‘NO EATING BEFORE 12!!!!’ some of the first wise words to come out of Spank’s mouth on the coach to this year’s BUCS long course competition. The first event of Friday evening was the warm up in which Norma managed to knee Rebecca Addlington...in which she returned some love to DUSC by feeling captain James Bensons bum, definite claims to fame. Then the real swimming began with the 800m Freestyle in which we had 4 Durham swimmers in the same heat, including the legend that is little Rob. Next was the Mens 400m Freestyle team, in which we pulled out the big guns with our lads Benson, Brucie, Bigfoot and Drago getting into the A final. The 1500m Freestyle swiftly followed with both Vikki Frith and Vicky Bradshaw competing, finishing with only .04 between the two of them and Vicky Bradshaw setting a new record of 20:57.94. Next was a very gutsy swim by the girls 400m Freestyle team in which already wet One Speed Vikki Frith and Vicky Machine Bradshaw swam again, along with Amber Bonshor and Lucie Edmunds. The evening finished with fat times at pizza hut where the carbo loading continued in epic proportions. Saturday started nice and early for DUSC with the men’s 200m Freestyle with Mental finishing in a time of 2:12.09 and Norma doing a bit of a Sage. Next was the 50m Backstroke in which Bex Yue finished in a time of 35.44 and Tom Bill in a time of 28.43, gaining him a place in the final. Next was the 50m Breaststroke in which Brucie set a new record of 31.46 and Amy Thompson did a resilient swim with gritted teeth in a time of 46.14. James Benson gained a place in the 100m Butterfly final in true style in a time of 58.49 whilst Amber HOtel Bonshor set a new female record of 1:11.30. The final event of the morning was the 200IM which Ana Walpole, Dave Mentlak and Peter Foster all swam and gave it their all. This was all finished off with a big team happy birthday to Amy with mountains of chocolate cake, perfect for the races to come. Starting off the afternoon session full of cake was Julie Wardlow doing the 200m Backstroke in a time of 2:46.72 and Graham Bruce for the men in a new record of 2:21.81. Next was the fastest preparation for a 50m Freestyle DUSC had ever seen in which Lucie Edmunds managed to borrow a hat, goggles and costume and get fully changed in between heats 3 and 7, well done Benson. More excitement came as Tom Bill broke the male 50m Freestyle record in a time of 24.96. This was followed by a valiant effort by our 3 200m Breaststroke swimmers Ana, Jacko and Spank. Sage and Mental beasted the men’s 400m Freestyle showing Sage does not always live up to his reputation. Both the Male and Female 400m Medley Teams proceeded to get into the A and B finals. The finals sessions for DUSC began with Tom Bill swimming an awesome 50m Backstroke in a new record time of 28.25 and finishing in 8th place! Next to come was Captain Benson in the 100m Butterfly final, he gave it his all and performed amazingly coming in 10th place. The men’s A final for the 400m Freestyle team was the climax of the night in which the lads really put out, dominating length after length coming in 9th place. Friday morning kicked off with 200m Butterfly in which Julie and Vicky B endured the 4 gruelling lengths and powered on through to the finish, followed by James Benson who flew through the race earning a well deserved place in the final. The women’s 100m Freestyle was swam by Lucie Edmunds who did a great job finishing in a time of 1:08.75. Alex Smith and James Norman also performed amazingly, both finishing in the top 25 for the men’s 100m Freestyle. Next to come was the 100m Breaststroke in which Ana Walpole did a great swim finishing in 1:27.53 and Graham Bruce in a time of 1:12.00. Determined Sarah Hussey performed amazingly in her 50m Butterfly and Amber Bonshor finished in a new record time of 31.47. James Benson then proceeded to do a staggering 26.99 for his 50m Butterfly. Drago continued to wow us all with his 100m Backstroke, getting himself into yet another final!! The competition launched into its final session and an exhausted DUSC kept up their reputation of being one of the loudest teams bawling our heads off for Captain Benson in the 200m Butterfly final, bringing him home in 8th place in a time of 2:11.19. Next was Tom Bill in the 100m Backstroke final finishing in 9th place in a time of 1:03.55. In the B final was the girl’s 400m Medley team which got off to a great start when Ana Walpole couldn’t even get her t-shirt over her head once the race had already begun, yet still managed to finish in 7th place in a time of 5:02.97. The last event of the weekend was the Men’s 400m Medley team A Final, DUSC pushed through the pain coming in an impressive 9th place in a time of 4:13.01, a great finish to an epic weekend. TIME TO LASH!!!

Sixteen records broken, 3 swimmers in finals, 2 relay teams in finals, Durham finishing 26th overall and 17 Bucs points achieved, an impressive effort by DUSC! Friday evening kicked off with brave, one speed Vikki Frith battling the 800m and 1500m freestyle one after each other and still managing to set a new 1500m record of 20:36.27. Another record to come crashing down was the men’s 50m freestyle relay as Brucie, Bigfoot, Drago and Benson bashed out a time of 1:35.19, over 2 seconds quicker than last year’s record. Next it was the girls turn to step up, with Vicky Bradshaw’s pre-race erratic behaviour and excessive psyching up; the female’s 50m freestyle relay record was broken in a time of 1:56.50. The men’s freestyle relay team came 9th in the A final, VERY impressive. Once back to the hotel the team was expecting to stuff our faces with food, and grab as much sleep as possible. However, in true DUSC fashion this was not the case for the lads. Friday the 13th, 13 lads, 45 minutes in a VERY tight space and many sweaty and intimate moments amongst same sex members. Good effort. Five records were broken Saturday morning starting with Annie Knapman swimming 31.04 for 50m Backstroke and Tom Bill’s 50m Backstroke in a time of 27.53. Next was Brucie’s 50m Breaststroke, closely followed by both male and female 100m Butterfly, where Captain James Benson broke his own week old record pulling out a time of 56.86. However, one of the most epic races was Henry Sage’s ballsy 100m Butterfly in which he went out in a 28.31 then hit the wall harder than most have EVER. This crazy phenomenon can now only be known as ‘doing a sage’. Truely epic. After Cramming in the carbs and many Jaffa cakes the afternoon session began with Mentlak doing a completely mental 200 Backstroke, swimming about 20 seconds faster than his entry time! Bigfoot then powered his way through 50m Freestyle in an extremely close race, setting a record of 24.46. One of the standout performances of the weekend was Sarah Hutton’s gutsy birthday 400m Individual Medley in a record time of 6:18.11 followed by a good helping of well deserved birthday cake. The lad’s medley relay team really gave it their all in an epic race setting another new record of 1:48.43. Annie Knapman then did an amazing swim coming 9th in the Women’s 50m Backstroke. Another final made was the men’s 50m Backstroke in which Tom Bill came 8th. Saturday evening finished on a high, singing happy birthday to Sarah Hutton in ASK with a team full of enthusiastic ‘Where’s Wallys’. Perfect. An exhausted but high spirited DUSC were first on poolside doing the usual ‘get dynamic’ warm-up getting ready for the final swims and castle bar! Iceman Brucie performed some top quality swims dominating 100m Breaststroke and 200m Individual medley, setting new records in both. More records were broken in both the male and female 50m Butterfly, and again in the 100m Backstroke. To finish off an amazing final session Benson came 10th in an impressive 200m Butterfly, closely followed by the Men’s Individual Medley team who came 2nd in the B final. The final race of the day was a ‘Jaff off’ on the coach between Henry and Mentlak, many jaffas were rammed and crammed at speed, but there could only be one winner. Mental, what a lad! So, in conclusion; 17 new records, even more personal bests, a really fun weekend and an outstanding effort and performance from every member of the team. Seal of Approval.

The first session will take place on Wednesday 14th October, as the Maiden Castle gym is currently closed for renovation following the floods. One bonus is that the wall between the weights room and the small gym has apparently been knocked down, so we should have both to ourselves during sessions, giving us more room, and hopefully there will be some new equipment too. The main development this year is that all Weights sessions are going to be professionally run by Team Durham coaches, rather than myself. This was arranged in a meeting I had with Darran Fowler, one of the top Team Durham Strength and Conditioning coaches, and Benson, last week. We have decided that he is going to run the wednesday sessions and there will be two junior coaches running the saturday sessions. You don't need me to tell you that this is going to be a huge benefit to the programme and the club as a whole. Land training was not taken seriously enough last year by many individuals, or appreciated as a key factor in the swimming training programme. This leads to it becoming a limiting factor in swimming performance. Judging by how hard most of you work in swimming training, you clearly want to perform in competitions and represent Durham at BUCS, but this won't happen if you neglect a whole area of training. Therefore I am urging you to not only attend land training session, but to take an interest and think for yourselves about what you want from the sessions and how to get the maximum benefit from them. And then work your arse off. The benefit of having proper coaches taking the sessions is that training can become much more focused of the individual's needs. Although you won't necessarily all receive personalised programmes, you won't be asked to do anything that isn't suitable, and will progress at a pace which you are comfortable with. Darran has said that injury prevention will be a high priority in the sessions, so we will spend plenty of time warming up and cooling down, using stretch cords, flexibility work and learning correct techniques before progressing. Also included into the sessions will be core stability work, plometrics, explosive power work, stroke specific strength and power exercises, med ball and swiss ball usage, and endurance work. So although i'll refer to it as a 'Weights' session, it certainly isnt just that. Another thing I have been considering for a while is incorporating some cross-training into the programme, in the form of a weekly boxercise session on a monday evening. As this will be for general fitness, rather than swimming-specific fitness, I am only considering organisin this for at most the duration of Michaelmas term, or possibly only for the first 4 weeks of the season, as it is not recommended to engage in this type if training close to major competitions.

Last year we saw a great deal of success and progression, with 17 finals at the British University Championships and countless University records across the board. This lead to the team achieving overall positions of 13th place in the BUCS long course championships and 22nd in the short course championships. This year we have to build on the work we put in last year, and should be aiming to better these achievements and ensure DUSC is heading in the right direction.
I’m also delighted to announce local elite coach Paul Hogg, from Sunderland, as a new coaching supervisor, delivering sessions on a weekly basis - a first for the club. Last year we saw how positive the effects of having professionally written sets are, and now we will have a greater level of coaching in our training to help us achieve our lofty aspirations over the coming season. At the end of last year we managed to have a few sessions with Paul and his experience and knowledge, coupled with his enthusiasm and humour looks set to make our sessions next year more effective and enjoyable.
Anybody coming to Durham who is interested in competitive swimming and have some questions, feel free to contact me at james.benson@dur.ac.uk. The club is proud of its image as a hard-working and successful, yet also highly sociable and enjoyable team, where everyone enjoys a good relationship amongst one another and are keen to welcome new members with similar warmth and enthusiasm."