On Sunday, Ojays travelled to K2 in Crawley for the East Grinstead short course open meet
We had an incredible day with some fantastic swims from all our athletes competing against 10 other clubs. By the end of the day, we had achieved an amazing 22 Golds, 12 Silvers and 3 Bronze medals with over half of all 149 individual swims getting a top 6 placing. Our 35 swimmers racked up 110 personal bests which is 75% of all swims. A special mention goes to Aaron for bringing home an incredible 6 gold medals.
A big thank you to Sam for coaching and team managers Jo, Mark and Caroline. Our officials Andre, Caroline, Mark, Sarah and Sophie and to all our swimmers for setting a shining example and showing that success is not only measured by performance in the pool, but by the way we conduct ourselves and support our fellow Ojay’s swimmers.
Also well done to Mark for passing his British Swimming J2S assessment. Not only a significant personal achievement, but demonstrates a fantastic commitment to the club that will enable us to continue to have licenced club championships and galas going forward. Those that would like to volunteer a little bit of their time, develop a deeper appreciation of their children’s sport and join the group parents that support the club as an official and facilitate our ability to enter our children into galas then please email competitions@orpingtonojays.com for more information.
Photographs of the gala can be viewed by signing into your Team Unify account and accessing the Photos option on the main portal page.
Additionally, you can purchase professional photographs of the event at https://harlequinephotography.zenfoliosite.com/egsc and using the password K2GALA
Well done to our Tudor team last Saturday where we witnessed a fantastic team performance showing great resilience under pressure. With just 1 round remaining we came 3rd on the night and a good result by Bexley pushed us down into second place overall with it all now to play for in the final. This is to be held on 17th June 2023, so keep the date free - with just one point in it and a good lead over the others this might between us and Bexley on the night!
It was a smoothly run gala and we performed our hosting duties well and a big thank you to all those that put themselves forward to help.
Coach Nick
Team Managers Jo, Shereen and Kirsten
Captains Hannah and Lauren
Officials Lindsay, Caroline, Andre and Mark
Scoring Dave, Rob
Announcer Julie
Refreshments Aaron and Felicity
See you all on the 17th June and fingers crossed we can put out a great team again and become champions for a second year running.
Go Ojays!
Ojays shine at the London Regional 2023 Champs
Monday 1st May 2023
Orpington Ojays have been making waves at the London Regional swimming championships over the last couple of weekends with some impressive swims over our 51 individual events from the 15 athletes that qualified. Together with our impressive relay teams we brought home a total of four medals, including two golds, one silver, and one bronze and 19 finals to finish 20th out of 41 qualifying clubs from the 88 in the London region.
A standout individual performance of the championships came from Daisy, who swam a blistering race in the 50m freestyle final to take the gold medal with a club record-breaking time of 28.35. Her performance puts her in contention for a place at the English Nationals, and is a testament to the hard work and dedication she has put into her training. A big congratulations to Blythe on her 200m Backstroke bronze medal and to Aaron (2), Andrew (1), Blythe (1), Daisy (3), Ellie (2), George (1), Lucas (2) and Samantha (1) on attaining new personal bests.
Another highlight of the championships was the girls 17 and over 4x200m freestyle relay team (Blythe, Hannah, Samantha, Sophia) , who had an incredible and exciting race to secure the gold medal. The team showed great teamwork and determination, and their victory is a well-deserved reward for their efforts. The video of this can be seen together with a collection of photos here.
Overall, Orpington Ojays put in a strong showing at the championships and we would like to congratulate all the swimmers who took part. Their success is a testament to their hard work, talent, and dedication, and we are sure that they will continue to go from strength to strength in the future.
Thank you to Joe Gaster, Sam Gaster, Julie, Mark and our officials for all you your hard work over the course of 5 days.
Tudor League Round 4 - Results
Friday 28th April 2023
Another great performance from our Tudor League swimmers on Saturday has kept us on top of the table with just 2 rounds left.
Some great individual and relay swims gave us 11 race wins, 7 second places, 5 third places and just one time fault that gave us 235 points to secure third place on the night with congratulations going to Erith on their gala win.
We now look forward to round 5 on Saturday 20th May (reserve the date) where we are joint hosts with Eltham Stingrays. We will be asking for assistance with various jobs around the pool and we will need parents to volunteer for computer time recording, announcing, door and refreshment duties.
Thank you to Jo, Sheeren and Kirsten for Team Managing with assistance from Daisy, Captain Lauren and Coach Sam and officials Caroline, Myra and Mark.
Kent Junior League - Round 1
Saturday 1st April 2023
We want to say a massive well done to all who swam at Kent Junior League at the weekend. For many, it was one of your first competitions, and you not only made the club proud, but yourselves too. Well done! It was a fantastic effort from all of you, and your support was much appreciated.
We finished 6th on the night and are currently14th in the league
Ojays win round three of the Tudor League
Monday 20th March 2023
A fantastic first place result in the Tudor League last night will now take us to the top of the league table. After being placed first in 13 events and and second in a further 13 events out of 48 we secured an amazing 275 points to win the gala.
That's our best result in the competition to date, so well done to all swimmers that took part. You did yourselves and the club very proud indeed. Big thanks to Coach Nick, Team Mangers Jo and Shereen with Daisy assisting, Lauren captaining and to Caroline, Grant and Mark for officiating.
1️⃣ 275 Orpington Ojays
2️⃣ 229 Erith & District
3️⃣ 227 Bexley
4️⃣ 220 Greenwich
5️⃣ 197 Tonbridge
6️⃣ 187 Dartford & District
7️⃣ 178 Whiteoak
8️⃣ 175 Eltham Stingrays
Faith and Finola
Thursday 9th March 2023
Two of our swimmers, Faith Wellard and Finola Barker, have been selected to take part in the Kent Swimming 2023 development camp. A huge achievement in such a competitive county. Well done, girls!
Good Luck Aaron in the ESSA Championships
Thursday 9th March 2023
It is a pleasure to announce that Aaron Magcanan of Top squad has been selected to represent London at this year’s English Schools Swimming Association Inter Divisional Championships going ahead this weekend in Coventry.
Aaron has been chosen amongst some of the best swimmers in London, so this is a real honour and a fantastic achievement for himself and the club. The competition is a licensed level 1 meet, with swimmers competing to a National standard. The swimmers in his age group will also be being considered for the World School Games in Brazil this August so fingers crossed for this too.
Aaron, wishing you the best of luck from your coaches and everyone at the club and you will, I am sure, do yourself and the club very proud indeed. Go Ojays!
Orpington Ojays and EDSC Spring Gala
Sunday 5th March 2023
Thank you to all swimmers, coaches and volunteers for your help supporting our wonderful gala last weekend.
Our parents, coaches and club organisers did an amazing job with both days running extremely smoothly and it was all worth it with almost all swimmers getting personal bests and over half getting one or more top 3 medals. For those awaiting their gold medals (we won that many we actually ran out of a few), these are ordered and on their way!
We had lots of swimmers collecting ducks as heat prizes and a number of swimmers smashing it out of the park achieving new regional qualification times too!
All times have now been updated to Swim England rankings and are available on the system. Upcoming galas (NUEL and Summer Regionals) have been updated with new personal bests, so please check your entries. A gentle reminder that entries for the NUEL Level 1 National qualifier at the Aquatic Centre closes on 9th March, and the 400m freestyle Club Champs Gala 1 on Monday 20th March, closes on the 12th.
Kent Championships Success
Sunday 26th February 2023
Well done to all those that took part in the Kent Championships over 4 weekends that came to a conclusion on Sunday 26th February. As a club we came 11th in the distance events at K2 Crawley and 12th at the London Aquatic Centre out of the 26 clubs that qualified and the 44 swimming clubs in Kent.
We achieved 48 Medals including 6 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze medals, 7 more than last year!
There were some amazing swims with the majority of achieving personal bests.
A special congratulations to Blythe who is now the Open Ladies champion in 100m Fly and won the Beckenham Ladies Dish.
Tudor League Round 2
Saturday 18th February 2023
Congratulations on another fantastic performance from the Tudor League team on Saturday 18th February. Well done everyone who took part and a warm welcome to those participating for the first time. We were in the lead at the halfway point with the top 3 places changing all the way through the gala. With Orpington just a half point ahead of the rest going into the final squadron event we eventually finished 3rd with just 2.5 points separating the top 3. We had our best ever placings with ten 1st places and nine 2nd places. Its now very close with 3 rounds to go so please reserve the 18th March for Round 3! Thank you to all the volunteers, officials and coaches as usual that make these events possible!
1st Places
Girls Open Freestyle – Emily B
Boys 12/u Medley Relay - Ben, Philip, Lucas, Conrad
Boys 14/u Medley Relay – Eliot, Fotios, Shekinah, Jack
Girls 10/u Breaststroke – Mia
Boys 12/u Butterfly – Lucas
Mixed Open Medley Relay - Lauren, Samuel, Eisen, Max
Girls 14/u Backstroke – Carys
Girls 14/u Freestyle Relay - Finola, Emily C, Pragnya, Carys
Boys 12/u Backstroke – Ben
Boys 14/u Breaststroke – Fotios
Mixed Open Freestyle Relay - Callum, Emily B, Samuel, Lauren
Great Start to Tudor League 2023
Thursday 26th January 2023
The results are in for Round 1 of this years Tudor League
....and we are off the blocks with a second place finish!
Well done to all those that took part and a pat on the back for the many new swimmers, some of whom were competing in their first ever gala.
We had 5 first place, 8 second place and 10 third place finishes, including some fantastic PBs.There was a great team spirit as usual and we look forward to the next round on Saturday 18th February.
Kent record for Billy
Monday 9th January 2023
Billy Birchmore has just received his certificate for becoming S14 Kent county record holder in 200 IM which he achieved at the 2022 Kent Championships last year…better late than never!
Well done Bill!