Aquae Sulis Open Meet
Approximately 30 swimmmers from the City of Newport competed at the recent Aquae Sulis Open Meet held at the new 50m pool in Bristol. The meet provided an oportunity for our swimmers to gain some long course race practice ahead of the Welsh Winter Championships in December and also to gain experience racing against English clubs. There were some excellent performances at the meet, with many of our swimmers recording personal best times and winning medals. Gold medal swims came from Scarlett Major, Elizabeth Smith and Cameron Brown (who won 5 gold medals from 5 swims). Well done to all the swimmers who took part.
Presentation Evening/Club Champs – Alan Roberts
I would first like to say a big thank you to all the volunteers and helpers who helped run such a smooth operation as the club champs
I was very pleased on how well the lower squads were represented at the club champs, it was a very good turn out and everyone who entered should be very pleased with their performance.
Two swimmers stood out for me at the club champs, not for their speed and winning of medals, but for their grit and determination.
First there was Sophia Evans age 9, never done a swimming gala before, at the beginning of the day she was so nervous i had to sit her down talk to her and tell her what to expect and what was going to happen. Normally swimmers on their first gala will do a couple of swims that they are comfortable with. Not Sophia she only meant to do 50m swims but she had also entered 100m swims.
The difference in 1 swimmer from the beginning of the day, to the end of the day was amazing she oozed confidence it was really good to see.
The second swimmer was Toby Preece age 6, because of his age he was only to do 25m swims which he did, as its only his first gala he too could have just done some swims that he was comfortable with but like Sophia, Toby pushed himself, and at the age of 6 doing a 25m butterfly swim, full on confidence, was also very pleasing as a coach.
It goes without saying that there were some fantastic swims through the weekend and it made me as their swimming coach very proud to be represented by such a young group of swimmers, who behaved very well on pool side, swam their hearts out and put 100% effort in
A BIG WELL DONE!!! To all that swam
Alan Roberts
