Young Dolphins Make Progress

Event: Novice Progress Gala Venue: Link Centre Date: 3rd April 2010

Last Saturday at the Link Centre, swimmers from the Swindon Dolphin Learn-to-Swim Programme aged 6 to 11 were at the Link Centre for the Swindon Dolphin Novice Progress Gala.

The annual event provides swimmers with a first taste of competition in a formal swimming meet environment.  It also gives the Teaching Team a measure of progress for their swimmers not only by seeing how fast they are but also observing how well technique is maintained under race conditions.  Swimmers have the opportunity of racing 25m of each stroke and a 100m individual medley.

The youngest competitors were 6 years olds Charlotte Purvis and Libbi Crouch, both of whom took on the freestyle and the more technical breaststroke with Purvis finishing in second place for both events in the girls 7/under age group.  Top 7/under girl was Felicity Matthews with three wins out of four races having been denied a full house by Rachel Brown who won the backstroke.  Top honours for the 7/under boys were shared by Jack Wilkes and Oliver Eaton with one win apiece.

In the 8 years age groups, Lucie Wells looks to be one to watch in the future, with 5 wins out of five.  Joshua Fox won three of his races, with Franklyn Wong and Daniel Farley winning the breaststroke and backstroke respectively.

Lucie Wells ~ one to watch.

In the older age groups, 9 year old William Davies and 10 year old Charlotte Brooker were on top both with a full house of victories.  11 year old Tom Halford was also heading for a quintet of wins only to be denied by a fine swim from Sean Purvis in the final heat of the 100m individual medley.

The vast majority of swimmers achieved personal best times at what was a extremely well run and enjoyable evening for both swimmers and supporters.

Full results are available on the Competition Page.