Arena League round 2 victory for Dolphin

Event: National Arena League Western Division, Division 1 Round 2 Venue: Horfield Leisure Centre, Bristol Date: 10th November 2012

Swindon Dolphin celebrated another convincing Arena league victory in the second round of the prestigious team competition at Horfield, Bristol. The win assures the club of a number one ranked spot in the Western division 1 final on 8th December and a chance to regain their place in the premier division along with the opportunity it brings to compete against some of the country’s top swimming clubs.

The first two events, the open age group 100m individual medleys yielded close second places although a convincing win in event 3, the girls under 12 years 4 x 50m freestyle team of Sophie Bartlett, Lucie Wells, Denice Gardo and Olivia Flack, put Dolphin ahead on overall points, a position they maintained to the end of the meet. The quartet went on to also win the medley relay with Bartlett and Flack swelling the Dolphin points total even further by enjoying two individual wins each.

Sophie Bartlett prepares for the start of one of her two individual wins

Recent training which has included some pace and back end speed work paid dividends with many swimmers clearly having the edge over the competition in this respect; none more so than James Clark’s 100m freestyle swim in which he held his nerve going into the final turn in fourth place and with a impressive 25m effort, took victory on the touch. Clark also maximised his points potential in his third individual event of the evening with James Watson and the girls under 16 years team of Lauren Matthews, Abbie Hawkins, Rebecca Flack and Emily Dixon also winning two events each. Other individual wins went to Dixon and Samantha Berry both of whom were also part of the winning girls’ 6 x 50m freestyle team alongside Victoria Jennings, Lauren Matthews, Charlotte Gardo and Charlotte Pitts.