The 2023 Isle of Man National Swimming Championships took place at the National Sports Centre over back-to-back weekends recently.

There was a very healthy entry list for the Utmost Wealth Solutions-sponsored event, with more than 120 individual entries ranging from first-time competitors as young as nine to experienced Commonwealth Games swimmers like Laura Kinley and Joel Watterson.

The open 400-metre individual medley (IM) relay and 800m freestyle events kicked off the championships on the opening Friday night. The 400m IM is considered one of the toughest events comprising four lengths/100m of each stroke, with the 800m free event no pushover either at 32 lengths of the 25m pool.

The open 800m was won by Jack Burgess, with 15-year-old Charlie Foster taking silver and pro triathlete Will Draper bronze. In the women’s event, 13-year-old Zoe Neuwirt took gold with silver going to Ruby Reynolds (Ramseian) and Southern’s Kaya Reynolds taking bronze.

The open 400IM winner was Josh Hollamby, with impressive performances by 12-year-olds Carter Kneale and Ed Pearson of the Douglas and Southern clubs respectively in silver and bronze.

It was fantastic to see some of the younger swimmers take on the 800m, including 10-year-olds Bella Quaye and Megan Williamson and 11-year-olds Oscar Maddrell, George Lee and Amelie Henson.

Those swimmers and more were back at the pool for the Saturday morning heats session, with the finals for those events swum later in the evening session. With only six places up for grabs instead of the usual eight, competition for finals places was tough and many personal best times were recorded as swimmers had to dig deep to make their respective finals.

While the NSC over the championship weekends is always a lively place to be, there is a noticeable increase in excitement and noise levels for finals evenings. The first Saturday night was heightened by the arrival of the Lieutenant Governor Sir John and Lady Lorimer who were keen observers for the second year in succession and also kindly presented the medals.

It was Jorja Hedley of Southern who took the first gold of the championships in the women’s 50m freestyle, with the Douglas pairing of Henson and Quaye in silver and bronze.

Neuwirt took gold in the 12-13 age group (this was to become a common theme over the weekend) also going under 30 seconds for the first time. The Peel duo of Georgina Ford and Olivia Williamson joined her on the podium, making big dents in their PBs.

Chloe Batty was the 14-15 winner in a swift 27.75 seconds followed by the Southern duo of Libby Curphey and Ellie Cowin. The fastest eight swimmers contend the super final irrespective of age and this was a very fast final, with the top five swimmers going sub-30. It was Batty who came out on top, ahead of the Southern duo of Curphey and Ellie Johnson.

The next event was the tough 100m butterfly. The super final was won by Foster of Southern, followed by 14-year-old Jack Marshall of Douglas and Shuttleworth of Southern who also took the 16-and-over gold.

The age 12-13 year category was won by Pearson from Kneale, with veteran competitor Robert Frize of Ramseian taking the open category silver in an impressive 1:13.85.

The women’s 200m backstroke was the next up. The 200m events are run as open age category so there is one super final for the top six competitors.

Island Games competitor Curphey took the victory in a super-quick 2:28.69 ahead of Southern team-mate Kaya Reynolds and Peel’s Ford. All six super finalists were 14 or under, reflecting the incredible strength in depth in the female backstroke events.

The finals night excitement continued with the 100m IM finals. This event is great to watch but passes in the blink of an eye with one length each of the four strokes in quick succession.

The gold medallists in the various age groups were Maddrell, Farnan, Foster and Joel Watterson in the 16-and-overs in a rapid 59.15. Silvers went to Aiden Leslie, Pearson, Hollamby and Thompson, and bronze to George Lee, Kneale, Larrosa and Burgess.

The super final top three were Watterson, Thompson and 15-year-old Foster - great experience for the latter mixing it with some of the island’s very best swimmers.

Two 200m super finals then followed as Curphey continued her fantastic first day by coming out on top in a close battle in the women’s 200m IM, with Neuwirt in silver and Holly McEvoy of Douglas taking the bronze.

The open 200m freestyle saw a great demonstration of freestyle swimming by Watterson, with clubmates Foster and Tom Caine having a race-long battle before Foster edged it on the touch in a Southern one-two-three.

The tough 100m butterfly event followed for the women with Megan Williamson the 11 and under winner. Beth Christian took gold in the 12-13 age-group, in a Peel 1-2 from Olivia Williamson, with Aoife Hughes of Douglas in bronze.

The southern club’s Johnson took an exciting and close super final, narrowly pipping McEvoy (the age 14/15 gold medallist), with Megan Cowley just edging out Tilly Bird-McGowan by the narrowest of margins for the open bronze.

The final individual event of the evening was the open 50 breaststroke. Aiden Leslie of Douglas won 11-and-under gold from Oscar Garczynski, with Aiden’s twin brother Callum taking bronze. Farnan took another gold in the 12-13 age-group, from Oscar’s brother Jacob Garczynski, with Kneale in bronze.

Hollamby took gold in the 50m breaststroke in a swift 33.78, with Foster just edging out Douglas’ Dylan Larrosa in a tight finish. Carrick Thompson took the super final gold in another close finish with Zack Bellhouse hot on his heels in silver and Douglas’ Jacob Brookes taking bronze.

However tired the swimmers are, the excitement always ramps up a notch for the relays, with the noise and atmosphere something to behold.

The girls secondary school 200m medley relay was first up with CRHS taking the gold through Curphey, Reynolds, Neve Charmer and 11-year-old Hedley.

Silver went to Ramsey Grammar School’s Maisie Corlett, Sophie Christian, Cowley and R. Reynolds followed by QEII’s quartet of Beth Christian, Olivia Williamson, Charlotte Walker and Evie Hickey in bronze.

The finale was the open 200m freestyle club relay. In another closely-matched race gold went to Southern (Bellhouse, Foster, Caine and Watterson) just touching ahead of Douglas (Thompson, Hollamby, Burgess and Brookes).

Southern B’s younger team of Farnan, Pearson, Kian Johnson and Shuttleworth swam well for bronze.

There was no gentle Sunday morning start for some of the swimmers, with the open 400m freestyle first up, a heats declared winner race over 16 lengths. Another textbook demonstration of freestyle swimming followed from Watterson who dominated the race ahead of Southern’s youngsters Foster and Farnan.

Heats continued throughout the morning session, including the women’s 200m breaststroke where nine-year-old Elise Reynolds, the youngest of the 20 competitors, had a good race and was not overawed by the occasion or the distance.

The women’s 50m fly was first off in Sunday evening’s finals session, with Hedley continuing her impressive form to take gold from Douglas’s Rowan Thompson and with Peel’s Addi Mackie also having a great swim to take bronze.

The 12-13 category was again Neuwirt’s, with Peel’s Ford narrowly pipping clubmate Christian in a tight finish to complete the podium. Curphey was the top 14-15 year old, with Batty second and Tilly Bird-McGowan taking bronze.

The women’s super final winner was Douglas youngster Neuwirt who took gold just ahead of Curphey, with Batty edging out 16-and-over winner Ellie Johnson for overall bronze.

The men’s 50m fly was equally exciting, again with some very close races. In the 11-and-under Aiden Leslie narrowly pipped Maddrell for gold, with Thomas Mackenzie of Southern taking bronze, all boys making big improvements to their personal best times. Farnan was again the 12-13 age-group victor, with Kneale and Pearson completing the podium.

Foster took gold in an impressive 27.79 in the 14-15 age group, with Hollamby in silver also dipping under 30 seconds and Marshall taking bronze. The 16-and-overs was dominated by Watterson in 24.60 followed by Thompson and Jacob Brookes. The super final medallists were Watterson, Thompson and Foster.

Next up was the women’s 200m breast open age event, with Ellie Johnson taking gold for Southern from Ramseian’s Sophie Christian and Peel’s Beth Christian.

The 11-and-under open 100m breast was another Leslie family affair, with Aiden taking the victory over Callum and Oscar Garczynski close behind in third. Jamie Farnan took gold in the 12-13 age group ahead of the usual suspects Jacob Garczynski and Kneale in silver and bronze.

It was Hollamby again in the age 14-15 category, with Larrosa also going sub 1.20 for silver and Harvey Barrow of Douglas taking a well-deserved bronze. The 16-and-overs and super final winner was 16-year-old Zack Bellhouse in a super-fast 1:12.45, with Jacob Brookes of Douglas taking silver by the narrowest of margins from Southern’s Adam Shuttleworth.

Special mention goes to Douglas Athletic head coach James Wright who showed he can still mix it with the best, earning a Lancashire championships qualification time in the heats.

Next it was the turn of the women’s 100m freestyle events. The 11-and-under race was a close affair with Henson of Douglas just beating Hedley on the touch, with Quaye taking bronze.

There were big PBs from the very impressive Neuwirt and Williamson in the 12 -13 100 free in gold and silver. Peel’s Christian narrowly pipped clubmate Ford for bronze in a near blanket finish including Hughes and Hickey in an age group with great strength in depth that also features Evelyn King and Julia Jacobs.

The 14-15s were headed by Batty in a super quick 1:01.90 with Curphey taking silver and McEvoy the bronze, these three also taking the super final medals. In the 16 and overs, Maddie Hemuss and Ellie Johnson had good swims to take age group gold and silver.

The individual finals concluded with the men’s 200m back. After two minutes 15 seconds of hard swimming, the race was won and lost by 5 1/100s of a second, with Burgess just touching ahead of Foster, with ex-Commonwealth and Island Games veteran Dane Harrop taking bronze.

Southern took the honours in the mixed 200m free relay (Watterson, Bellhouse, Curphey and Bird-McGowan) from Douglas (Thompson, Burgess, Batty, Neuwirt) and Southern B (Caine, Foster, Johnson and Ellie Cowin).

The boys 13-and-under 200m free relay club relay again went to Southern (Farnan, Pearson, Garczynski J and Harry Parkes) ahead of the two Douglas teams of Cameron Leslie, Carter Kneale, Ben Wright and Joey Wright, and Aiden and Callum Leslie, George Lee and Zachary Barlow.

The women’s 200m free relay also went Douglas’ way (Batty, Neuwirt, McEvoy and Maddie Hemuss), with Southern (Curphey, Bird-McGowan, Johnson and Cowin) in silver and Ramseian taking bronze (Ruby Reynolds, Cowley, Maisie Corlett and Sophie Christian).

It was then left to the Ballakermeen team of Cameron Leslie, Daniel Barlow, Kian Johnson and Dylan Larrosa to bring a very successful evening’s proceedings to a conclusion with gold in the open Secondary Schools 200m medley relay, followed by CRHS (Jacob Garczynski, Foster, Abe van Zyl and Harry Kinley) in silver and KWC in bronze (Pearson, Kneale, Jacob Kennedy and Alexander Brown).

Isle of Man Swimming would like to thank Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer and Lady Philippa Lorimer MBE for giving up their time to support this event and present trophies and medals.

Thanks also go to David Morgan and Tim Leeming from Isle of Man Sport and David Nash and Anne Isaac from Creative Joinery. Special thanks to all the volunteers who give up their time to make these events possible and to Utmost Wealth Solutions for their continued support of Isle of Man Swimming.

The report from the second weekend of the championships will appear in tomorrow’s (Tuesday’s) edition of the Examiner.