24 June 2021
The swimming squad reconvened for one final event, a new event that will hopefully remain on the calendar for a long time. The ‘Covid Testimonial’ meet, designed to allow the swimmers to have a final crack at school records in their age range, the Upper Sixth attempting one final stab at beating times laid down by the legends of the past before they leave the school for good and the Fifth Year attempting to beat the U16 records before they move to the higher age division.
Ben MacLennan, Chris Skelton, Nick Skelton, Joe Watkiss and Scott Yap stepped up, ready to give it one final attempt. For Nick and Scott this was their last possible attempt to break some school records. There was one record that was heavily targeted, Joseph Bradshaw (OA 2017) who is their current swimming coach and sadly leaving us for pastures new at the end of term. Joseph would have had his fingers crossed that his 100 Fly time would remain as his only school record after many years of outstanding swimming.
After a warmup and a few yardstick times, Nick Skelton opened his account with a blistering 59.79 in the 100 IM, breaking the previous record held by M Esnouf at 1:02.38 from 2014. Scott Yap had a couple of goes at taking the U18 50 BRS and 100 BRS records, but couldn’t beat his own previous best in the 100 BRS, or L Teh’s time in the 50 BRS from 2014.
Joe Watkiss had a couple attempts at the 50 BRS U16 record, eventually netting a 33.18 to displace Scott Yap’s old time of 33.29 from 2018.
Chris Skelton chased Nick Skelton in a ferocious 50 Freestyle race, Nick breaking the U18 record, previously held by swimming legend Murray Eccelstone from 2016, and Chris breaking his own previous record from 2020. Nick swam a 24.87, breaking the old record of 25.29, and Chris swam a 26.06 to beat out his old time of 26.46.
Then it came to the big event. The 100 FLY. Would Joseph’s only school record remain?
No.
An exhausted Nick Skelton destroyed the record with a 59.79, dropping it from a 1:08.14 from 2016. Joe Watkiss also swam the event, setting a new U16 record at 1:05.02, replacing the old time of Ja Law of 1:10.40 set in 2012.
Nick Skelton and Scott Yap have been invaluable swimmers for the school, we wish them the best for the future and can’t wait to see how the U16 swimmers move up to the older age range.
