Since our last report, the ever enthusiastic swimmers of Tenby Dolphins have been continuing the seemingly never ending round of open meets and galas across the county and beyond.

On January 26, a select few had decided to attend the 2008 Swansea Valley Sprint Meet at the pool in Pontardawe, and this was followed on February 2 by the first round of this year's Dyfed Senior League competition. Finally in this report we have news of how Tenby fared at the annual West Wales Regional Championships which were held at the Penlan pool over two weekends commencing February 9. Competition Results The 2008 Swansea Valley Sprint was held in the very crowded Pontardawe pool on January 26. The following team members entered this year: Gemma Amos, Daniel Davies, Ffion Davies, Edward James, Jacob Knox and Henry Whittaker. The races in a sprint meet are fast and furious, with the individual stroke categories being held over a distance of only 50m. There was also an IM final in each age group which was a 200m IM. As we have come to expect, our swimmers put on a good show and came home with a nice collection of medals and some good new PB's. The medal winners were as follows: Gemma Amos, 2nd 15yrs 50m Butterfly, 3rd 50m Backstroke, 3rd 200m IM; Dan Davies, 1st 9/U 50m Breaststroke, 2nd 50m Freestyle, 3rd 50m Backstroke and Butterfly, and 2nd 200m IM.

Well done indeed to you three, and well done to the others who all swam well with more than 50 per cent of the swims resulting in PB times. The Dyfed League meet held in Tenby on February 2 was the first round of this year's senior event, and Tenby were up against teams from Carmarthen and Llanelli. As usual, these are close fought galas, but obviously enjoying the home advantage, Tenby came out on top. Often with this competition, the other teams hold something back for the final, so we should not always read too much into early round success. Nevertheless, fingers crossed Tenby can maintain their advantage all through the competition this time. Finally in this report we will have a look at this year's West Wales Regional Championships. Traditionally this is the foremost competition for club swimmers from across our region, and achieving victory or winning medals here is a very good achievement. This competition has often been the place where our top swimmers have realised they have the potential to go on and compete at a higher level, and judging by this year's performances by many of our younger swimmers, we have much to look forward to in the future. The competition is split in the main series of events, and an Aquatic Pentathlon for the younger competitors. As tends to be the case, we had a very large entry for the competition, so we cannot list everyone in detail. However, with apologies for any omissions, here are the medallists from the club. Aquatic Pentathlon: Ffion Davies, 2nd 8/U 25m Backstroke, 2nd 8/U 25m Breaststroke, 2nd 8/U 100m IM, 2nd 8/U 25m Freestyle, 2nd 8/U 25m Butterfly; Hannah Saunders, 1st 9yrs 50m Breaststroke, 1st 9yrs 50m Backstroke, 2nd 9yrs 50m Freestyle, 3rd 9yrs 200m IM; Madison Vickery, 2nd 9yrs 50m Breaststroke; Dan Davies, 3rd 9/U 25m Backstroke, 2nd 9/U 25m Breaststroke, 3rd 9/ U 25m Butterfly, 3rd 9/U 25m Freestyle, 2nd 9/U 100m IM.

As well as the individual events above, the swimmers in the Aquatic Pentathlon were competing for overall honours based on a total time for all five events swum. We are pleased to report that Hannah came first in the 9/U combined events and Ffion and Daniel Davies came second in their respective competitions. Well done to all three of you, and very well done to all the other junior swimmers who took part. Many of you set some truly amazing new times in a tough competition. Tenby enjoyed a considerable degree of success in the main competition as well. The medallists were as follows:

Henry Whittaker, 1st 12-13 200m Breaststroke, 1st 12-13 100m Breaststroke; Lewys Canton, 1st 14 -15 400m Freestyle, 1st 14-15 200m Backstroke, 2nd 14-15 100m Butterfly, 1st 14-15 200m Freestyle, 1st 14-15 200m IM, 1st 14-15 100m Freestyle, 3rd 14-15 100m Backstroke; Matt Davie, 3rd 14-15 400m Freestyle, 2nd 14-15 200m IM, 2nd 14-15 200m Breaststroke, 2nd 14-15 100m Breaststroke; Johnnie Delahunty, 2nd 14-15 100m Freestyle, 2nd 14-15 200m Freestyle; Niamh Slack, 2nd 10/U 200m Breaststroke, 3rd 10/U 200m IM, 2nd 10/U 200m Backstroke, 1st 10/U 100m Butterfly, 2nd 10/U 100m Backstroke; Bethan Davie, 1st 11-12 200m Breaststroke, 1st 11-12 100m Breaststroke, 1st 11-12 200m Freestyle, 2nd 11-12 200m IM, 2nd 11-12 400m IM; Sophie Stanford, 1st 17/O 200m Breaststroke, 1st 17/O 100m Freestyle, 2nd 17/O 100m Butterfly, 1st 17/O 100m Breaststroke, 2nd 17/O 200m IM; Holly Watkin- Rees, 3rd 15-16 100m Butterfly, 3rd 15-16 200m Breaststroke, 3rd 15-16 100m Breaststroke; Coral Lewis, 3rd 15-16 200m Freestyle; Andrew James, 1st 16-17 200m Breaststroke, 2nd 16-17 200m IM. As you can see from the above, there were some excellent performances from the team members in their individual events, and many not reaching a final or podium position set some great new times. All-in-all head coach John Amos was very pleased by the performances, with a big increase in individual medals over last year. We hope you are all encouraged to continue competing against the best and hope to see lots of you at various open meets in the coming months.

To close out the West Wales event, there is always a team relay competition, and we are delighted that this year Tenby Dolphins once again finished in a strong second place behind Swim Swansea. Once again a great result, so very well done to all those who swam.

Forthcoming Events Macrh 8-9: Llanelli Open. Good luck to all those who have entered. March 15: Dyfed Senior League, round two. March 20-24: Welsh Age Group Championships, WNPS. Entries Closed. Pembs. Junior League: Please check notice board for selection news and gala dates. Club News As a result of some great swims at the West Wales Championships, we are very pleased to report that Niamh Slack and Rebekah Gwyther have achieved qualifying times for the Pembrokeshire county squad. Very well done to both of you. You may or may not know that there is an online resource which shows you how you are ranked compared with other swimmers in the UK. Provided you have competed in some licensed open meets (i.e. outside Pembrokeshire), your results will be in the British Swimming database which you can check out at home. Go to http://www.britishswimming.org">www.britishswimming.org then navigate to the 'Swimming' tab under 'Disciplines'. If you then click on 'Rankings', there are a number of resources which enable you to see how you are getting on in your region and compared with the rest of the UK. (NB the 2008 West Wales results are not yet posted at the time of preparing this report). The rankings are usually updated on Tuesdays and Fridays, so keep checking back if what you are looking for is missing. 2008 West Wales results are available on http://www.westwalesswim.org.uk">www.westwalesswim.org.uk, and other information about swimming in the principality is available on http://www.welshasa.co.uk">www.welshasa.co.uk. Some of you ordered club hats with your name on before Christmas. The order has arrived, so please collect from club shop or ask someone on poolside. There are quite a few junior and senior club galas coming up over the next few weeks. Please ensure that in junior galas you wear all your club gear (hats, etc..). It is very important that we look like a team when poolside at these competitions. We have had lots of complimentary comments about how smart you look, so let's keep it up! Senior swimmers also take note please!