27. 50m Rifle Three Positions

Event: 50m Rifle Three Positions
Date: 13th July 2013
Location: Colchester Rifle Club 
Cost: £1 each plus £4.70 for ammunition. 
Rules:  In the qualifying rounds, shooters fire 150 shots; 50 in each the prone, standing and kneeling position in a time limit of 135 minutes. The eight shooters with the best score progress to the final where they fire 10 shots in the standing position. These are fired on command with a time limit of 75 seconds per shot. The target is 50 metres away and divided in to 10 rings. The shooter with the best combined score from the qualifying and final wins.

   

The Event: 

                            



Scores:

Sarah:

Ellie:

London 2012 Winner: Jamie Lynn Gray, USA.

Comments:  

Sarah: It was our second visit to the Colchester Rifle Club, following our Health & Safety introduction at the start of the year, and we unexpectedly got to tick an event off the list! The rifles are so heavy, but thankfully don't have much kick-back. I was wary on my first shot, following the kick-back from the Trap and Skeet shotguns, but the trigger was super-sensitive and there was hardly any jolt. The prone position gave us chance to get used to positioning the rifle, and time to understand how to scope for each other and call the hits so the shooter could adjust their aim. Ellie is ridiculously accurate; look at her targets! Feeling confident, we attempted the kneeling and standing positions, which quickly brought us back down to earth! The weight of the gun meant it was basically impossible to keep still, and I feel pleased I even managed to hit the card. We had to complete the event on an indoor 25 yard (23 metres) range, as the 50m shooting range is outside. The club understandably doesn't allow beginners on outside targets; if the shot were to go in to the air, it can travel for up to a mile and have the same force on impact.    
          
Ellie: It was such a pleasure to finally meet Bernie at the Colchester Rifle Club. We've been in contact since Christmas but a list of unfortunate events has stopped us meeting until now. It's also a total shock to be able to write this event up. We assumed we'd meet and talk through what we needed to do and maybe have a look around, but Bernie was straight in there. After safety talks, registering, jokes and offers of drinks it was 'discovered' that I am, annoyingly, left-handed and I was given a beautiful and expensive (£1200) rifle. We were allowed to change the shells ourselves and this made me feel much more comfortable and, in a way, connected to the sport. The other difference I felt between this event and the Trap and Skeet is the weight; the rifle is crazy-heavy. I think this is why I didn't get a good shot on target when kneeling or standing - I was so wobbly! I hit the paper and that is good enough for me on this occasion. I'm really proud of my grouping when in the prime position as well. And now we have these beautiful score/shoot cards. I find them so nice to look at that I'm going to frame mine!

Big thanks to Bernie and all at Colchester Rifle Club for their patience and hospitality! www.colchester-rifle-club.org.uk

26. 200m

Event: 200m
Date: 11th July 2013
Location: Basildon Sports Park 
Cost: Free
Rules:  Runners race for 100m around a bend and 100m down the home straight. They start from blocks and run in lanes. The second half of a 200m race is often quicker than the first half, as athletes approach the final 100m at full speed. A reaction time of less than 0.1 is deemed a false start and runners will be recalled, with the responsible athlete disqualified. A runner can also be disqualified if they step out of their designated lane. Women have raced the distance in every Olympics since 1948.  

   

The Event: 



 

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 21.88, Allyson Felix, USA.

Sarah: 54.46

Ellie: 1.43.36

Comments:  

Sarah: This one was hard! It's a really strange distance; not long enough to have to pace yourself, but a bit too long to go flat-out the whole way. I tried to keep my pace the whole distance, but was much slower than double my 100m time. It was really addictive though, I kept thinking at the end of each run that there must have been somewhere where I could have knocked off a few more tenths of a second.    
         
Ellie: I hate running. That is all.

 

25. 100m

Event: 100m
Date: 11th July 2013
Location: Basildon Sports Park 
Cost: Free
Rules:  Runners race for 100m down the home straight of a 400m track. They start from blocks and run in lanes. Sprinters typically reach their peak speed between 50m and 60m. A reaction time of less than 0.1 is deemed a false start and runners will be recalled and the responsible athlete disqualified. 

   

The Event: 

 

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 10.75, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Jamaica.

Sarah: 22.65

Ellie: 29.75

Comments:  

Sarah: In my running training, I tend to skip over the speed training days, (alongside the hill training days), so I can't remember the last time I really ran flat out. You sprint around all the time when you're a child.. why do we stop doing that? It feels great to be going absolutely as fast as you possibly can. I had to really push at the 80m/90m mark as my legs were starting to get tired and I could feel myself slowing down a bit. It wasn't quite as 'blink and you miss it' as the pros, but it was really fun to try and maintain the same speed over the whole distance.              

Ellie: When I was about eight I wanted to be a sprinter. For about 10 minutes. Somehow I'd won a race against my best friend and her older brother...I must have false started or tripped them or something...but for those few glorious minutes I was going to be the next Linford Christie. Unfortunately, the rematch proved my prowess was a fluke and I returned to dreams of a career as a sword swallower or fighter pilot. Today's race rekindled that dream a little bit - I mean I'm only 20ish seconds off Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's time!  

 

24. 100m Freestyle

Event: 100m Freestyle
Date: 11th July 2013
Location: Basildon Sports Park 
Cost: Free
Rules:  Freestyle technically means 'any style' but all swimmers choose the front crawl as this is the quickest stroke. At the start of the race, swimmers dive in and when they break the surface, swim the front crawl, performing a tumble turn at the end of the length. Some part of the swimmer must touch the side of the pool at the end of each length and the end of the race.

   

The Event:  

 

 



Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 53.00, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Netherlands.

Sarah: 2.45.59

Ellie: 2.58.00

Comments:  

Sarah: The third event within an hour, and we were both starting to feel the effects of the lack of sleep and early start. I find it quite hard to moderate my breathing during the crawl, especially towards the end of the lengths. I'm looking forward to taking some time to really practice freestyle lengths in the pool to build up to the longer distance events we've got coming up.         

Ellie: Swimming costume malfunction + laughing at said malfunction whilst underwater = mediocre time (+ personal amusement).

23. 100m Breaststroke

Event: 100m Breaststroke
Date: 11th July 2013
Location: Basildon Sports Park 
Cost: Free
Rules:  At the start of the race, swimmers dive in to the pool and when they break the surface, both arms move simultaneously forward, outward and behind whilst the legs do a frog-like kick. They complete touch-turns at the end of the length. At each turn, and at the end of the race, both hands must simultaneously touch the end of the pool, above or below water level. 

   

The Event:  

 



Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 1.05.47, Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania.

Sarah: 3.19.75

Ellie: 3.44.34

Comments:  

Sarah: I enjoyed this one, though I think I prefer the 200m to really get stuck in to the stroke. I do miss the tumble-turns in the breaststroke events though, as they're the highlight of each length. The children in the lanes next to us having pre-school swimming lessons did put us to shame with their early morning drills.        
  
Ellie: That's it; that's Breaststroke out of the way until we swim the medley. I found this 100m quite cumbersome and I really felt unable to get in any rhythm. Again it struck me how isolating swimming can be and actually found myself thinking about the really long distances while swimming this event - which probably didn't help my speed. Our thoughts now turn to the longer events which will, I imagine, be very mentally taxing....and then we get to learn Butterfly...!

22. 50m Freestyle

Event: 50m Freestyle
Date: 11th July 2013
Location: Basildon Sports Park 
Cost: Free
Rules:  Freestyle technically means 'any style' but all swimmers choose the front crawl as this is the quickest stroke. At the start of the race, swimmers dive in and when they break the surface, swim the front crawl one length of the pool. Some part of the swimmer must touch the side of the pool at the end of the length. 

   

The Event: 



Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 24.05, Ranomi Kromowidjojo, Netherlands.

Sarah: 1.09.92

Ellie: 1.12.82

Comments:  

Sarah: We arrived at the pool at 5.45am today. That's right, 5.45am. We'd also stayed in the hottest Travelodge imaginable the night before and only got about three hours sleep, so we weren't in the most rested of conditions. The pool soon woke me up though and we launched in to the 50m freestyle. It felt quite strange only doing one length of the pool, but was fun not having to pace myself and just concentrate on going flat-out.  
           
Ellie: Having had less sleep than Margaret Thatcher on a bad night and feeling like I was actually made of iron was not the best way to start a day of ticking off events. Thankfully, after a few miss-timed dives and some misbehaving goggles, I got into the swing of it and actually rather enjoyed the 50m event. My biggest issue, though, with the Freestyle has always been the breathing. I really enjoy being under the water and so end up gasping for breath having spent 4 or 5 strokes pretending to be a mermaid! 

21. 200m Breaststroke

Event: 200m Breaststroke
Date: 2nd July 2013
Location: Brockwell Lido
Cost: £5.75 each
Rules:  At the start of the race, swimmers dive in to the pool and when they break the surface, both arms move simultaneously forward, outward and behind whilst the legs do a frog-like kick. They complete touch-turns at the end of each length. At each turn, and at the end of the race, both hands must simultaneously touch the end of the pool, above or below water level. 

   

The Event: 

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 2.19.59, Rebecca Soni, USA.

Sarah: 6.32.10

Ellie: 7.53.18

Comments:  

Sarah: I found this stroke the hardest during our training lessons with Colchester Academy. Our coach Denise said that it is really hard to un-learn how to do things; and I found that to be really true of breaststroke. I had picked up bad habits with my legs, and had to really concentrate on getting them in to the correct frog position and turning my feet outwards to kick through the water. One awful week she made me do a length just using my legs and I hardly moved! Luckily things have got better with practice and on the day, I really enjoyed the 200m distance. Like the backstroke, I found that it gave me time to get in to a nice rhythm and settle in to my pace. 
         
Ellie: Brockwell Lido is cold. My body is starting to feel mental by the time we attempt the 200m Breaststroke, but that may be the adrenalin.... Out of all the strokes I probably like breaststroke the most and the least. I like it because there is a regular and obvious place to breath and I dislike it because I find it terribly difficult to control my legs into the frog-like positions. A combination of Girls Aloud and knowing I could eat flapjack when I finish got me through this one but I must admit to being disappointed with my time...fingers crossed for some warmer water for our next swim; maybe that will help!

20. 4x100m Freestyle Relay

Event: 4x100m Freestyle Relay
Date: 2nd July 2013
Location: Brockwell Lido
Cost: £5.75 each
Rules:  Swimmers compete in teams of four, choosing the stroke of their preference; usually the crawl as this is the fastest stroke. Each team member takes turns to swim two lengths of the pool. Some part of the swimmer must touch the wall at the end of each length and at the finish. Most perform tumble turns, somersaulting in front of the wall and pushing off with their feet.

   

The Event:

 

Times:
Olympic 2012 Gold Medal: 3.33.15, Australia.
Team Lido: 11.23.00

Splits:
Sarah: 2.48
Clare:  2.59
Zoe:    3.13
Ellie:    3.03
 

Comments:  

Sarah: We were at Brockwell Lido as part of our annual Lido Day (we swim in as many lidos as possible in one day), and as it was a 50m pool, it was perfect to get a couple of our events ticked off. We roped in Clare and Zoe to help with the relay and gave them a crash course in diving and tumble turns. My main diving 'advice' was 'don't think about it, just jump', which seemed to work well. It's knackering doing the crawl full pelt, but this was a really fun event.   
    
Ellie: It's so nice to be able to include other people in our events. Swimming has to be one of the most insular and isolating sports to appear in the Olympics. Realistically you can't even heckle your opponents as you compete. The combination of diving (over your friends) , tumble-turning and being in a team made this one of my favourite swimming events so far. Brockwell Lido is such a beautiful venue too...although unreasonably cold, it is nice to vary the swimming pools we are using. Sarah and I gave some 'lessons' on diving to Clare and Zoe and we are so grateful that they wanted to participate.