Uni Lose in Varsity Swimming

The University of Sheffield Swimming Team were soundly beaten by there Hallam counterparts in their Varsity fixture, losing 15.5 points to 7.5 at Ponds Forge on Wednesday.

The swimming event consisted of 23 races, five of which were team races, and Uni struggled to compete with Hallam’s superior stamina and conditioning.

Things were close during the 50m races as the score stood at 7-5 in favour of Hallam, with Hallam’s victory in the Men’s 50m Breast Stroke being the difference between the two sides.

However, in the longer 100m races Hallam’s longer training hours and professional coaching proved to be the difference. Men’s Captain Matthew Grainger said: “We have some talented swimmers but having less training than Hallam means we have less stamina than them.

“Over 100m there muscle stamina shows. We are working on getting more pool time via the Elite Funding Programme and are hoping to keep our coach who helped us prepare for Varsity on a full time basis.”

Sheffield Hallam’s female swimmers dominated there events winning both the 4x25m Team Front Crawl and 4x25m Team Medley, as well as eight out of nine of the individual events.

The University of Sheffield’s only victory in the women’s events came in the 100m Backstroke, with former national competition swimmer Rebecca Hobson winning impressively.

Matthew Grainger came close to delivering the same result in the Men’s 100m Backstroke in the closest individual race of the day, being piped to victory in the last few metres.

However, the event was run in a good spirit and this shone through in the last race of the day, the 6x25m Freestyle in which everybody from both clubs competed. Three Hallam Men’s swimmers even raced in ladies swim suits.

The race was called a draw in a spectacular finish to a day of improvement for the Uni Swimming Team. Women’s Captain Sophie Stenton said: “It was a big improvement on last year. We are going to celebrate our achievement at Juice tonight.”

Elsewhere in the pool the Men’s and Women’s Canoe Water Polo ended with a point to each side, with Uni’s Men winning 4-1 and Hallam’s Women securing a 2-0 victory in a close contest.