Spread over two weekends in February, this year's West Wales Regional Swimming Championships were once again held at the Penlan Leisure Centre in Swansea. Encouragingly, Tenby had slightly more entrants than in previous years, and once again many of our athletes came away with a good collection of medals. We are also pleased to report that the club performed well in the relay competition, finishing in second place behind a very strong Swim Swansea team for the third year in succession. Our younger swimmers have also been in action, recently competing in a Pembrokeshire Junior League gala against Pembroke on the evening of Friday, March 2.
Competition Results
The West Wales Championships were held over six days between February 15 - 25, and were hotly contested by enthusiastic competitors from all over the West Wales region. Thirty-five of our team competed in individual events, and many more attended for the final day in the club relay competition. Those swimmers who took part in individual events were: Carl Amos, Gemma Amos, Lauren Arthur, Sophie Arthur, Thomas Baker, Daniel Brown, Matthew Brown, Eleri Canton, Lewys Canton, Bethan Davie, Matt Davie, Daniel Davies, Ffion Davies, Johnnie Delahunty, Lloyd Delahunty, Lydia Dilks, Andrew James, Edward James, Rebeccah James, Jacob Knox, Angharad Lear, Jack Lear, Coral Lewis, Samuel Lewis, Talia Merriman, Mike Nicholas, Jade Rowell, Hannah Saunders, Kiera Slack, Niamh Slack, Josh Thomas, Matt Veale, Madison Vickery, Sydney Vickery, Holly Watkin-Rees. The West Wales Championships comprises a series of events split into two categories. For the younger competitors, an Aquatic Pentathlon competition is held on the two Saturday afternoons spanned by the contest. Within this sub-competition, there are five individual race categories, with an overall prize for the swimmer with the best combined times. We are pleased to report that Tenby enjoyed considerable success in this category, with Hannah Saunders winning the girls 8/U category and Madison Vickery finishing in a strong overall third position in the same age group. Well done girls, and well done to all our other young swimmers who attended this part of the gala for the first time! In the main competition, for the older swimmers, there were quite a few Tenby competitors who produced performances of note. Coral Lewis had a very strong championships, setting good PBs in just about every event entered and picking up some medals along the way. Johnnie Delahunty won the 12-13yrs boys 100m Freestyle, and Andrew James achieved an equal first place in the 14-15yrs 200m Breaststroke. Mike Nicholas and Matt Veale picked up several gold medals between them in the 18 and over category. As we always say when reporting these very large events, it is impossible to detail the performances of all our entrants, so please check the Tenby Dolphins or Nofio Cymru websites for full details. Typically these big galas provide real motivation for the swimmers, and many of them once again set impressive new PB times. Congratulations to all the swimmers who took part. The standard of swimming in Wales is improving rapidly, and over the course of the championships alone, around 80 swimmers recorded new PBs faster than the existing championship records. Taking this into account, we can see that Tenby team proved once again that they are a very strong unit, even if individually they don't always reach the top step of the podium. For the third year in a row, and in the face of fierce competition from the clubs from Carmarthen and Llanelli, Tenby came second behind the very impressive team from Swim Swansea, who actually won the event for the 21st year in succession! On a smaller scale, on March 2, our swimmers took part in a Pembrokeshire Junior League gala for swimmers aged 10/U at the end of the year. The Tenby team swam well, and in the girls event, they won every single race. After a close battle, the boys also came out on top and the team won the overall competition. Well done to all those who took part.
Forthcoming Events March 10-11: Llanelli Open Meet. Good luck this weekend to everyone who has entered! March 17: Dyfed Senior League round two, ages nine-plus. Check notice board for selection details. Remember club hats for this one please! March 31: Dyfed Senior League Final, ages nine- plus, Llanelli April 5-9: Welsh Age Group Championships, WNP, Swansea (entries closed). April 21: Dyfed junior League, round one.
Club News Congratulations to Sam Lewis who achieved a Pembrokeshire Development Squad qualification time in the 100m backstroke at the West Wales Championships. Sam has already joined the extra squad sessions on Tuesdays in Tenby and Wednesdays in Milford Haven, and we will no doubt see his times improving rapidly over the coming months. We mentioned earlier that we had a slightly increased entry for West Wales this year, with 35 swimmers competing in the individual events, and more joining them for the relay races. We had four swimmers withdraw due to illness, but as we have 91 children in our Junior and Senior Squads this is still only just over a 40 per cent entry level. Where were the rest of you? As head coach John Amos has recently been reminding you all, Tenby Dolphins is a competitive swimming club and not just somewhere to turn up occasionally for keep fit. We expect you to enter as many events as possible, especially the West Wales Championships, which for many of you club swimmers who don't venture outside Pembrokeshire is the pinnacle of the swimming calendar in our region.