Straight after the Christmas holidays, the swimmers of Tenby Dolphins were once again back in action.

The year kicked off with the annual county 800m and 1500m championships which were held in Pembroke on Sunday, January 4, and last weekend a group of our swimmers were at the Swim Wales New Year Dragon Meet which was held at the National Pool in Swansea.

Competition Results

The thought of taking part in an 800m or 1500m race can be a bit of a daunting prospect, especially after the seasonal holidays. Nevertheless, on January 4, a dedicated group of young athletes made the trip to Pembroke to try their hand at competing over the longer distances which many don't attempt throughout the rest of the year.

Even our more experienced swimmers tend to treat this as a one-off event, because at the moment we don't have any dedicated long distance specialists in the club. Nevertheless, there was still a slight increase in the numbers of Tenby swimmers in attendance compared with last year.

The Tenby swimmers who were able to compete on the day, and the results they achieved were:

Bethan Davie, 1st 13/U 1500m, 1st 13-15 800m; Andrew James, 1st 16/O 800m, 1st 14/O 1500m; Niamh Slack, 3rd 13/U 1500m; Hannah Saunders, 4th 13/U 1500m; Gemma Amos, 1st 16/O 800m; Matt Davie, 3rd 14/O 1500m; 3rd 16/0 800m; Ffion Davies, 5th 13/U 1500m; Daniel Davies, 2nd 13/U 1500m Nick Allen, 8th 12/U 800m; Gareth Davie, 10th 8/U 800m; Johnnie Delahunty, 1st 13-15 800m; Henry Whittaker, 3rd 13-15, 800m; Sam Lewis 4th 13-15 800m.

There were PB's for most of the swimmers. Well done to all, and in particular to Johnnie Delahunty, who, swimming in the 13-15 800m, improved the record set by Lewys Canton in 2008 by 5.76 seconds. Well done also to Bethan Davie, who, swimming in the 13-15 800m, improved upon the record set by former Dolphins' swimmer Sarah White in 1993 by 31 seconds.

For Welsh swimmers, the calendar year for major competitions always starts with the annual Swim Wales New Year Dragon Meet which is held over three days at the National Pool in Swansea. As has been the case in previous years, several major teams travelled to Swansea for the event and provided very tough competition for the Welsh contingent.

The Tenby swimmers who did compete were: Bethan Davie, Matt Davie, Johnnie Delahunty, Andrew James, Jack Lear, Sam Lewis, Hannah Saunders, Daniel Davies and Henry Whittaker.

The Dragon Meet has strict qualifying entry times and competition sections for Age Group and Senior swimmers. This is a major UK competition and attracts top competitors from clubs across the country, so every race is a very hard fought affair. Some swimmers of age 13 and under choose to enter both the Age Group and Senior events so can have a very busy schedule over the course of the competition weekend.

Daniel Davies and Hannah Saunders swam very well and both set excellent new PB's in their chosen breaststroke events. In fact, Hannah set a time in the 200m that is only a couple of seconds slower than Bethan Davie swam at the same time two years ago, and places her just outside the top 20 in the UK national rankings for the Nationals in July. We all know how far Beth has managed to progress over the last couple of years, so let's hope Hannah can follow the same path and achieve the qualifying times needed for the big event. She will have to work really hard, but we all have our fingers crossed.

Johnnie Delahunty recorded four PB's from six events, and Sam Lewis took big chunks off the entry times of the three events he swam in. Well done boys.

Bethan Davie entered both the Age Group and Senior category events and had some fine swims in both. In all she swam in 17 races, despite withdrawing from one final, which is a very tough work load indeed.

Medal success came in the shape of gold in the 12-13 yrs 100m breaststroke, 12-13 yrs 200m breaststroke and 12-13 yrs 200m IM. She also picked up a bronze in the 12-13 yrs 100m freestyle and reached finals in three of the open age group category races.

Most pleasingly, she swam under her previous 200m breaststroke time three times during the course of the weekend and is now 7.5 seconds inside the national qualifying time and ranked two in the UK for the Nationals.

Forthcoming Events

January 16: Welsh Schools Gala, Brecon. Good luck to those of you selected for the Dyfed team.

January 17: Swansea Valley Sprints, Pontardawe.

January 24-25: National Urdd Swimming Gala, Cardiff International Pool.

February 6-16: West Wales Championships, Penlan, Swansea. Individual and team entries. Top event in our region for club swimmers (entries closed).

February 20-22: Celtic Meet, WNP Swansea (entries closed).

March 7-8: Llanelli Open.

March 27-29: Tiger Bay Open, Cardiff International Pool. A Level 3 long course event, which means you don't need qualifying times! A great opportunity to qualify for future events. Check the notice board and get your entries down now! It's a first come first served gala, so we are sending them in soon.

Club News

Good luck to all our swimmers who will be representing their schools at the National Urdd swimming gala in a couple of weeks at the new 10-lane 50m pool in Cardiff. It's a super venue, easy to get to and just over the road from a branch of large toy store chain. Older swimmers note this is a (L1) licensed meet, so use the pool time effectively, because the times recorded there may qualify you for other big competitions.

You should all have noticed that our new club record board is in place and we are delighted with the level of interest it is generating amongst swimmers, parents and other visitors to the pool. A big thanks to Mr. Rob Thomas, of Tenby Leisure Centre, for his assistance in installing the board for us. Greatly appreciated.

S. D.