For some time now there has been a developing gap in the program of galas available to swimmers in our region of Wales. Over the past few years, the emphasis has been on continually improving the standards of swimming in Wales, and rightly so, but this has meant that qualification for many competitions is becoming increasingly difficult. This is something of a problem for those who are perhaps a little later coming into the sport, and those who are keen, but not quite as aggressively competitive at those at the forefront of the sport.

Recognising the need to address this, the West Wales Region has this autumn introduced a sub-regional level competition for the first time, and by all accounts it was a resounding success. Many of the Tenby swimmers who went along now have qualifying times that will enable them to enter the West Wales Championships in 2009.

In this report, we also have details of the exploits of the Tenby swimmers who have recently competed at the first Welsh Long Course event of the swimming year.

Open Competition Results

Thirteen Tenby club members entered the West Wales Sub Regional Competition held at Penlan Leisure Centre on November 15 and 16. They were: Gemma Amos, Daniel Davies, Ffion Davies, Lydia Dilks, Olivia Garvey, Carl Gwyther, Rebekah Gwyther, Elliot Hoad, Safiya Rooney, Hannah Saunders, Niamh Slack, Emma June Vaughan and Henry Whittaker.

The surroundings and level of competition obviously suited our swimmers, because collectively they swam a huge number of PB's. In fact, no less than 73 per cent of all the times recorded were better than they had achieved before. This is an excellent result and they should be justifiably pleased.

Some of the swimmers recorded significant improvements in many events they had swum in quite recently. Well done to all of you and especially well done to those of you who were taking your first steps on the competition ladder. There were some really super swims!

Our podium places were as follows: Gemma Amos, 1st 15/O 400m Free; Dan Davies, 1st 9-11yrs 100m Fly, 2nd 400m IM, 2nd 800m Free; Ffion Davies, 1st 9-10yrs 100m Fly, 1st 100m Back, 1st 100m IM, 1st 200m Fly, 2nd 800m Free, 2nd 200m Back; Rebekah Gwyther, 1st 11-12yrs 100m Breast, 1st 100m Back, 3rd 200m IM, 3rd 100m Free; Elliot Hoad, 2nd 12-13yrs 200m IM, 2nd 100m Fly, 2nd 200m Free; Safiya Rooney 3rd 9-10yrs 100m Breast; Hannah Saunders 1st 9-10yrs 800m Free, 1st 200m Back, 1st 400m Free, 3rd 100m Fly; Niamh Slack, 1st 11-12yrs 100m Free, 2nd 100m Fly, 2nd 100m Back, 2nd 200m IM, 3rd 200m Free, 3rd 200m Fly; Henry Whittaker, 1st 14-15yrs 200m IM, 1st 100m Breast, 1st 200m Breast, 2nd 200m Back, 2nd 200m Free, 3rd 100m Free.

Head Coach John Amos, who was in attendance during the competition, was delighted with the results and reports that this is an excellent meet for club members to attend in future. We will be making every effort to encourage as many as possible to enter next year.

At the other end of the competition spectrum, a number of our swimmers were in attendance at the Welsh Schools and Swim Wales Winter Nationals which were held at the National Pool, Swansea, on November 21-23.

As we mentioned earlier, this was the first Welsh Long Course (50m pool) event of the year and is the gala which you had to attend if you had aspirations of representing the Welsh Schools team at the home countries WISE International Gala which is to be held in Swansea in April 2009. In addition, it is a Level 1 competition, which means that times recorded here allow for qualification for bigger competitions and Welsh squads later in the season.

As is always the case with these big events, it was a long weekend, and necessitated a day off school for those who were entered in events on the first day of competition. Strangely enough, the swimmers didn't seem to mind that too much!

Our club members were competing as part of the Pembrokeshire County Swimming contingent and were under the watchful eye of Paul Dowey, who has been putting the swimmers through their paces in his new county training regime over the past few months. We are sure that Paul will be pleased with the influence he is having, because there were some great results posted by swimmers from across the county.

However, reverting to our Dolphins perspective, the Tenby club members who swam in Swansea were: Niamh Slack, Johnnie Delahunty, Matt Davie, Bethan Davie and Andrew James. Actually Andrew now attends Swansea College and does all his training at the National Pool, but we are pleased to say he still represents Tenby and Pembrokeshire in all competitions.

There were some great results recorded by our swimmers. Andrew improved his 400m IM and 200m Freestyle times and Matt bettered his 200m IM and 100m Backstroke entry times. Niamh took huge chunks off her 200m Backstroke and 200m Butterfly times (28 seconds in the case of the fly! Wow!). Johnnie looked composed and swam smoothly in his events and set very good PB's in the 100m and 200m Freestyle, the 200m IM and 100m Backstroke, and made finals in three of his four events.

Bethan entered nine events over the weekend and won four gold medals and one bronze medal. She set eight new PB's and recorded National Qualifying times in three events and is now already in striking distance of two others. Time to book the hotel in Sheffield again! Great swimming Beth!

In fact, well done to all our swimmers and indeed the swimmers from the rest of the county who also enjoyed a very successful weekend. These early season results are good news for our fledgling county programme, and Paul is no doubt encouraged by how things are going so far.

Forthcoming Events

December 4, 5 and 7: Tenby Club Championships, Tenby Leisure Centre. Absolutely no excuses why you don't enter this! It's spread over club sessions, so no one has to do anything different or travel! Entry is free! Check the notice board and put your names down now!

December 13: National Swimming League, round three. Our 2008 final which will determine whether Pembrokeshire stays in the Premier division. Team selection on the notice board.

January 9 - 11: Swim Wales New Year Dragon Meet, WNP Swansea. A top-rate LC competition, with tough qualifying times. Entered by top swimmers from across the UK. Entries closed.

January 17: Swansea Valley Sprint Meet. Details on notice board.

January 24-25: Urdd National Championships at the new Cardiff International Pool.

Club News

The club AGM is to be held on December 8. The details and the agenda are on the notice board, together with a nomination form for club officials. If you want to join the committee or nominate someone else, now is your chance.

These press reports are always enhanced by some photographs, and we would be pleased to include any from galas or training sessions. Remember to register your camera prior to use of course. Please forward to the press officer (Steve Davie) for inclusion with future articles.

S.D.