The Team Leicestershire Talent Ambassadors & Athletes aim to blog about their competitions and training sessions at around once a month to keep us at Active Together updated on their progress.
Clicking on an athlete will also give you access to their individual profile and updates.
I started my counties this weekend in Coalville, with 1 race each day, 100m backstroke and 100m breaststroke.
In the 100m backstroke I swam a new pb, regional qualifying time, and placed first through to the 15 year old final, here I managed to step it up, take 2 seconds off and win the junior and senior county championship trophies.
The second day, saw a new pb and regional qualifying time in the 100m breaststroke. I qualified 2nd fastest through to the final and a fun but tough race saw me just take first place and win the junior county championship trophy.
Looking forward to next weekend at Hinckley.
What a crazy few weeks! A trip to Belgium over Christmas to race four races was great, tiring and fun all at the same time. Racing with the best in the world in Belgium was on another level. Results wise was ok although I was hoping for better. Back to GB for a national race and the national championships was a hard slog with major mud in both races. Again the legs were good but not quite good enough with P5 on both races. End of the CX season for me now and a big rest before the challenges of international cross country mountain biking.
Last week I received an invite to swim in my 2nd English school's competition.
I am excited to attend this, as I had great fun last year, meeting new people and making new swimming friends in the county.
I am swimming the 100m backstroke, 200m IM and the 400m IM, as well as a relay.
Thank you Active Together for your continued support.
December 2022 was the end of the swimming short course season. I had up and downs in my performance. From swimming a 3 second PB in the 200 Breaststroke and narrowly missing the Winter National qualifying time to swimming races and being disappointed with my performance, despite always training hard. The lessons that I have learnt are that I can push myself to the max and swim outside my comfort zone and that I don't always recover from races as fast as I would like and so instead of trying to swim everything then I should try and focus on the races that I want to do. After a good rest at Christmas I'm now training hard for the long course swimming season.
After a two week rest period over Christmas we are back to full training on Monday 9th January. Really looking forward to getting back to it.
I have maintained gym sessions and runs over the break and had a couple of strength, conditioning and kumite sessions.
I have competitions lined up hopefully starting this month with the BKF Grand Prix 2023, if I am selected. Regional and Nation team training.
It's going to be a good year.
This weekend I took to the water in my Topper to take part in the Midlands Topper Traveller, a local race with over 30 boats.
The weather was horrible with lots of rain and some very gusty and shifty winds.
I've not sailed my Topper since Sept 2022. I was racing against some of the top Topper sailors in the UK and I was feeling nervous.
The first two races of the day went really well and I finished 2nd in both. The last two races were really challenging getting stuck in a a match race with one of the other sailors. I had to fight hard to maintain my place. Finishing with a 6th and a 3rd. This gave me 2nd overall.
I am really happy with these results in such a competitive field and also my lack of time in this boat training and racing.
Good start to 2023 this weekend
Yesterday I was selected to play my first senior match for Loughborough Town in a second team match. We won the match 5-4 (I won 1 of them) 💪🏻
Today I played in an U17 silver tournament (2 years above my age and with a new partner) we came away with a bronze medal.
Tomorrow is a county match against Norfolk, then on Monday I have another senior match, playing for Loughborough Mens First team.
Don't think I'll be able to walk on Tuesday 🤣
I competed in the U15 Nationals 1 year above my age. I was really pleased with my performance and achieved what I wanted. I had had less training than I would have liked up to the Nationals due to my toes but I have had the Toe Nail surgery and a rest over Christmas and I am just starting to get back on court training.
I had some amazing news just before Christmas that I had been selected to represent England in the 8 Nations U15 Tournament. I am looking forward to travelling to Germany to compete for my Country.
Hard training and Competition experience now till late Feb when I leave to compete in Germany, my first International experience.
I came second in the Regional Indoor Championships in the Senior Division. I ranked first at Oxford and made it through the head to head rounds to take the Gold medal. I was part of the Gold medal-winning England Team at the Senior Home Nations.
I shot the Archery GB Back2Back competition which attracted a number of world class international archers. I made it through to the second stage of the competition where I shot a match against the current World Number One, Mike Schloesser from the Netherlands. Mike lived up to his nickname of "Mr Perfect" and shot a perfect score but I was pleased to finish the match only 4 points behind him. This was an awesome experience and it's made me more determined to keep working hard so that I can shoot and hold my own with the world's best.
I am proud to be a 2023 TLT Ambassador.
I have recently competed in the Senior and Junior National Indoor Championships. This isn't a distance that I shoot regularly so I went to have fun and challenge myself. Senior Championships were first; my shot felt good shooting at a distance of 18m. I scored a PB and qualified 8th out of 75 competitors. I even won a couple of Head 2 Head matches. I was pleased with my overall performance. In the Junior Nationals, I shot in the U16 category. I enjoyed shooting with the other Juniors and retained my National title for the second year running.
It's now time for Winter training. I am working on my strength, fitness, mental regimes and tweaking my technique to make my shot feel more accomplished.
I am looking forward to seeing what 2023 can bring and I am excited to be a TLT Ambassador and work alongside the team.
Megan
On Friday 2nd December 2022 I travelled up to Ponds Forge in Sheffield to compete in the 200m Butterfly in the English Winter Short Course Nationals.
My entry time was 2.25.58 which was my pb from November. I had lots of support and encouragement from my coach and the others swimmers from my club.
I was determined to swim my best, and the last 50m of the race I pushed through to finish strong at the wall in a time of 2.22.67
I really enjoyed the day and it was a great end to the Short Course season.
Now I'm training hard for the Long Course season which starts in 2023.
Jessica 😀
For more information please contact:

Matt Hackfath
Development Officer (Children & Young People)
Active Together
I am working flexibly in the office or at home, therefore please contact me via email or phone number provided.
My areas of responsibility are:
- Telephone
- 01509 467484
- m.hackfath@active-together.org