Welsh Summer Nationals 2026

⚠️ Extremely Long Post⚠️ (not as long as the competition 🤦) Sorry not sorry

Over the last 5 days, I've been racing at the Welsh Summer Nationals. I entered 7 races and was then selected for a relay, but ended up swimming 14 races due to finals qualifications.

Day 1:

200 free

Heats - I was a little nervous before this but mainly because it was the first race, it went ok and I swam a 2:19.33. This was 2 seconds off my best, but was a solid first swim and got me into the final.

Final - I swam a 2:17.28, which was a pb by 0.02. Still a pb though! I raced it well, and went out harder than I usually would (1:06.5). This was better than almost even splitting which is my usual performance 🤦

50 breast

Heats - I went straight from 200 free cool down to 50 breast marshalling so was living in the chaos. I wasn't nervous for this, and swam a 37.40, a pb by 0.03 from when I was absolutely on fire at 13.

Final - Swam a 37.29, another 0.11 off of my time 😊 In both heats and finals, I counted my strokes and compared it to my 50 breast swims at winter nationals. I swam both races in a quicker time with less strokes, which is a positive (my stroke has become more efficient).

Day 2:

200 breast

Heats - I was really nervous before this, but didn't have a panic attack which is a big positive. I kept my stroke technique, and swam a seasons best (2:58.55).

Final - I was nowhere near as nervous before the final. I swam it 6 milliseconds slower (2:58.61), but I raced it much better, splitting my first 100 2 seconds quicker than in the heat. I died on the last 50 though which is a shame, because I was on track for about a 2:55 😔 Still happy though!

Day 3:

200 IM

Heats - A bit nervous before this, but once again no panic attack. My backstroke split wasn't very good, but my fly was decent and my breast and free were good. Made up ground on the rest of my heat. Swam a 2:40.46.

Final - Not as nervous, and swam a 2:38.95. My fly and back split was better, and my breast and free were the same. This still wasn't a pb, but I was content anyway.

100 breast

Heats - Told my coach I wanted to go out in about a 38, slightly slower than my 50, and I went out in a 38.6. I tired down the second length and finished on a 1:23.12. My coach told me he thought I could go about a 1:20.

Final - This was about an hour after the 200 IM final, but it went really well. I swam a 1:21.54, which was a 5 millisecond pb from when I was 13. I also wasn't nervous and had no panic, which is a MASSIVE achievement, cause I've had big mental problems with 100 breast. 😆

4x200 free relay

This happened about 20 minutes after my 100 breast final, and was the 5th race of the day. I went third and swam a 2:20.2, which was better than I expected based on how fatigued I felt. My team came 4th, but we were content. My first relay in ages so it was fun 😊

Day 4:

200 back

Heats - Not a great swim, 2:40.69 which is 3 seconds away from pb, but I couldn't really complain based on the previous day. Regardless, I qualified for the final which messed up my plan of coming home to see my cats 🤦

Final - This was better, qualified 8th and came 5th with a time of 2:38.10, which is only a second away from my pb. We had to stand down twice on the start, but it didn't throw me off 😊

Day 5:

400 free

This was heat declared winner. My plan was to go hard and try not to die. I went hard but died a bit 🤦 At least I went hard though. I swam a 4:54.87, which is 5.5 seconds away from my pb. I was hoping to go quicker (more around the 4:50 mark), so I was a bit disappointed. It was the 14th race in 5 days though, and I haven't really had 400 training over the last few months so I'm not too worried now.

Overall I'm really happy with the meet, particularly the 100 breast final. I can send pictures of splits if anyone is interested, and there was a photographer so I have a few photos!

Sorry again for the extremely long post. There was a lot of races 😭😊

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Welsh Summer Nationals 2026