Month: June 2012

We are now taking orders on our new club kit. We have been very lucky to be able to strike a deal with Puma who have agreed to provide us with our new kit. If you want to purchase the heavily discounted kit then please speak to Judith Joy.

We have managed to pull together a ‘warm weather training camp’ for summer of 2012. With the help of the parents some grant money and the ‘Hartlepool Supporters Fundraising Group’ we are going  Long Course Training  in Spain! Once again we have proved what a great team we are now! We have proved that by working as a ‘team’ we can achieve anything. The trip is planned for August 2012 and will be open to all N&D qualifiers in the first instance.

Our aim is to increase commitment and improve performance and so develop swimming at the club. Our goal is to make this an annual event and hope to take even more athletes the following year! The camp will cover 6 days and will include over 20 hours of swimming and  land conditioning work. This will give our athletes an excellent start to the coming season. All swimmers attending the camp will be expected to come home with at least two long course PB’s one in the 200m IM and one in their #1 stroke. This will be a minimum requirement of the camp. A team of over 30 is expected to travel, Ole!!

It has long been a goal of mine to transform Hartlepool SC into a Performance Centre. With the help of everyone at the club we have achieved our goal! After several months of planning and negotiation, we have secured the additional training time needed and a land work program, we are now members of Hartlepool Colleges Sporting Association the HSA this has given us access to ‘state of the art facilities and expert sports science knowledge.

All of the required hours are now in place to enable us to meet the criteria as a ‘Performance Centre’ & with National & International swimmers at the club, we can offer swimmers a chance to swim and learn from the best. We have multi talented coaches operating at all levels in a Performance  Program something the club has never had in place before! It’s been less than a year since I joined the club, in that time it’s gone form one success to another, gaining momentum as the year has gone on. We are now set for an incredible future, with committed staff and performance opportunities which will attract the best (and already have!) Hartlepool SC PC has a great future! Watch us fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A SWIMMING club which has been running in Hartlepool for 90 years would like to welcome some new faces.

Hartlepool Swimming Club already has 80 members ranging from three-year-old learners up to 18-year-old national competitors, with all levels of skill in between.

And after recently celebrating nine decades of teaching the youth of the town how to swim and be confident in water, and getting those with a more sporting streak into country-wide competitions, it would like to invite others to join.

So whether it’s swimming for fun, or taking part in contests, Hartlepool Swimming Club is excited to meet some new swimmers.

The club’s head coach Ian Bullock, a married dad-of-four, who works for the NHS, told the Mail: “Basically, we’d like to see some new faces at the club.

“It isn’t just about elite competitors, the life-blood of the club is about the youngest swimmers in it.

“I personally work with all the groups from the young children learning to swim, right up to the national competitors we have. There are opportunities for everybody and we’ve never turned anybody away yet.

“We don’t have a waiting list, we always try to accommodate people. We want to be able to cater for everybody that comes.

“The whole ethos of the club is children and family, it’s very family orientated.”

The club holds its lesson five nights a week, and three mornings, with 12 fully-trained volunteer staff – who are mostly parents of children already at the club – on hand to help.

Dedicated Ian, who travels to the town from his home in Chester-le-Street, added: “We’re increasing our numbers more than we ever have, but more are welcome. We’ve been serving the town for 90 years and we want to be able to continue to do that.

“We want to take people who want to swim for fun and also people who want to compete. It’s a fun club and it’s a successful club. The two go together very well, and that’s what we aim for.”

For further information about swimming lessons, or competing, contact Ian on 07854604903 or email headcoach@hartlepoolsc.co.uk

A SUPER-SWIMMER who was left needing a huge pin and four screws inserted into her thigh bone following a road smash has defied her family’s fears that her career was over by getting back into the pool just six weeks later.

Heather Richardson – who has competed in national and local galas all over the country for Hartlepool Swimming Club – snapped her left femur after a collision with a car while riding her moped.

The accident happened on the corner of Grange Road and Mulgrave Road, in the town centre of Hartlepool, and left the 16-year-old in agony and needing a four-hour operation at the University Hospital of North Tees, in Stockton, to insert the pin and screws into her leg.

Her mum Michelle Richardson told the Hartlepool Mail that she feared Heather’s injuries were so bad that it could have marked the end of her swimming career.

The Hartlepool Sixth Form College A-level student was ordered to rest the limb, but she was so desperate to get back into the water that she pleaded with doctors to let her resume training just six weeks after her horrific injury.

Medics gave her the go-ahead to start a gentle regime, and the very next day Heather swam again, despite the bone having not yet re-joined and her relying on 26 tablets a day for the pain.

And the former English Martyrs School pupil, of South Beach, Hartlepool, is on her way to stepping up her training to eight sessions a week at Mill House Leisure Centre as she was prior to the smash on January 4.

Mobile hairdresser Michelle, 43, said: “I thought it was the end of her swimming career.

“I was thinking the worst that she could end up with a limp or one leg shorter than the other, or not able to swim again.

“I didn’t say anything to her though because I knew she would have been gutted even missing out on training and galas, never mind the thought of never being able to swim again.

“But she’s got such determination and I knew she’d never ever give up. She’s done really well and her coach is really proud of her, as I am.”

She added: “When it happened it was awful. The paramedic knew it was her femur that was broken by the shape of her leg.

“Apparently it’s the hardest and most unusual bone to break, and you can also die from it because it’s got its own blood supply so you can bleed internally.

“Now we’re just praying the bone is knitting together, otherwise she might have to have another operation.”

The leg break is the latest injury that Heather has fought back from, after she broke her wrist when she slipped over at a gala in May last year, and injured it again in a fall on December 10.

Once again Heather’s determination saw her overcome her injuries, taking to the water with a cast on bagged up with a plastic bag and tape.

Heather, who’s favoured style is backstroke, started swimming when she was just four and decided to take it more seriously when she turned 12.

Since then the dedicated student, studying maths, physics and physical education at college, has never looked back and has competed in the English and Scottish nationals several times as well as several other contests across the UK.