Southwold Swimming Club

A relatively small band of swimmers (15) made their way to the Cardiff International Pool for a gala on the 21/22nd Jan. It is a wonderful 10 lane, 50m pool with plenty of space. It was a Level 1 meet catering for the strongest swimmers. There were many top clubs competing from across the region and some from outside. It was the first time that the Club had attended a long course meet outside of Regional Championships fora long while. Entry was difficult with a number of swimmers being rejected due to the over demand.

Our swimmers swam extremely well throughout with almost all the swims bringing personal bests. Medal places were always going to be hard to come by but we had a number of successes.

Although not gaining medals there were numerous great swims and a number of Club records set. Including a number of Club open records broken.

Here are the individual results for our swimmers and the full results are here.

Thanks to everyone who helped out on the very long days!

Keith

A good night swimming was had at the Val Ross Memorial Gala hosted by Sesvernside Tritons at Horfield. Teams competing were Severnside Tritons, Keynsham, Soundwell, Bristol Henleaze, Southwold, Dursley & Bristol North. The age groups were 9s, 11U, 13U and Open so the focus of the gala was really at the younger swimmer ages. With all races at least 50m long it was going to be a challenge for the 9 year old swimmers, especially Butterfly!

We got off to a reasonable start through the first set of relays with no wins but plenty of 2nds and 3rds and were lying in 4th place on 31 points behind Severnside, Keynsham and Bristol Henleaze.

The next section to event 20 was good for us and it started off with 2 wins in the open 200IMs. With Bethan Tomlinson and Jacob Graham swimming well and Jacob notching up a 3 second PB. We had a number of strong swims with wins for Aidan Loughnane (11) in the 100 Breaststroke and Bethan(16) again in the 100 Freestyle. By this point we had leapt into second place with 107 points with Severnside winning on 113 points. Keynsham were close behind on 103 and Bristol Henleaze dropped back a bit on 78 Points.

By event 30 it was clear that Severnside were constantly inching ahead and had reached 173 points but it was neck and neck with us and Keynsham both on 155 points. Only 1 win in that section for Henry Bennett (11) in the 100 Free.

Just before the last set of relays, at event 42, we were still hanging on to Keynsham and only 3 points behind on 208.  Wins had been hard to come by but we did get success with Henry Bennett(11) again in the 100 Backstroke and Rebecca Lowther (9) in the the 50 Fly with a 3 second PB and just 0.5 seconds shy of a club record. Ashley Case (19) also gained a win in the 100 Breaststroke with a 1:11.48 swim.

So, all down to the last set of relays. We got a win in the boys 11U Freestyle relay (Henry Bennett, Aidan Loughnane, Ben Palmer, Michael Holden) and with 1 race to , the Cannon, we were on equal points with Keynsham. We swam really well but the Cannon was won by Severnside in 2:01.13, unfortunately Keynsham got the second place in 2:01.32 and we were 3rd in 2:02.48. That pushed Keysham into second place  1 point ahead and we ended up in 3rd.

Final Points

It was great to see the young swimmers doing so well and enjoying the racing. Thanks to the chaperones, coaches and other helps. I think it is likely the gala will run again next year so be prepared.

The times should now be on Hy Tek and here are our swim results by race.

Keith

Please can I have all entry forms for the County Championships ("Blocks") back to me by Friday 6th January 2012 along with the cheque for the entry fees made payable to "Southwold Swimming Club". Please post by Friday evening into the Club "postbox" or hand to me at Yate on Friday.

Please note that the entry forms must be originals, signed by parent/swimmer and cannot have any handwriting on them other than the signature. Any amended times or added events from Keith's original form which was sent to you need to be amended by typing into the PDF file (it will allow you) and re-printing and signing.

Any questions please let me know at  d.mccoubrie@btconnect.com

David

After winning the first round gala this one was always going to be tougher. We were going up against a strong Seagulls team who had been boosted the influx of a number of ex Cheetas swimmers. We were also 5 swimmers down for a variety of reasons which meant there were additional swimmers brought into the team for the relay swims. It was clear that everyone would have to swim well to stand a chance of making the "A" Final. 

Seagulls pulled away from the beginning of the gala and it was left to the rest to battle it out. In the end Weston proved a bit too strong and we were in a scrap with the rest. We had some good swims to round out the gala and secured a 3rd place but only just 5 points ahead of Kingsbridge Kingfishers. We had 5 first place individual finishes and these went to Jacob Graham (2), Bethan Tomlinson (1), Ashley Case (1) and Aiden Loughnane (1). We also had wins in the Boys 11 Freestyle Relay and the Mens Open Medley relay. Thanks must go to the chaperones, coaches and officials who helped on the day.

Results should be in Hy Tek shortly and Final points were:

We now know that this result qualified us in 5th place for the Final of 8 teams. The Final gala will be at Millfield starting at 3pm. We intend to hire a coach for the team to get to this gala and all swimmers under the age of 18 are required to travel on the team coach (details to follow). The team sheet for this gala will be available shortly.

Keith

Please find attached the updated list as at 17/11/2011.

Any questions please call or e-mail me.

David

Entry Schedule