A relatively brief report this time to update regular readers on the performances of Tenby's young swimmers at this year's West Wales Regional Championships.
Open and Team Competitions
Those of you who follow competitive swimming will be aware that for most club swimmers, the annual Regional Championships is the pinnacle of the swimming year. Yes, there are a number of bigger competitions around, but for the average swimmer this event is where they compete against like-minded youngsters from across West Wales.
This year we were fortunate that the competition was staged at the Haverfordwest Leisure Centre, so just for a change, not too much travelling involved to get to the pool.
Those who swam in individual events were: Morgan Blanc, Harrison Cole-Picton, Bethan Davie, Gareth Davie, Carys Davies, Luke Dedoncker, Emily Dilks, Hazel Fox, Rhiana Galvin, Tesni Galvin, Anna Garvey, Billy Greenwood, George Greenwood, Arabella Haley, Kaitlyn Hicks, Jemma Hurds, Sam Lewis, Talia Merriman, Amy Morgan, Caleb O'Neill, Hannah Saunders, Niamh Slack and Alanya Thomas.
These were joined by quite a few others for the relay competition on the final afternoon of the championships. More on that later in the report.
In competitions such as this the age group categories are often combined into two year bands, and as such every other year a swimmer will be disadvantaged by being 'out of age'. For many of our team, this was the case this year, but despite this the results were impressive.
From the outset of the championships, the Tenby swimmers began acquitting themselves extremely well, with our Junior squad members performing above expectations in most cases.
Despite most of the team competing in several galas in the past couple of months, they were still able to achieve huge PB's, progress to finals, and in several cases make it onto the podium against tough opposition.
As is always the case with events such as this, it is not possible to list the full details of all the results, but these are available to view on the club web site.
Notwithstanding this, we must mention some stand-out performances. County based swimmer, Hannah Saunders, continued her impressive run of late and won no less than 10 gold medals in the 11-12yrs category. To add to her achievements, Hannah set new championship records in just about every swim. Super swimming Hannah!
Our two other County based swimmers taking part in the competition also had a good few days. We were delighted to see a return to form for Niamh Slack, who is once again on the PB trail, and Sam Lewis also swam well.
For our club based swimmers there were gold medals for Carys Davies, Hazel Fox (4) and Bethan Davie (3). These three, together with Jemma Hurds, also won a host of silver and bronze medals. Well done girls.
Talia Merriman swam extremely well in the backstroke and freestyle events. Talia was out of age for the competition, but still managed to reach six finals, eclipsing many older and more experienced swimmers. She won a bronze medal in the 200m backstroke and set some truly impressive times which are now very close to National Qualifying standards. Way to go Talia!
As we described earlier, the performances across the team were top draw. All in all, no less than 82 per cent of all swims resulted in PB's, but this does not show the full story. The most impressive thing in many cases was the amount by which the swimmers improved their previous lifetime bests. A really great performance all round.
One of the highlights of the West Wales Championships is the relay competition which is always held on the final afternoon. The swimmers who had been competing over the two weekends of the competition were joined by quite a few additional team mates to strengthen the relay teams. The other clubs also drafted in additional swimmers, and the poolside was packed.
With all the teams in party mood, the atmosphere poolside was electric and extremely noisy as the supporters and swimmers cheered for teams in each and every event.
Over the years, Tenby has enjoyed considerable success in this competition, and we are delighted to report that once again they were the runners-up behind a dominant Swim Swansea team. This is a considerable achievement for a 'Development' club.
As a club we do not have many older swimmers (particularly boys) on the books, and several of our youngsters had to swim up in age group categories much older than themselves. In the open categories a few 'retired' swimmers came back to help us out, so thanks to them and thanks to the club members who have moved to the fit swim sessions for also coming out to bolster the team.
All in all it was a thrilling afternoon and an excellent couple of weekends for the club. Well done to all our swimmers and thanks to the coaches and volunteers who involved themselves in the action.
Forthcoming Events
March 13-14: Llanelli Open Meet, Llanelli.
April 22-25: Welsh Age Groups, Swansea. (QT's needed).
May 7-8: Swansea Valley Junior Open, Pontardawe.
May 14-15: Swim Swansea Long Course Open.
May 21-22: Pembrokeshire Whitsun Weekender.
May 27-29: Celtic Tri Nations, Swansea.
Club News
Now the excitement of West Wales is over, we are back into full training mode. We have a good entry for the Llanelli Open in mid-March and then after that our top guns will be going for glory at the annual Welsh Age Group and Youth Championships in Swansea at Easter.
West Wales was brilliant, but loads of hard work ahead!
A note for your diary, the club AGM is scheduled for 8 pm on March 23 at Tenby Leisure Centre. Please try to attend.
At the beginning of March, the British Championships take place in Manchester, so good luck to Bethan Davie who will once again be competing this year.
S.D.