and Centurions new girl Florrie Slater in the 200m backstroke all posting SEASONS BEST times.

Josh was the first back in the pool on Sunday morning going in and making a big impression with a new PERSONAL BEST time of 3:24.76 in the 200m breastroke. Next in was Amber Cameron in the 200m Butetrfly. Going in ranked 3rd in her age group certainly didn't phase her as she stormed down the first 50 in an impressive 41.0 seconds, she pushed hard to stay with the race through the middle 100m and put in a huge effort down the last length to secure herself a fantastic SILVER MEDAL and new PERSONAL BEST time of 3:12.14 which was 6 seconds quicker than her previous short course mark.

The afternoon saw Josh Lambert again step up to the mark in the 200m backstroke posting 2:59.51 which was a new SEASONS BEST time. Next into the pool were the ladies for the 100m backstroke which saw our girls Georgia Cooper, Florrie Slater, and Grace Orrell. Grace posting a brilliant new PERSONAL BEST time of 1:18.27 with the older two girls once again showing well and delivering a SEASONS BEST time once again.

The Competition continues in two weeks time at Manchester's Aquatics centre that was the home of the commonwealth games so keep your eyes peeled for more exciting races and results from our CENTURIONS!

Recent Biathlon Activity

2010-11-12T16:08:00.002Z

Ribble Valley – September

Centurions put out a large squad for their local Biathlon event, run by Ribble Valley Pentathlon at Clitheroe.

Best performance went to Elodie Smallwood in her second ever Competition, once again she showed her fellow competitors a clean pair of heels in both the pool and the running track, achieving a first place in both disciplines, and once again coming first overall.

In the Youth “D” girl category, we managed to field five competitors. Taylor Carrie in her first event came best place of the Centurions, with an overall 7^th Place. Grace Orrell came 8^th overall, with a second place in the pool. They were closely followed by Brenna McPartland, Claudia Hudson and Molly Jones.

Molly, Claudia and Grace in addition entered as a team and achieved a first place. We really do have every opportunity in 2011 to enter at least one (and maybe two) teams at this age group. A target for 2011 must be to get a Centurions Team to the Nationals!

Callum Hudson came 4^th in the Boys group, again a close competition amongst the North West athletes.

Both Callum and Claudia used the Triathlon at Ribble Valley as practise for the forthcoming British Championships.

Callum came 4^th and Claudia 5^th – of note is the way Claudia shot, due to poor setting up of the sights (by her Dad) she had to aim well below the target to even have a chance of hitting the black!

British Modern Triathlon Championships, Oct 2010, Wolverhampton

Callum came in overall 14^th, again in a close fought battle with his North West rivals, going into the final event with 12 point difference between three athletes (equivalent to 1 second on the track) achieving 2848 points overall with a 72 in the shoot. A PB on the track!

Claudia managed to finish in 27^th, with a PB in the run and shoot, at least this time her shooting was on target, matching her brothers score of 72. This despite a new lighter gun, and without having her Dad’s assistance in setting up the sights!

Schools Biathlon – Wavertree, Liverpool - 14^th November

Good luck to all Centurion Biathletes entering the schools Biathlon competition this weekend.

Training for start of 2010/11 season

2010-09-03T22:01:00.004+01:00

Please find attached the training times/locations for the start of the 2010/2011 season. You will know by now that Rick is leaving the Club to take up a wonderfull coaching opportunity in Dubai. We do still not know if Shadsworth will close but the Pool has been shut until the political situation at BwD has been resolved, and we are therefore moving our training base to Daisyfield from the 06th September. The new schedule attached reflects this situation and also the fact that until we can recruit a new Head Coach we have some difficulties providing coaching cover, and we have had therefore to reduce training times accross the coaching Groups. We will look to expand training availability when a Head Coach is appointed. We have done the best that we can in the circumstances and as always will keep you informed as any progress on either of these issues is achieved. Training to the attached schedule will as previously advised to you all commence on Monday 06th September but at Daisyfield not Shadsworth. Thankyou.

Daisyfield Leisure Centre						Darwen Leisure Centre

Monday	Lane 1	Lane 2	Lane 3	Lane 4	Lane 5	Tuesday	Lane 8	Lane 7	Lane 6
7.00	A2	Comp B	Comp B	Comp C	Comp C	7.00	A2	Comp B	Comp B
7.30	A2	Comp B	Comp B	Comp C	Comp C	7.30	A2	Comp B	Comp B
8.00	A2	Comp B	Comp B	A1	A1	8.00	A2	Comp B	Comp B
8.30	A2	Junior	Junior	A1	A1	8.30	A2	Comp B	Comp B
9.00		Junior	Junior	A1	A1
						Wednesday	Lane 1	Lane 2	Lane 3	Lane 4
Tuesday	Lane 1	Lane 2	Lane 3	Lane 4	Lane 5	6.30	A2	Comp B	Comp B	A1
7.00	Stage 4/5	Stage 6	Stage 6	Stage 7	Stage 7	7.00	A2	Comp B	Comp B	A1
7.30	Stage 4/5	Stage 6	Stage 6	Stage 7	Stage 7	7.30	A2	Comp B	Comp B	A1
8.00	Comp C	Comp C	Comp C	Comp D	Comp D
8.30	Comp C	Comp C	Comp C	Comp D	Comp D	Land Training will take place at Darwen every Wednesday
9.00	Junior	Junior	Junior	Senior	Senior	for those Groups swimming on Wednesday night.
9.30	Junior	Junior	Junior	Senior	Senior
						Competitive C and Competitive D Groups can also attend
Friday	Lane 1	Lane 2	Lane 3	Lane 4	Lane 5	Wednesday Land Training at Darwen but will not be able to swim.
7.00	A2	Comp B	Comp B	Comp D	Comp D
7.30	A2	Comp B	Comp B	Comp D	Comp D	Land Training Time is 5.30pm to 6.15pm
8.00	A2	Comp B	Comp B	Comp C	Comp C
8.30	A2	A1	A1	Comp C	Comp C
9.00	Senior	A1	A1	Junior	Junior
9.30	Senior	A1	A1	Junior	Junior

There are no Land Training Facilities at Daisyfield


HOURS PER GROUP
A1	4.5
A2	7.5
Comp B	6.5
Comp C	3
Comp D	2
Junior	3
Senior	2
Teaching	1

Swimmer of Month - July

2010-08-05T10:58:00.002+01:00

The swimmers of the month for July are as follows:

Stage 4 Regan Carrie

Stage 5 Molly Hargreaves

Stage 6 Harriet Ratcliffe

Stage 7 Lewis Drummond

Comp D Olivia Robertson

Comp C Jodie Beck

Comp B Adam Silvester

Well done to all our swimmers this month. There will be no swimmer of the month during August due to the reduced number of sessions but it will be back in September ready for the new season! The new season will soon be upon us so keep working hard in your training, entering competitions and you could be in with a chance of winning the award very soon! Enjoy the break guys you deserve it!

Blackburn Swimmers Bring Back the Medals at City of Salford Summer Meet

2010-07-20T13:07:00.001+01:00

Blackburn Centurions took 21 swimmers to the City of Salford Summer Spectacular Meet held at Broughton Pools in Salford and brought back an equivalent number of medals! A total of 7 Gold, 10 Silver and 4 Bronze medals accompanied a bumper haul of personal best times making the final competition of the season incredibly successful. On top of this the Blackburn team also won the 4x25m freestyle relay ahead of home team Salford and other strong teams from across the region.

Blackburn's Head Coach, Rick Hall spoke after the meet praising the effort and attitude of the swimmers, "All our swimmers have done us proud this weekend. Many of the swimmers were competing at a meet for the first time and they showed that the hard work done in training was well worth the effort. There was a large number of PB's and the medal total speaks for itself, especially as a number of our swimmers were missing due to other commitments. All the swimmers had a great time and acted very professional throughout and hopefully this will now encourage more of our young swimmers to enjoy competing at these types of competitions".

10 year old Declan Charnock amassed a total of 9 medals throughout the weekend plus was part of the winning relay team with Eve Clarkson, Brenna McPartlan and Catriona Lucas. Declan took gold in the 200 backstroke, 50 backstroke, 400 IM and won a thrilling final in the 50 freestyle which he knocked a full second off his PB. He also came second in 200 breastroke, 100 backstroke, 50 breastroke, 200 freestyle and came 3rd in 100 breastroke.

Our youngest medalist was 9 year old Eve Clarkson who came 2nd in the 50 freestyle after another thrilling final. Her sister Naomi also came 2nd in the 15/over 50 backstroke.

10 year old Amber Cameron also came away with a number of medals including gold in the 100 butterfly and 200 butterfly and silver in the 50 backstroke, 200 IM and 50 butterfly.

Our other medallists included Brenna McPartlan who came second in the 10 years 200 breastroke and third in the 200 IM. Katie Jepson came 3rd in the 50 backstroke and Callum Hudson also came third in his 50m backstroke. 11 year old Grace Orrell also came first in her age for a number of her events however she had to swim in the 11/12 year old age group meaning she missed out on the medals.

The swimmers who swam this weekend are: Chad Rawsterne, Callum Hudson, Thomas Pilkington (or Ilkington as it was said in the programme!!), Adam Silvester, Declan Charnock, Lauren Duckworth, Abby Duckworth, Natasha Hall, Catriona Lucas, Amber Cameron, Mariam Nejad, Claudia Hudson, Brenna McPartlan, Grace Orrell, Hannah Jepson, Katie Jepson, Eve Clarkson, Naomi Clarkson, Sophie Kennedy, Jessica Kennedy and Shannon McGill.

Well done to all who swam this weekend. Anyone else interested in competing at competitions next season please speak to your squad coach!

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June Swimmers of the Month!

2010-07-09T14:50:00.002+01:00

The June Swimmers Of The Month Are as follows:

Stage 4 Jared Cameron

Stage 5 Kyle Robinson

Stage 6 Lois Turner

Stage 7 Katie Hindle

Group D Andrea Johnson

Group C Jack Royle

Group B Thomas Pilkington

Well done to all our swimmers. If you haven't won the award yet, don't worry, just keep working hard and attend as many sessions as you can and you will be in with a chance this month!

Well done to all swimmers who have moved up a group!

2010-06-18T14:57:00.002+01:00

These are all the swimmers who have moved up a group this time. Well done to all our swimmers! If you did not move up this time, keep working hard and soon it will be your turn as well!

To Imp 5

Adam Keen

James Drummond

Molly Hargreaves

To Imp 6

Alice Higgenbottom

To Imp 7

Luca Semper

Lucy Robinson

Sally Johnson

Tobias Cameron

To Competitive D

Matilda Brown

Olivia Robertson

All swimmers who have completed a stage can now redeem their badges and certificates from the club shop on Tuesday!

Excellent results at the North West Regional Championships

2010-06-14T15:45:00.002+01:00

Blackburn Centurions had it's best North West Regional Age Group Championships for years with four Blackburn Swimmers competing in numerous events for the club. The championships held at the Commonwealth Games pool in Manchester also saw a number of Blackburn swimmers competing for the Gallica elite squad with both sets of swimmers producing some magnificent swims. Blackburn swimmers, Declan Charnock (10), Josh Lambert (10) and Grace Orrell (11) were all swimming at the championships for the first time and Georgia Cooper (12) was there for the second time. Despite their inexperience they still managed to swim into seven finals between them! A great achievement against the best swimmers in the North West and some of the best in the country.

The Blackburn Centurions Finalists were:

Josh Lambert - 200fly, 400free, 100fly

Georgia Cooper - 100bk

Declan Charnock - 200bk, 100bk, 100fly

Two Blackburn swimmers competing for Gallica also achieved national qualifying times for the first time - well done to Katie Jepson (200free) and Katie Gaffing (200fly). Also well done to Lucy Davis who swam an incredible championships to win 4 Golds, 3 Silvers and 1 Bronze medal, with many of her swims now placing her in the top 3 in the country!

To see all the results please click here:
http://www.swimnw.org.uk/results/2010%20AGs/

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May Swimmer of the Month!!

2010-06-04T14:32:00.001+01:00

The winners were:-

Stage 4 Elise Lord

Stage 5 Joseph Charnley

Stage 6 Lucy Robinson

Stage 7 Callum Prescott

Group D Tanya Duerden

Group C Goe Parkinson

Group B Elodie Smallwood

Well done to all our swimmer of the month winners! If you didn't get it this month, keep working hard and making sure you attend as many sessions as possible to be in with a chance of winning!

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Centurions Battle Through To the British Biathlon Championships

2010-05-24T11:41:00.001+01:00

Sunday 16th May saw a number of swimmers competing at the North West Biathlon Championships – up for stakes a qualifying place in the British Biathlon Championships to be held at Liverpool in July.

Centurions success was led by Amber Cameron, competing in the 10 years Girl category. First overall on points, and with overall fastest swim and run in age group, Amber easily qualified for a place at Liverpool.

In the Girls 11 – 12 Years category, despite competing at the young age of the group, our team of Brenna McPartlan, Claudia Hudson & Molly Jones came second overall in the team event, and so all three will be going to the nationals to compete as a team. Brenna also was able to qualify as an individual, and so has two chances at glory. The team were up against strong entries from City of Lancaster Triathlon Club and Preston Swimming Club, however they managed to push Preston into third place by just eight points! Claudia also entered the Triathlon adding shooting to her swim and run and came 4th overall.

Thomas Pilkington entered the 11 – 12 years Boys category, unfortunately being at the wrong end of the age group in a large field for the event, meant qualifying was always an uphill task. Of note was his 5th place in the run, on an extremely blustery track.

Despite not getting a first three position, both Callum Hudson and Ellie Glynn both qualified in high enough places to earn them places at the British Championships.

Callum in the 13 -14 Years Boys obtained PB's in both his run and swim (improvement of three seconds!), reaching the Biathlon Championships for the first time. In the Triathlon, Callum came fourth overall.

Ellie had to move up a distance, and ran 2000m unlike our other competitors, however she did not give up and ran and swum herself into the Championships.

Well done to all competitors, and despite a tricky run in cold and breezy conditions, all should be congratulated for a valiant effort.

It would be great as a club if we could enter more individuals / teams, an ideal event is the Ribble Valley Biathlon held at Clitheroe on September 26th. On Sept 5th is Triathlon qualifier at Salt Ayre, this event also hosts an open Biathlon. On November 14th is the North West Schools Biathlon held as last year in Liverpool.

David Hudson

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Second Micro League Gala!

2010-05-10T14:43:00.002+01:00

Blackburn Centurions Micro Team are continuing to grow stronger after coming joint second in the second micro league gala of the season. This despite us being without our 9 year old boys team! All the swimmers did a great job with some fantastic swims and plenty of PBs. Well done to all our swimmers and keep training hard for the next galas on the 19th June and 3rd July

The results are now available in the downloads section under results.

A massive thank you as always to everyone who helped out this weekend!

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April Swimmer of the Month Awards!

2010-04-29T12:17:00.002+01:00

Aprils 'swimmer of the month' award are as follows:

Stage 4 James Drummond

Stage 5 Alice Higginbottom
Stage 6 Fraser Todd

Stage 7 Matilda Brown

Comp D Sophie Thompson

Comp C Britany Cooper

Comp B Amber Cameron

WELL DONE TO ALL THESE SWIMMERS!

If it has not been your turn this month, please keep working hard and soon you may win the award!

The 'swimmer of the month award' is based upon attendance, attitude, punctuality, skills and all round improvement. Swimmers will get a certificate and a trophy of which they can keep for one month. Please can all swimmers please return their trophy on the last Tuesday of the month so we can make sure the next swimmer gets the trophy.

Macclesfield details

2010-04-19T13:22:00.001+01:00

Please note the warm up times for the Macclesfield gala are:

Saturday Sunday

08.00 w/up for 09.00 start 08.00 w/up for 09.00 start

12.15 w/up for 13.15 start 12.15 w/up for 13.15 start

16.30 w/up for 17.30 start 16.15 w/up for 17.00 start

Can all swimmers please make sure they arrive on poolside ready for the land warm up AT LEAST 15 MINUTES BEFORE the warm up times.

For any more information about the weekend please visit the Satellites website: http://www.swimsatellite.co.uk/Open%20Meet%202010.html

Good Luck to all swimmers who are competing this weekend - swim hard, race tough and win the close ones!

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Medals and PBS continue at the Lancashire County Championships 2010

2010-04-01T14:34:00.001+01:00

Blackburn Centurions took a total of 23 swimmers to this year's Lancashire County Championships held at the Manchester Aquatics Centre - the 2002 Commonwealth Games pool. With more swimmers competing for the club than previous years the team did incredibly well bringing back a total of 19 (not including 800m) medals. On top of this we also had another 75% PB rate with over 3/4 swims being PBs.

The following Blackburn Swimmers who won medals are:

(Please note that due to the 800m results being unavailable on the Swim Lancashire website we are unsure who won medals in this event. If you won a medal in this event please email the Rick and he will put it on the article)

Ben Edwards

50Breast - 1st

100Breast - 1st

200Breast - 1st

Josh Lambert

50Flly - 1st

Megan Davies

100fly - 1st

Robert Hamer

200Fly - 1st (+first NQT)

Max Butler

400Free - 3rd

400IM - 2nd

Rebecca Swales

400free - 2nd

100Breast -3rd

Jessica Hargreaves

50Breast - 2nd

Katie Gaffing

50Fly - 3rd

200fly - 2nd

1500Free - 2nd

Mattie Hargreaves

200Fly - 3rd

400IM - 2nd

1500Free - 2nd

Keiran Atkinson

1500Free - 2nd

Ellie Glynn

1500Free - 2nd

Well done to all our swimmers.

The link to the results is here:

http://swimlancashire.co.uk/Documents/index.htm

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March Swimmer of the Month and group movers!

2010-04-01T11:56:00.001+01:00

This month we have introduced a 'swimmer of the month' award to all swimmers in teaching, D, C and B groups. This is based upon attendance, attitude, punctuality, skills and all round improvement. We have also introduced certificates and badges to all those swimmers who have passed a stage which will be available to collect from next week.

The Swimmers of the month for March are as follows:-

Stage 4 Fabio Passerini

Stage 5 Tobias Cameron

Stage 6 Zac Jordan

Stage 7 Jonah Geddes

Comp D Shannon McGill

Comp C Brenna McPartlan

Comp B Josh Lambert

The swimmers who moved up and may get their certificates are:-

Tobias Cameron (passed stage 5)

Thomas Murphy (passed stage 6)

Zac Jordan (passed stage 6)

Lewis Drummond (passed stage 6)

Andrew Johnson (passed stage 7)

Jessica Kennedy (passed stage 7)

Oscar Brown (passed stage 7)

Swimmers who have moved up a coaching group are:-

Shannon McGill (moved to Competitive C Group)

Megan Hayes (moved to Competitive C Group)

Jodie Beck (moved to Competitive C Group)

Catriona Lucas (moved to Competitive C Group)

Well done to all these swimmers. Some others were very close to moving so please keep on working hard and don't be disappointed if it isn't quite your turn yet.

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Centurions swimmers at the British Gas Commonwealth Trials with Gallica

2010-03-29T16:10:00.001+01:00

Some of Blackburn Centurions' senior Gallica swimmers will be competing this week at the British Gas Commonwealth Trials in Sheffield amongst some of the countries best swimmers. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Blackburn swimmers and the rest of the Gallica team the best of luck this week as some of them aim to get on British teams this next year.

The following Blackburn swimmers will be competing for Gallica:

Jordan Theaker
1500m Freestyle

Megan Davis
400 & 800m Freestyle & 400m IM

Lucy Davis
200 & 400m IM & 400m Freestyle

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Easter Training Cancellations 2010

2010-03-29T16:04:00.001+01:00

As always at this time of year there will be no training at Shadsworth on Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (02nd, 04th and 05th April). The last pre Easter training schedule will be Wednesday 31st March and training will resume on Tuesday 06th April. Daisyfield training will not be affected by the Easter holiday and will continue as normal.

The Committee and Coaching/Teaching Team would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Membership a Happy Easter.

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Well done to all Micro League swimmers this weekend

2010-03-08T17:17:00.001Z

A big well done to all the micro league swimmers who swam at Daisyfield this weekend. The team came 3rd in a close run competition which saw us come only one point behind second place Clitheroe. Lancaster won the first gala of the season with Chorley following up in 4th place. Some swimmers were swimming for the club for the first time and did us proud with some excellent swims and many PBs. The team spirit on Saturday was also magnificent with Blackburn by far being the loudest and most energetic club. All our swimmers did a fantastic job to show others how far we have actually come as a club in the last year! We still have a long way to go but we are definitely starting to get back up there!

A massive thanks must go out once again to all the parents and volunteers that gave up their time to help out at the gala and support the club.

Good luck to all those swimming in the next gala on the 8th of May. Hopefully this time we will have a full strength team and have a chance of claiming some big points to get us in the final for promotion at the end of the season!

The results will be on the website shortly.

Rick Hall

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Micro League Fixtures

2010-03-04T12:37:00.002Z

Here is a table of all the Micro League fixtures. If you have been selected for the Micro League Team please make sure you keep these dates free in your diary. We are looking this year to get promoted back to the first division so need the strongest team available every gala!

Division B: Fixtures 2010
Venue:	Home Team:	Visiting Teams:			Date:	WU:
Daisyfield, Blackburn	Blackburn	Chorley	Lancaster	Clitheroe A	06/03/2010	17:45
St Peter's, Burnley	Rosegrove	Blackburn	Chorley	Garstang	08/05/2010	17:30
Leyland LC	Ormskirk	Rosegrove	Blackburn	Lancaster	19/06/2010	18:15
Ribblesdale, Clitheroe	Clitheroe A	Preston B	Ormskirk	Blackburn	03/07/2010	18:00

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FIRST HALF REVIEW OF SEASON

2010-02-22T13:48:00.001Z

It is coming to the end of the first part of the 2009/2010 swimming season with Blackburn Centurion's swimming club continuing to go from strength to strength. This swimming season so far has seen Centurions take away a number of impressive results at competitions as well as make a number of very important changes to the club which has seen it develop and improve.

In August and September we announced that the club would under go two major developments. The first would be to improve the teaching set up and structure and the second would be to improve the coaching structure and groups. The changes came about after a series of meetings on how the club could firstly become more competitive and compete against some of it's Lancashire rivals and secondly how it could attract more swimmers at the lower level.

For the first phase the main change would be to introduce the new National Plan for teaching swimming through September and October. This plan had already proved successful in other clubs throughout the country and it was important for Blackburn to keep with the times and change to this fresh and developmental plan. The new teaching plan falls in line with the ASA's proposal to create a 'national standard for performance' in teaching underpinned by Long Term Athletic Development. This new plan now ensured that all young swimmers would develop skills and understanding that would be needed to develop as a competitive swimmer.

Along with the introduction of the new plan, the club changed the layout of the teaching programme with the teaching now being taught length ways rather than width ways. This was important to improve fitness and develop the skill demands that swimmers needed to meet in the new plan. The change meant that all swimmers in the old teaching program had to be reassessed and put into the new groups. Overall the process went smoothly with help from experienced teachers Sarah Darragh and Michael Wilson as well as head coach Rick Hall.

At the same time the club website under went some impressive developments with the help from Taz Atkinson. Taz helped change the layout and design as well as adding some of the very useful features to the site. On the site you can now find, all the latest news, competition information, results, PB's, world swimming news, information about the club, coaches and groups as well videos, pictures and a notice board with all the latest notices. You can also find target times for competitions and in the members section there is tonnes of information for both swimmers and parents.

The second part of the redevelopment of the swimming club was the changes to the coaching groups which took place in January. Firstly the layout of the groups changed to make them more streamlined and to see a clear progression in line with LTAD. The names of the groups changed and with that the criteria for the groups also changed. This was to make them more competitive and most important, more enjoyable. With these changes came the introduction of a new group. The A1 group is now our top group, consisting of older swimmers who still want to compete, train and race predominately over shorter distances. It is in effect a 'sprint group' and has proved very popular.

All the groups now have access to land training sessions either on a Monday or a Friday. Again these have proved very successful and are an important addition to the swimmers' training. Neil Cooper and Darren Newsham have kindly taken it upon them to assist in these sessions and have provided an invaluable in assisting the swimming coaches with their knowledge and enthusiasm. As well as Neil and Darren on dry land, we have also seen additions to our coaching and teaching teams. Jen McCullagh and Jacqui Prescott have now become qualified through the club and are now assisting on poolside. We currently have five other 'prospective' teachers and coaches who have shown their interest in helping out becoming qualified teachers. We are constantly looking to add to our teaching and coaching team and any swimmers over 16 and any parents who wish to become qualified and assist on poolside should contact Rick or Paul.

We are also looking for a number of volunteers who could potentially fill a number of vacancies on our committee. As there is an awful lot of work put into running the club, the more committee members we have, the lighter the work load for those currently on the committee team who spend a great deal of time and effort ensuring the club runs smoothly. I must commend highly their efforts. Anyone wishing to join please contact Paul and let him know of your interest.

New additions and improvements will continue to take place to the layout and structure of the club including an improved masters group and more training hours (and hopefully better training hours). Rick and the committee are currently putting together a business plan on how we can continue to improve the club and develop it into one of the best and most successful clubs in the county.

Swimming wise we have competed in a number of competitions in this first part of the season, including: Two North Lancashire Championships, Harrogate, Bolton, Arena League, Club Gala's and Biathlons.

Our first main open competition of the season saw Blackburn Swimmers travel to Blackpool for the Level 3 North Lancashire Championships and take away 18 'speeding tickets' for swimming faster than entry times and a 75% PB rate and a large number of top 3 places. This was followed by the Harrogate and Bolton Metro meets which saw Centurions swimmers turn out in force and come back with another haul of PB's and medals.

In January and February we competed in the second North Lancashire Championships and come back with a massive 43 top 3 places and another 75% PB rate. On top of this the club competed in the National Arena League and retained our Premiership Status and swimmers also competed in the club gala throughout the year. The swimmers were then rewarded with a superb presentation night and disco in December where they had the chance to win special prizes donated from Paralympic medallist Natalie Jones.

The first part of the season also saw head coach Rick Hall selected to become part of an ambitious new coaching programme developed by the ASA Coaching Systems and Talent Development teams. The 'Advanced Coaching Offer' provides targeted support to proactive, talented, developing coaches across England over a four year period. With over 200 applicants and only 80 places given out, this is a great opportunity for Rick.

Overall the club continues to move from strength to strength and progress in it's mission to become a successful swimming club aiming to develop young swimmer's to the best of their ability. We are still looking to recruit more young swimmers into our teaching program and have more qualified coaches and teachers. We are also looking forward to the Lancashire Championships for which we have over 20 swimmers attending and also the North West Regional's, Harrogate and also the new Micro League Season. Hopefully the second part of the season will build on the successes of the first part. Good luck to all swimmers who will be competing for us this year.

Rick Hall

Blackburn Centurions SC Head Coach

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Another awesome weekend of competition at the North Lancs Championships

2010-02-09T13:29:00.003Z

The second weekend of the North Lancashire Championships at Blackpool proved just as successful as the first for Blackburn Centurions swimmers with a massive 28 top 3 places adding to the 15 top three place achieved in the previous weekend. This is particularly impressive considering we only had around 30 swimmers competing over the whole competition. Over both weekends just over 3 out of every 4 swims were PBs paying tribute to the hard work that the swimmers have put into their training this year. The second weekend concluded with three of our swimmers finishing in the top three of the BAGCAT competition.

Nine year old Jessica Hargreaves finished second over all in her age group with and claimed the infamous North Lancs blue badges with 2nd in the 200IM and 3rd in the 50 and 200fly and also 3rd in the 200back to add to her 3 badges at the previous weekend.

Grace Orrell (10) also came second in her age with an impressive top three total. She claimed 1st in the 50, 100 and 200back, 2nd in the 50fly and 200IM and 3rd in the 100fly. Overall Grace finished 12 times in the top three against some tough opposition.

Our other top three age group finished was Kieran Atkinson who finished 3rd in his age with 1st in the 400 and 1500 freestyle and 3rd in the 200Im and 100 fly adding to the two badges he won last week.

Other swimmers to achieve badges include Amber Cameron who came 2nd in the 50 fly and 1st in the 200fly

Ben Edwards ran out an impressive top three 'badge' haul with 1st in the 200IM, 1st in the 100 breast, 1st in the 1500m freestyle and 2nd in the 200 back. This added to his 800 freestyle badge that he won last weekend.

Blackburn's swimmers continued their impressive form in the 1500m freestyle with Natasha Hall and Ellie Glynn both finishing 2nd.

Katie Jepson achieved three 3rd places in the 100 and 200freestyle and also the 400IM. Max Butler came 3rd in the 200fly and Anna Hopkin came 2nd in the 100free to round off a very strong total for Blackburn Centurions Swimmers.

Other swimmers competing this weekend included Josh Lambert, Adam Silvester, Thomas Pilkington and Declan Charnock who all swam magnificently in their events to achieve some massive PBs. The open girls turned out some extra special PBs in their events with Lucy Beecroft, Amy Orrell and Anna Hopkin all making the final of the 100 backstroke. Naomi Clarkson also some very good PBs over the competition. Georgia Cooper and Sophie Kennedy also PB'd in nearly all their events this weekend.

Head coach Rick Hall commented after the competition saying, "I am incredibly pleased with both the impressive badge total and especially the number of PB's achieved over the two weekends. All swimmers have done the club proud and it is very pleasing to see swimmers now competing in these open events. Everyone was very proffesional and gave 100% to their swims. I would also like to thank all the coaches that helped out over the competition including Jan Glynn, Lee Orrell, Vicki Hargreaves and Simon Hall. Also to Tanya Kennedy and Jane Lambert who both volunteered to help out as officials."

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