Those of you who keep up to date with the progress of Tenby Dolphins will have realised that 2007 has been a hugely rewarding year for the club. As well as continuing with a high level of success in local junior county galas, some of our senior swimmers have had their best ever year. In addition to the 14 individual gold medals at the West Wales Championships, we collected two individual gold medals at the Welsh National Championships in March, and three of our top-guns qualified for the UK National Age Group and Youth Championships where they came up against the best in Britain. This was a fantastic achievement by all three and we were thrilled that Bethan Davie won a bronze medal, which we believe is the first time Pembrokeshire has had a National medallist. Following on from this success, three of our swimmers were selected for the South West Wales Regional Squad and one for the South West Wales Skills Squad 2, showing that our younger swimmers are already striving to emulate the achievements of their older team-mates. Most recently we were delighted when head coach John Amos was awarded the Sport Pembrokeshire Coach of the Year Award in recognition of his achievements with the club and county. As well as reflecting on the success of the past months, we also have several recent galas to report where our swimmers have been in action once again. The Tenby Club Championships took place on November 18, and this was followed by the Welsh Schools Championships and the Welsh Winter Meet. We also have a summary of how our swimmers performed at the Plymouth Leander Long Course Meet which took place last weekend. Competition Results Always a popular occasion, the Tenby Club Championships took place on Sunday and Monday, November 18 and 19. As usual, the gala was a lot of fun and for some of our youngest swimmers, the biggest event of the year. Ninety-three of our swimmers took part, so it is impossible to list the results in full. However, we can include the list of Age Group trophy winners. They were: Keira Slack, Ffion Davies, Hannah Saunders, Niamh Slack, Rebekah Gwyther, Bethan Davie, Coral Lewis, Ben Rees, Billy Truman, Daniel Davies, Daniel Evans, Henrik Jaakola, Sam Lewis, Lewys Canton. Daniel Davies, Ben, Hannah and Bethan won their trophies with a clean sweep of victories. Well done to all of you who took part, and well done to Lauren Arthur who achieved a county qualifying time during the championships. With little respite after the Monday evening of the Club Championships, several of our swimmers were in action once again at the Welsh Schools Championships at the National Pool in Swansea on Friday, November 23. Perhaps a day off school was all the incentive they needed! The format of the event was such that within three different year group categories, the winners of various events would be picked to represent Wales in the 2008 tri-nations gala which will be held next year. Top breaststroker Andrew James duly won his age group in the 100m event and should hopefully be part of the Welsh Schools team next year. This is the second time Andrew has achieved this, so congratulations from all of us. None of our other entrants gained selection, but Lewys Canton swam well, setting PB's in three events, at the start of what would turn out to be a very good weekend for him. Johnnie Delahunty also set two PB's in the 100m freestyle and backstroke categories. Following on from the schools event, the Welsh Winter Long Course Meet was held at the same venue on Saturday and Sunday, November 24 and 25. This gala had a rather disappointing entry because of the very tough qualification times, but nevertheless despite the rather flat atmosphere, the six Tenby swimmers who entered put on a good show. As we mentioned above, Lewys Canton was on good form over the weekend, and set some excellent PB's in his favourite freestyle events. He won the 15/U 200m event and was placed second in the 100m. Daniel Brown, making a welcome return to competition, produced a devastating swim to take gold in the 15/U 50m freestyle, and Johnnie Delahunty also picked up a bronze in the 15/U 200m freestyle event. The next gala on the list was the third round/final of the 2007 Speed League competition, which took place in Millfield School, Somerset, on Saturday, December 8. A large contingent of Tenby swimmers was once again selected as part of the County team. Having performed well in the earlier rounds. it was hoped that the Pembs. team could have secured a top two finish and promotion to the Western Region Premier Division. However, on the day, the opposition called up all their strongest swimmers and our county team, being slightly off their best, were not able to keep pace with the top dogs. In the end, they were placed sixth, and will have to regroup for next year's competition. Well done to all those who were selected throughout the competition. Our final gala report covers the Plymouth Leander Long Course Open Meet which also took place at Millfield School over the weekend of December 15 and 16. Bethan and Matt Davie, Johnnie Delahunty and Andrew James took part, along with four of our county colleagues from Fishguard. After the slightly flat previous two galas, this was a really fun event, and very well attended by some quality entrants. Our swimmers were thrilled to find themselves sitting in the same part of the competitors gallery and rubbing shoulders with a star-studded contingent of the British swimming team who were looking very tanned after recently returning from training and competing in Australia. Unfortunately, despite having a good time and enjoying the pre-Christmas atmosphere, our three boys were not on very good form and swam a little way off their best. Bethan had a better weekend and set three excellent new PB's on her way to winning two gold medals in her preferred breaststroke events. We can recommend this gala if it crops up on the calendar next year! Forthcoming Events December 23: Dolphins Christmas Party, 7 pm at Saundersfoot Sports Club. Our annual Xmas event. All club swimmers please come along! January 5: Pembs. 800m and 1500m Championships (11 am - 5 pm). Sign up sheet available at Christmas party. January 11-13: New Year Dragon Meet, Wales National Pool, Swansea (entries now closed). January 19-20: National Urdd Swimming Gala, Wales National Pool, Swansea. February 9-17: West Wales Championships, Penlan, Swansea. Individual and team entries. Top event in our region for club swimmers. Recommended! Entries close January 12. March 8-9: Llanelli Open. Club News We would like to take this opportunity to update our club members on discussions regarding swimming development in the county. During the autumn, three members of the committee, as representatives of the club, have been attending monthly forum meetings with Pembrokeshire County Council, the sports governing body Swim Wales and our colleagues from the other clubs in the county, with a view to moving towards employing a professional county swimming development officer. This person who will be employed by the county council would also function as a full-time professional county swimming coach. This is something Swim Wales are keen to implement as part of their remit to provide a structured development pathway for all swimmers in the county. At the moment, we have a limited county structure, due to the constraints of pool time availability and the availability of volunteer coaches, so we feel this would be a very welcome development, and will bring the county in line with the rest of Wales. You may remember that at the beginning of 2007 the structure of the Tenby club training was changed to allow our senior and developing swimmers access to two-hour training sessions in the pool. This was not universally welcomed, but everyone quickly became used to the new system and the results of the restructuring have been truly phenomenal. Our head coach was able to better apply his considerable skills and our swimmers have responded by achieving success at a national level. An outstanding result in a short space of time and clear evidence that we needed to update our system. However, there is still much to do, and as a competitive swimming club we are very much aware that we have a responsibility to continue our development, and give all the young swimmers in the club and county the opportunity to achieve their ultimate swimming potential. To this end, more changes, both financial and structural, will probably be necessary in future months. We ask that these are not summarily dismissed because failure to adapt will unquestionably once again see us falling behind in terms of development and will place all our swimmers at a disadvantage compared to swimmers elsewhere in Wales and the UK. As mentioned in the events list, we have the annual Christmas party on December 23 at the Sports Club in Saundersfoot. All our club swimmers are welcome to attend. There will as usual be games, food, a disco and the spectacular raffle organised by Paul and Linda. All in all, a fun time for everyone. During the evening, a sign up sheet will be available for the Pembrokeshire 800m and 1500m Championships which will take place in Pembroke on January 5. This is the only long distance event in the county, so why not have a go! Well done to all our swimmers who have been trying to continue their training across the county whilst the Tenby pool is closed. A big thanks to the other clubs who have made our swimmers so welcome. We are constantly in touch with Tenby Leisure Centre to see how the refurbishment works are going at the pool. The latest we have is that there may be a possibility of some delay beyond the planned re-opening date of January 7. We will keep you posted on developments. Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our club members a very happy Christmas and a fast New Year with no DQ's lots of PB's!
S.D.