>>Apr 2008- Ruislip-Northwood Gazette :

Francesca Marr finally realised her dream of representing her country after superb performances at this April’s British Olympic Swimming Trials. After recording fantastic personal best times in both her best breaststroke events, she received a letter last week she will be jetting off to Belgrade, Serbia with an elite squad of 50 British swimmers to compete over late July / early August. This achievement mirrors the phenomenal achievements of two former Hillingdon swimmers Sarah Lawerence and Jenny Hunter who over 10 years ago made Hillingdon Swimming Club the focus of attention qualifying for these Championships. Francesca, who trains up to 20 hours per week under coaches David Hemmings and Gary Mohamed, will now begin a 3 month cycle which will aim to peak her performance in Belgrade. It should also be noted Faisal Bhatti recently recorded two personal best times at the fantastic World Short Course Championships. The experience was truly enlightening for him.

Callum Mitchell roared to 11th place on the 100m backstroke in his 1st Scottish Nationals. Callum set two best times on his favoured backstroke events during this meet and is showing considerable promise to improve on this stroke. Finally, Adam Wood stole the show for Hillingdon this past weekend at the K2 Arena in Crawley. His 200m Backstroke time was a massive 2 seconds inside the difficult National Qualifying Time for this summers championships. Sophie Wilson and Karley Mann also recorded best times and National Qualifying times at this meet. Well done to all swimmers who competed at this meet.

>>Uxbridge Gazette: Feb'08: Francesca breaks County Record

Hillingdon Swimming Club's swimmers proved they are making huge strides this year after so many brilliant performances at the recent Middx County Champs. Hillingdon's quartet Francesca Marr, Sophie Wilson, Karley Mann & Sarah Quinn competed in every race possible over the course of the championships compiling
a huge medal count.

Francesca, Sophie & Karley all posted National qualifying times whilst Sarah came very close. Fourteen year old Francesca broke the Girls 200m Breaststroke County record at the Middlesex Championships held at Enfield. Francesca’s time of 2:33:38 broke the existing record that had stood since 1995, her time ranked as 12th best women’s in Britain. It was the icing on the cake as she collected seven gold medals and one bronze medal over the past two weeks of competition.

Her Coach David Hemmings said “Francesca gives 110% in training, her efforts have reaped the rewards it deserves, and it provides her with an ideal platform for the forthcoming British Championships.” The future of HSC also shone out with Jaycee Sibley & Sarah Harrington posting huge PB's that have shot them up the National rankings, over the next few months these two girls will make a definite push to see whether they can join the Elite swimmers at the National championships in July.

Faisal Bhatti, Adam Wood, Adam Prunty and Luke Conder proved their training is giving them the necessary fitness to swim very fast over sprint and endurance distances, their results opened eyes especially of their closet rivals. These boys are coming of age and are some of the hardest working youngsters Hillingdon has seen in a long time. Adam Wood’s 2.23 on 200m backstroke was very close to the National Qualifying time which sets up an exciting showdown in his favoured long course pool in May.

Hillingdon's other Junior and Senior swimmers also swam very well achieving times to be admired. The medal count follows below: Girls - Karley Mann 5 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze, Sarah Quinn 4 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze, Melanie Quinn 3 gold, 2 silver, Sarah Procter 1 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze, Holly Elderfield 1 gold, 1 bronze, Sophie Wilson 7 silver, 2 bronze, Sarah Harrington 2 silver, Jaycee Sibley 1 silver, 1 bronze, Olivia Lawrence 1 silver,
Kate Wilson 2 bronze, Casey Fisher 2 bronze, Holly Esson 1 bronze, Elizabeth McGowan 1 bronze, Sarah Nisbet 1 bronze. Boys - Adam Wood 3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze, Adam Prunty 3 gold, 2 silver, Fravash Bilimoria 1 gold, Oliver Green 2 silver, 3 bronze, Louis South 2 silver, 2 bronze, Faisal Bhatti 2 silver, 1 bronze, Lucas Navarro 2 silver, Tom Randall 1 silver, 1 bronze, Matthew Conder 1 silver, 1 bronze, Dan Davis 1 silver, Luke Spain 1 silver, Callum Mitchell 3 bronze, Leon Berchie 1 bronze, Matthew Tuff 1 bronze, Ricky James 1 bronze.Article from Uxbridge Gazette on 1st weekend results ... read here. See Results page for detailed event results, AGCAT Rankings, Stroke Awards & Wilkinson Sword results and also Team Results.

>> Feb 2008 - Uxbridge Gazette: "Swiss Four are on a Roll"

A quality quartet from Hillingdon Swimming Club helped Middlesex claim a superb third place against top international opposition in a three-day meeting in Switzerland. Francesca Marr, Sophie Wilson, Adam Wood and Karley Mann, together with coach Lesley Westendorp, were part of a squad of 32 swimmers that flew out to Geneva. Competing against stiff opposition that included national squads from Canada, Germany, Austria, Belgium and France, the Hillingdon four were responsible for a quarter of the 44 finals reached by the Middlesex team, with Mann claiming one of their 12 medals. Only the Canadian and Belgian national teams finished ahead of Middlesex.

Mann, 13, made five finals, winning the bronze medal in the 200m butterfly and has now achieved national qualifying times at 100m and 200m backstroke, 400m Individual Medley, 400m freestyle, 200m fly and 200m IM.
Wilson reached the finals of the 100m breaststroke and was first reserve for the 200m breastroke final and she now has qualifying times at 200m IM and 200m breastroke, as well as a British Championship qualifying time for the 100m breaststroke.

Marr got into finals in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and the 400m IM and she has qualifying times for those three events and the 200m IM and 100m fly. She also has British Championship qualifying times for the 400m IM, 100m and 200m breaststroke and 100m fly. Wood finished a very creditable fifth and seventh in the 400m free and 100m backstroke finals respectively.

The results represented a fine start for Hillingdon SC after it changed its name from Ruislip-Northwood Swim Squad at the turn of the year. With support from Hillingdon Council, the club encompasses the Borough Elite Swimming Team which offers top level training to any members of an ASA-registered club in Hillingdon who meet the high entry standard.