Bishops Stortford Swimming Gala

On Monday 5 October the year 7 and 8 from Woodbridge School travelled to Bishop’s Stortford College to compete in a swimming gala.

The Year 7 Girls had to a slow start to begin with by losing the medley relay race by the narrowest of margins. With this narrow defeat the girls grew more motivated and fought by in the backstroke race to take 1^st place from the home team. As the rest of watched they knew they had to keep up the pressure in the breaststroke race and took 1^st and 2^nd place. They weren’t going to let the home team get back in it so in the toughest stroke of Butterfly the girls held off to claim 1^st and 3^rd place keeping their lead. Freestyle was up next, with the girls fighting hard to create a big lead they outperformed a strong Bishop’s Stortford team to take 1^st and 2^nd place and 1^st in the freestyle relay.

Year 7 boys started off the same as the girl by losing to the home side in the medley relay. The boys weren’t going to be shown up by the girls and fought hard to take 2^nd place just losing out. But they weren’t going down without a fight and took 1^st place in the breaststroke race. The home team wasn’t going to let us win easily and put in a strong team in the butterfly which they took the top two places. The boys new they were neck and neck and that every race counted so put a Stella performance to take 2^nd place in the freestyle race. The last race, freestyle relay, the boys lined up knowing they had to put everything they had into it but the home side was just to strong and forced us to take 2^nd place.

Unlike the year 7 boys and girls the year 8 girls started off strong in the medley relay by beating the home side convincingly. They rest of the teammate went going to let their effort be wasted and took 1^st and 3^rd place in the backstroke race. But the home side weren’t going to let us win that easily and took 1^st and 2^nd. Frustrated with the lose Minnie Wayman took the matters into her own hands and took 1^st place in the butterfly race with a convincing win. Yet again the Bishop’s fought back forcing us to take 2^nd and 3^rd place. Just like the medley relay, Vicky, Sophie, Minnie and Laura worked hard together to take 1^st place.

Just like the Year 8 Girls, jack, Alfie, Max and Giles took 1^st place in the Medley Relay. Knowing the final result is going to be close they had to put everything they had into the races. Backstroke was next, up step Giles and Max to take 1^st and 3^rd place. The pressure was building and breaststroke swimmers stepped up but the home team keep their nerve and we took 2^nd and 4^th place. Followed by butterfly which was the same results. Next up was Jack and Alfie in the freestyle; they knew they needed to pull out a win here. It was neck and neck till the final stretch where both edge in front and took 1^st and 2^nd place. They weren’t going to let it slip away now in the freestyle relay and put their heart and soul into the race to take 1^st place away from the home team.

The results came in the team with the most points win. The Year 7 Boys and Girls had a total of 48 compared to Bishops 59. Next up was the Year 8’s which had a total of 61 whereas Bishops had a total of 48. We had done it beating Bishops Stortford 109 to 107 points.