Otter 1/4 Mile

Otter's ventured to Parliament Hill Lido for the annual 1/4 mile race on Saturday 15 August, the last open water event of the clubs season.

After a fresh dip, swimmers enjoyed a friendly match of water polo, with bragging rights to boot! Otter black came out victorious on the day, unfortunately there were no black eyes to report. In true Otter style, festivities continued into the evening.

We had another great turn up at this event, which is a nice taste of “open water”swimming & Water Polo for beginners and masters alike. Congratulations to our 2015 winner, James Third (well done Foxcatcher!) Honourable mentions to our podium finishers Pip Bennett in second and Chris Sutton in third - a tightly fought final turn proved the difference on the day. With Emma Skhurka the best placed lady in the handicap.

Massive thank you to Parliament Hill Lido for hosting us again, and to Shurks & Traey Allen for organizing the event. Brilliant job ladies! 

World Masters Swimming Championships 2015 Kazan, Russia

In an exciting move and for the very first time, FINA arranged for the World Masters Championships 2015 to take place at the same venue as the full World Championships with some overlap of events.  Hence, Masters athletes who went out early to prepare for the open water or long distance pool swimming were able to gain some inspiration by watching the elite athletes compete on the world stage.

This year, two Otters competed at the event - Wade Rimbach and Pip Bennett. The latter arrived very early in Kazan as he had the open water event held on a similar, albeit shorter, course as the elite swimmers. Pip finished 5th in the 30-34 age group winning a sprint finish over an Argentinian athlete by a mere 0.1 seconds. He was very pleased with this result as last year he finished 12th.

Wade (also 30-34) arrived a few days later and the two of them set out to compete in the fantastic ‘Aquatics Palace’ facility. This held two 50m pools, a diving pit and superb results systems - evidence that being linked to the main championships was beneficial. Numbers at this event were lower than the last two editions in Montreal and Riccione, but at the sharp end of the competition the standard was exactly as expected at the World Championships level. The lower numbers meant that warming up for swimming events was much easier and less like the people-soup that has been a feature of some competitions.

Otter Handicap Dates

The Otter handicap competition continues in the pool this week with the 150 Free. The dates for the remainder of the handicap event are provisionally as below, each to be held during a Thursday QMSC session as above, where there are two events in the same evening this will obviously take slightly longer.

Thu 20 Aug 2015: 150 Free

Thu 24 Sep 2015: 200 Free

Thu 15 Oct 2015: 100 Free

Thu 19 Nov 2015: 125 Free & Vets 50 Free

Thu 17 Dec 2015: 50 Free & 400 IM

Otters Triumphant at Open Water Nationals

On August 2nd, the Otters went to a sunny and blustery Rother Valley Country Park near Sheffield for the ASA Open Water National Championships. It is a pleasing indicator about the way the sport is going that there needed to be two waves in the Men's 3km race to accommodate all the entries. Despite the warm water and hints of sun through threathening clouds one half of the course was quite taxing with rough water blown up by the wind.

Not to be deterred, Pip Bennett (30-34) and Dan Bullock (45-49) went on to become National Champions in their age groups and also were 2nd and 4th overall, only beaten by a 20 year old who had recently represented the country. In the women's race the weather continued to deteriorate but Jess Trevellick (25-29) and Michelle Senecal dealt with the conditions well to finish 2nd and 3rd respectively in their own age-groups.

Next year we aim to take a bigger team and bring even more medals home.

Buller appointed GB U19 coach for 2016 season

Nick Buller and Tim Dunsbee have been appointed as head coaches of the England women’s and men’s U19 water polo squads respectively for the 2016 season.

Both teams will be aiming to qualify for the European U19 Water Polo Championships with the women’s event taking place in Gouda (women’s) and Alphen (men’s) in the Netherlands next summer.

Buller guided the Great Britain 1998 women’s squad through qualification for the inaugural European Games and to an 11th place finish at the Games in Baku.

“I’m pleased to have been given the opportunity to show what this squad can achieve,” said Buller. “This is an exciting time to be involved with the national team as the level of players is improving all the time. The Baku European Games was a good starting point and future teams will only learn and build from that experience. I’ll be looking closely at not only those who went to Baku and those going to Greece for the Under 20 World Championships in August, but also the many emerging talents coming through and the players who maybe only just missed out on selection previously. Our goal is to build a strong outfit and perform well at next year’s Championships, and with the talent available I’m confident we can achieve that.”

Buller will appoint the remainder of his coaching team in the next few weeks in conjunction with Water Polo Management Group performance lead Phil Winstanley and England Water Polo manager Ian Elliot.

The Annual Otter Half-Mile open water handicap

The Otter Half-Mile open water handicap was held yesterday evening at Henley Sailing Club. The Sailing Club proved excellent hosts as usual providing boats and safety crew along with a wonderful barbeque and soup ready for the swimmers as soon as they got out the water. The water itself was possibly a steaming 20 degrees so lovely to swim in and the warm setting sun made for a perfect evening on the river side. Tremendous thanks to Roger Sharply for organising this event again.

There was a good turn out with 30 swimmers plus many guests joining for the barbeque. It was very good to see some water polo ladies and men at this combined club event. The race itselfwas slightly slower than recent years with very little current assistance resulting in a longer timed race which allowed some of the later starters to catch up the earlier swimmers, the top three all started towards the end of the start list, about four minutes after the first swimmer.

Well done in particular to the winner, Nico Barber. The top three were: 1. Nico Barber (start time 3:45), finish time 14:27,  Pip Bennett (4:15), 14:38, and Lex Higlett (4:00), 14:41.

Otter win London League

Otter have won the Division 1 of the London League after finishing the season undefeated. The win was a great squad effort with 16 different players from Otter, Lutra & the U/17 Otter National Age Group team combining over 3 weekends to take out the title. 

Despite the number of players & people playing together for the first time Otter were consistent throughout. Beating West London Penguin 7-0 & 7-1. Mid Sussex Marlins 6-2 & 6-1. Beckenham 8-3 & 8-0. And Chelmsford 12-2. 

Great Britain finish 14th at World Junior Championships

The British women’s U20 water polo team brought the curtain down on their World Junior Championships in Volos, Greece with a battling defeat to European giants the Netherlands.

After finishing bottom of their group, GB bounced back with a mature performance in a 10-4 victory over South Africa in the classifications round to guarantee a top-14 finish  and meet their target for the competition.

The British squad continued in the same vein in their final classification match against the Dutch, one of the ‘big six’ European women’s water polo nations, matching their opponents in the first half before fading in the third and fourth quarters to a 22-7 defeat.  

Massive congratulations to Otter's Brooke & Kathy who represented GB at the tournament. We're incredibly proud of you, and looking forward to have you back at for Otter in the upcoming BWPL season. 

Otter Club Championship

The Otter Club Championship 400 Free & 100IM races were held during training Thursday night at QMSC.

Thanks to everyone who took part & helped time.

400 Free Results - Men's: 1st Dave Warren (4:32), 2nd Josh Sambrook-Smith (4:41) 3rd Craid Gillepsie (4:45). Women's: 1st Lex Higlett (4:55), 2nd Helen Prentice (5:12), 3rd Jess Trevellick (5:24).

100IM Results - Men's 1st Dave Warren (1.04), 2nd Wade Rimbach (1.06), 3rd Craig Gillepsie (1.08). Women's: 1st Lex Higlett (1.14), Helen Prentice (1.17), 3rd Emma Shkurka (1.17) 

The next Club Championships will be the 200IM & 100 Free on 30th July. 50Free, 100Bk & 50 Fly will be on October 29th & the 100Br & 100Fly will take place on November 5th. 

Otters represent GB at FINA World Women’s Junior Water Polo Championships

Congratulations to Otters Brooke Tafazolli & Kathy Rogers who have been selected in the Great Britain Under 20’s team for this weeks FINA World Women’s Junior Water Polo Championships.

The Championships will take place in Volos (GRE) from August 17-23, 2015, gathering 16 teams from the five continents.  Great Britain has been drawn in Group A alongside Russia, Greece, & Japan.

GROUP A: Russia, Greece, Japan, Great Britain
GROUP B: Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, Hungary
GROUP C: Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Australia
GROUP D: Mexico, Spain, USA, Ukraine 

The preliminary round is staged on August 17-19, with GB taking on bronze medalists & hosts Greece on Mon 17th, Japan on Tues 18th & then Russia in the final prelim game on Wed 19th. The Qualification round will then be played on the August 20, with Quarter Finals on the 21st, Semi Finals on the 22nd and the Final on August 23.

Team GB: Lauren Tasker (capt), Brooke Tafazoli (joint vice capt), Rhianne Oscroft (joint vice capt), Kate Read, Megan Gaunt, Rosie Huck, Izzy Howe, Katy Andrew, Kate Parkin, Kathy Rogers, Honor Grimes.