Time flies! We are already into February 2011 and the young swimmers of Tenby and District Swimming Club have been hard at work in preparation for the West Wales Swimming Championships, which take place over the next two weekends, and the Welsh Age Group Championships, which will be coming up for our most proficient swimmers over the Easter holidays.

In the meantime, they certainly have not been idle, and we have several sets of results to update you with from competitions that have already taken place this year.

Open Competitions

The New Year started with the Swim Wales British Gas Dragon Meet, which took place at the National Pool in Swansea over the weekend of January 7-8.

Club swimmers; Bethan Davie, Carys Davies, Ashleigh Willars, Talia Merriman, Jemma Hurds and Katie Hicks joined our Tenby county based swimmers Niamh Slack, Hannah Saunders and Sam Lewis for this first big competition of 2011.

The medallists were: Talia Merriman, 1st 10-11yrs 200m Backstroke, 3rd 10-11yrs 100m Backstroke, 200m IM and 50m Freestyle; Hannah Saunders, 12-13yrs 100m Breaststroke, 200m Breaststroke, 200m IM and 100m Freestyle; Sam Lewis, 2nd 11-16 50m Breaststroke; Bethan Davie, 1st 10-15yrs 100m Breaststroke & 200m Breaststroke.

Well done to the medallists and indeed to all who swam. It was a very difficult meet to compete well in coming so soon after the Christmas break.

Next in the list was the Pembrokeshire Long Distance Championships which took place in Tenby on Sunday, January 16. This has already been reported elsewhere in the press, but to summarise, we enjoyed some excellent swims. Of the eight new records that were set, five were by Tenby club members, Hannah Saunders, Jemma Hurds, Hazel Fox and Bethan Davie (2). There were some excellent new PB's across the board, and the coaches were delighted with the way the swimmers performed.

On January 22 and 23, the Exeter City Open Meet was held at the Cardiff International Pool. Being a Level 1 meet, this was very heavily subscribed and the building was packed out for the whole weekend. Just two Tenby swimmers decided to give this one a go, Bethan Davie and Hazel Fox.

Hazel had an excellent weekend, setting some great new Long Course (50m pool) PB's, and picking up several medals on the way. With gold in the 10yrs 200m Freestyle and 50m Breaststroke, together with two silver and two bronze medals, she can be well pleased with her swims.

Bethan surprisingly did better in the 15yrs 400m & 200m freestyle (winning gold in both), than in her normal preferred events where she picked up three silvers and a bronze. Well done to both girls.

The same two were back in action at the same pool last weekend when the annual Urdd National Finals were held in Cardiff on January 29 and 30.

The swimmers represent their schools at this gala and we are pleased to report that several medals were won in both the Junior and Senior Schools competitions. In the Junior section (all Year 5-6), there were silver medals for Carys Davies, Ashleigh Willars and Hazel Fox, and in the Senior competition Bethan Davie won two gold medals in the Year 9-10 category.

There were also some nice success stories for several other swimmers from the club who were medallists with their respective schools relay teams.

It has to be said that the attendance at the Senior competition was a little disappointing, especially amongst the older age groups. In particular, it was a shame to see empty lanes where swimmers from the county had qualified in the Regional Gala, but had not made the effort to attend the final.

We also have a large number of ex-club members, who as Greenhill School pupils, could make a valuable contribution to relay teams. It is a fun and relaxed event. Support Mrs Thomas who gives up her time to organise things for your Welsh Department and give it a go next year!

Forthcoming Events

February 5 -13: West Wales Regional Champs, Haverfordwest.

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

Following the recent galas held during January, it is nice to see more and more club records being set. Hannah Saunders is having a great run and has added her name all over the board. Hazel Fox has just set her first club records, as has Morgan Grieve, who set a new best time for the boys 8/U 25m butterfly at the Club Champs back in December.

This is great news. When we introduced the record board, we hoped it would promote the club, and above all else inspire our swimmers to improve on what they and their club mates had done in the past. It certainly seems to be doing the trick. The records keep tumbling which shows that standards are improving both at club and county level. Keep it up everyone!

We are very pleased to see how our group of poolside volunteers is expanding. All of you are very welcome and make a big difference to how we run the training sessions. Thank you.

Just a reminder to swimmers in the Junior and Senior squad sessions. You have a minimum training requirement of six hours per week (from a max of 10), and you must enter competitions. Failure to keep on target will jeopardise your place in the two-hour squad sessions and you may have to go back down to one hour again!

Don't forget, we have a club shop where you can order the latest kit or top up your supplies of goggles, hats, etc.. Also we have the latest club kit in stock which the younger swimmers should wear when representing the club in relays and team events. Pick up yours before the club relay day at West Wales next week.

On that note, we would like to remind you that you must wear your Dolphins hat when taking part in the relay competition. No exceptions!

S.D.