Manchester triumphant with winning swim semester

Tom Grant MMG Senior Producer

The University of Manchester swim team are confident for the semester ahead, after a consistent line of wins last semester, says President Ellie Ritchie.

Manchester beat Nottingham Trent 41-37 in their first round of the British University Swimming League (BUSL) on October 20, before winning against Sheffield 44-34 on November 7, and then drawing 39-39 against Sheffield Hallam on December 7.

Their first BUSL round was away at Nottingham Trent, but they also managed a victory on home soil as they beat Sheffield at the Manchester Aquatic Centre.

In Nottingham, a top performance from Tom Poulton saw him take the top spot in both the 100m backstroke with a time of 58.14s, winning by 6s, and the 50m backstroke in 27.4, winning by 7s.

Emma Moore topped the table in the Women’s 100m Individual Medley and the Women’s 50m freestyle, whilst Maddie Follis won the Women’s 100m freestyle and Amy West the Women’s 100m butterfly. Manchester won both 50m breaststroke races, with Ioan Delahay and Maddie Good coming first. The team also won both the Men’s and Women’s Medley Relays against Nottingham Trent.

At home against Sheffield, Manchester managed to win 15 of the 22 races, with Amy West taking the top spot in the Women’s 50m and 100m butterfly. Tom Poulton came first in the Men’s 100m backstroke for the second consecutive time, as well as the 50m backstroke. The Women’s 4x50m freestyle relay team of Maddie Follis, Beth Elliot, Abby Parkinson and Amy West also grabbed the top spot in their race.

There was another great round of swims against Sheffield Hallam from Sophie Shaw in the 50m and 100m backstroke, Tom Poulton in the 100m backstroke and Tom Gambold in the 50m backstroke.

Manchester also secured wins in three of the four relay races, with exceptional performances in the Girls’ Free and Medley relays especially.

Ritchie was confident that these wins had given Manchester a strong team going into the British University & Colleges Sport (BUCS) tournament at Ponds Forge in Sheffield on November 19. The BUCS short course tournament saw new Manchester club records from Sophie Shaw, Tom Poulton and Denisa Elena Gogu.

BUCS saw three club records from Shaw, in the women’s 50m backstroke (28.56s), the 100m backstroke (1:00.42) and the 200m backstroke (2:08.53), a new women’s 200m breaststroke record from Denisa Elena Gogu (2:33.14), and a men’s 200m backstroke record from Tom Poulton (2:03.42). Manchester’s next event was set to be a virtual BUSL on January 28th, but was postponed to February 6th after a pool fault at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.