A Historic Splash: Bishop Luffa Swimming Team’s unprecedented achievement
Hannah Day (12Ridgeway), Florence Ingram (12Ridgeway), Eloise Joubert (11Burrows) and Libby Johnson (11Sherborne) qualified out of their medley and freestyle to qualify for the English Schools National Finals, competing against school swimming heavyweights and Olympians.
On Saturday 16th November Bishop Luffa School competed at the English Schools Swimming Finals at Sandwell Aquatic Centre in Birmingham, where the 2022 Commonwealth Games were held, following qualification from the county round. It was the third time Bishop Luffa had qualified for this competition, but the first time we had ever qualified multiple teams.
During the opening of the competition, team captains Alex Wilkes and Hannah Day were warmly introduced to the crowd of over 500 people, along with captains from all schools. The National Anthem gave goose bumps for our athletes in this incredibly proud moment for them and the school.
Kick starting the event for Bishop Luffa was Max Stanton (8King), Alex Wilkes (8Burrows), Derin Cowley (8Story) and Curtis Jacobs (7Sherborne) competing in the junior medley relay. The team gave every ounce of effort and finished 18th out of 30 teams, with a team personal best by more than 0.6 of a second.
In our second event of the day the senior girls were preparing for their freestyle heat. We were hoping to qualify but were not highly confident in doing so, and we felt our success may come later in the day in the medley final. We finished 4th in our heat beating schools we did not think we would come near. With two more heats to go we were unsure if we had qualified. The suspense of the wait was tantalising and when the result came through that we had qualified, jubilant celebrations broke out.
The girls’ knew coming into this final that we were up against the nation's best swimmers, with much greater resources than we have. We finished 9th and history was made. This was the first team from Bishop Luffa to have made an English Schools National Swimming Final.
In the boys’ second event of the day, Harry Peregrin (7Andrewes) came into the freestyle team, and in a tough lane draw, competed valiantly throughout the race finishing 19th between the three heats. The team swam a 4 second personal best, this was extraordinary to save so much time!
Harry, Max, Alex, Derin and Curtis swam together for the first time at the Sussex qualifier in October 2024 and have trained together once, for one hour, in the build up to these finals. For these boys to get into the final is no mean feat and, in the future, we will certainly be hearing more about this team in their bid to qualify out of their heats.
For the senior girls’ medley relay, we believed they had the chance to qualify but knew they had to all swim personal bests to have a chance of doing this. The girls swam a personal best by 0.3 seconds which allowed them to squeeze into the final inscribing their names into the Bishop Luffa history books, qualifying for a second national final.
In the final the team were again underdogs but fought valiantly, Eloise showed determination through illness to give us a good start with her backstroke, Florence’s elegant breaststroke kept us with the pack, Libby flew through their air with her butterfly leg before handing over to Hannah to come within half a second of 8th place as she hits the finish. Even at the teams sixth race of the event the girls made a substantial personal best from their time in the heat of 2.07.57 to their time in the final 2.06.82.
A big thank you to Chichester Chiropractic Health Centre (CCHC) who have supported and sponsored the team to train before the event for the first time and bought the team memento tops of the day. CCHC comes highly recommended for your chiropractic needs.
Both teams did incredibly well and we are very proud of everyone’s achievements. Bishop Luffa student’s do what Bishop Luffa students do and when the moment comes they stand up and are counted, but this time they are history makers.
Tim Godfray, Team Leader of PE