With it being the middle of the season, training intensity and load is very high. In this meet the finals are swum in the same session as the heats, making it a very physically demanding meet. Despite this the swimmers were unfazed and left nothing in the pool. With 73 top 10 finishes, 9 third place finishes, 9 second place finishes and 16 first place finishes, both coaches and swimmers should be pleased with these results. This shows City of Sheffield’s dominance in Yorkshire once again and both the strength and depth in Team Steel's swimming squads.
For some of the more experienced Team Steel swimmers this is a great competition to see how their training is going and to practice swimming in finals. For some of the younger swimmers this was their first time at Yorkshires and a great environment to show that their hard work in training is paying off. Reuben Visda showed his class in the 200 IM getting his British Champs time in 2:11.43. Stepping up in a final is an important quality to have for top-level swimmers. Over the 100m Backstroke Sophie Bromley demonstrated just that, improving by nearly a whole second from her heat swim to her first-place finish in the final, coming in with a new personal best of 1:08.18.
Topping the medal table at Team Steel were Isla Jones, with three golds in the 100m Butterfly, 100 Freestyle and 400 Freestyle and a silver in the 200 IM, Thomas Wilkinson with the double over the 100 and 200 Breaststroke and four bronzes in the 200 Butterfly, 200 Backstroke, 200 Freestyle and 400 Freestyle, and Matthew Woodhall with three golds in the 400 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke and 200 IM, a silver in 200 Butterfly and a bronze in 200 Freestyle.
After a long weekend of racing the swimmers and coaches will be back in training this week preparing for the second weekend of Yorkshires. Hopefully it will be more of the same success as this one was for Team Steel.