Dolphin Win Centenary Competition

Event: Wiltshire Centenary Secondary Competition

Date: 20th 0ctober 2007

Venue: Milton Road

Swindon Dolphin piped local rivals Wootton Bassett and Swindon ASC to win the Wiltshire Centenary Secondary Competition Cup in a very exciting gala at Milton Road last night.

The contest, a one length relay competition for swimmers who had not participated in the top three divisions of the Moonraker Summer League this season, went down to the wire with positions changing hands frequently throughout the evening. Wootton Bassett led by 2 points at the half way stage and were a point ahead with 3 events to race. However, the Dolphin team, which included a large number of less experienced swimmers, dug deep to overhaul the opposition in the closing phase to win by 4 points.

Leading the way for Dolphin was the girls’ under 12 year foursome of Chiara Pascarella, Stephanie Dabbs (from Swim Channel, competing in a club team for the very first time), Bethani Crouch & Victoria Tainty who secured their age group freestyle. The girls’ u14 quartet of Tess Hill, Lauren Hawkins, Emma Prunty and Louise Cullen, and the open women’s team of Helen Hanks, Cullen, Sarah Kelly & Hattie Jones soon followed suit by winning their respective freestyle events.

Equally impressive were the excellent wins for Tainty (u12), Prunty (u14), Jones (u16) and Hanks (Open) in the girls’ butterfly squadron and for Sam Hunter (u12), Tom Rendel (u14), David Moorhouse (u16), and Andy Holborow (open) in the boys’ backstroke squadron.

Andy Holborow – on top form

Dolphin’s open medley relay teams were unsurpassed with Kelly, Emma Coleman, Hanks and Cullen securing victory for the girls, and Ben Emmerson, Holborow, Andrew Bilko and Andy Alexander on song for the boys.

Bilko, Moorhouse, Holborow & Alexander were also triumphant in the boys’ open freestyle.

Dolphin Swimming Development Officer, Steve Cryer, was delighted with the performance and said that he was “particularity pleased with the skills and progress of the younger, inexperienced swimmers”.