We have two short course sprint meets to report on in this edition. The annual Pembrokeshire Sprints which took place on May 25, and the Amman Valley Sprints, which were held in Llanelli last weekend. Competition Results As with previous years, the Pembrokeshire Sprints competition was once again very well attended by our swimmers, with no fewer than 64 of our team members entering. This is a very good turn out indeed, and we are really pleased that so many of the team decided to have a go at this format of competition. Depending on the age of the swimmer, a sprint meet consists of either 25m or 50m races, so the action is fast and furious. We said it was going to be fun, and judging by the atmosphere at the pool it certainly looks as though the swimmers were enjoying themselves. The Tenby team members who swam were: Gemma Amos, Daniel Bakewell, Dominic Belli, Lewys Canton, Dominic Ciccotti, Elena Ciccotti, Harry Cook, Megan Cook, James Crowney-Richards, Bethan Davie, Gareth Davie, Matt Davie, Carys Davies, Daniel Davies, Ffion Davies, Luke Dedoncker, Johnnie Delahunty, Emily Dilks, Lydia Dilks, Hazel Fox, Carl Gwyther, Rebekah Gwyther, Abigail Hicks, Kaitlyn Hicks, Elliot Hoad, Edward Hurle, Tudor Hurle, Andrew James, Edward James, Sophia James, Kieran Johnson, Myles Johnson, Billy Kinnear, Tom Kinnear, Jacob Knox, Coral Lewis, Sam Lewis, Talia Merriman, Madison Neye, Jack Parkinson, Cassie Paxton, Georgia Poole, Ben Rees, Chloe Rees, Paul Rees, Thomas Rees, Safiya Rooney, Jade Rowell, Hannah Saunders, Kiera Slack, Niamh Slack, Molly Spencer, Sophie Stanford, Alanya Thomas, Josh Thomas, Emma June Vaughan, Madison Vickery, Syd Vickery, Holly Watkin-Rees, Lauren Watkins, Henry Whittaker, Ashleigh Willars, Chloe Wilson and Francesco Zeraschi As is customary with such a large entry, we cannot detail all of the results here, but of the list above, the following were gold medallists: Lewys Canton, Elena Ciccotti, James Crowney-Richards, Bethan Davie, Daniel Davies, Ffion Davies, Rebekah Gwyther, Andrew James, Billy Kinnear, Sam Lewis, Hannah Saunders, Sophie Stanford, Sydney Vickery, Holly Watkin-Rees and Henry Whittaker. Many congratulations all our medallists, and very well done to our first time competitors. Let's hope you now have the taste for open meets. As well as collecting hatfuls of medals, we also claimed some Championship records. Ffion Davies (eight) swam 20.79s in the 8/U 25m backstroke, and 16.50s in the 8/U 25m freestyle to beat times previously recorded in 1994 and 2004 respectively. Bethan Davie (12) swam 37.68s in the 12-13 50m breaststroke to better the previous record set by one of our former club members, Saskia Petersen, in 2004. Well done girls! The second gala we report on here is the annual Amman Valley Sprint Meet which was held on Saturday, June 7, at Llanelli Leisure Centre. Unlike the Pembrokeshire Sprints two weeks before, there were no 25m races, so even the little guys had to battle it out over 50m. Also, the top six in each event scored points, which were added up during the course of the day to determine the qualifiers for the 100m Individual Medley finals held at the end of the competition. We had a good turnout for this event as well, with 16 of our swimmers deciding to have a go. They were: Gemma Amos, Lauren Arthur, Harry Cook, Bethan Davie, Gareth Davie, Matt Davie, Daniel Davies, Ffion Davies, Lydia Dilks, Talia Merriman, Ben Rees, Safiya Rooney, Hannah Saunders, Madison Vickery, Sydney Vickery and Henry Whittaker. Our swimmers had a very good day, and without exception all set new PB's, won plenty of medals which ensured we were well represented in the finals. The medallists (top three placing) in the 50m events were: Gemma Amos, third 15/O butterfly, third 15/O breaststroke; Lauren Arthur, first 13 years breaststroke, second 13 years butterfly; Bethan Davie, first 12 years freestyle, second 12 years breaststroke, second 12 years butterfly; Matt Davie second 15 years freestyle, second 15 years breaststroke; Daniel Davies, first 10 years breaststroke; Ffion Davies, second 8-9 years breaststroke, third 8-9 years butterfly; Hannah Saunders, second 10 years backstroke; Madison Vickery, first 10 years breaststroke; Sydney Vickery, third 12 years backstroke; Henry Whittaker, second 13 years breaststroke and third 13 years backstroke. Of the above, Gemma, Lauren, Bethan, Matt, Dan, Ffion, Syd and Henry all qualified for the IM finals in their respective age groups. After storming races, Bethan and Matt Davie made it a family double by winning both their events and Henry and Dan picked a bronze apiece in their races. All in all, it was a very successful event, and head coach John Amos, who was in attendance throughout, was very pleased with the efforts of those who made the trip to Llanelli. He would like to pass on his congratulations to the swimmers who were attending an open meet for the first time. You all did very well at what was a very competitive event, spread over a very long day. Forthcoming Events Sunday, June 29 - Dyfed Junior League Final, Llanelli. (We need all selected to make every effort to attend. If you cannot, please notify team manager asap) July 24-27 - National Age Group Championships, Sheffield. (NQT's required.) July 31-August 3 - Welsh Summer Nationals, WNPS Swansea. (Details on notice board). August 8-24 - Olympic Games, Beijing. Be sure to follow the progress of our Welsh swimmers (unfortunately no-one from Tenby this time!) Club News We are pleased to see that many of our older club swimmers are still managing to come training even though they have been sitting exams in school over the past few weeks. We appreciate your commitment. Don't forget we keep training through the summer, so try to attend sessions as usual. You will find that once you ease off it takes quite a long time to regain your fitness. We are going to order some more of our very popular black club polo shirts soon. If you would like one please place your order on the notice board as usual. We keep on mentioning this but, we recommend that everyone really makes an effort to attend open meets outside the comfort zone of our own county. We clearly have large number of enthusiastic swimmers in the club who would really benefit from exposure to this kind of competition. When the next round of galas start in the autumn why not have a go? Finally, to close out this report, we would like to pass on our congratulations to the club swimmers who recently attended the finals of the Sladen Relays as representatives of their individual schools.
S.D.