Dolphin Swimmers of the Year 2005/06

James Clark & Cathal Westman

James Clark and Cathal Westman were presented with the Swindon Dolphin “swimmer of the year” Cup on Monday night to mark their outstanding achievements during the 2005/06 season. They were joint recipients of the accolade and followed in the footsteps of previous winners Nigel Masters (03/04) and Jon Audis (04/05).

James excelled in all stokes last year qualifying for, swimming in, and reaching finals in every event available to him at the Regional Championships held at Millfield School in June. He finished the competition as the 11 year old British Age Group Categories (Bagcats) champion and brought home gold medals in the 200m & 400m individual medleys, and the 100m & 200m Breaststrokes. He subsequently went on to qualify for 9 out of a possible 11 national age group events, swimming 5 of them (200m & 400m IM, 100m & 200m Brs and 200m Frs) at the National Age Group Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield in July. He reached the finals in all these events, collecting bronze medals in the 200m IM and 200m Brs and was placed an incredible fourth overall in the 11 year old National Bagcats.

Cathal got an excellent competitive 05/06 season off to a winning start by taking the Wiltshire Bagcats title in his age group in April. Leg problems restricted his Regional Championships in June to 2 events but he emerged with gold medals in the 13 year old 100m & 200m breaststrokes after winning both finals. He went to the National Championships in Sheffield in July ranked number sixth and second in the 100m & 200m breaststrokes respectively, and came back home with a silver medal, the highest place ever achieved in a national final by a Swindon Dolphin age group swimmer, after coming second in the 200m final in a time of 2.35.65. He was selected to represent the county team at the National Counties Championship in Sheffield in September and was chosen for the ASA 2006 Talent Programme. He was also presented with the “most improved swimmer award” at the AGM in November.

Source: Swindon Dolphin Press Team