Marvellous MarlinsSaturday 25th April, 2015, saw 40 Marlins (37 plus our 3 Preston Squad swimmers, returning to compete with their home club) and their supporting families, travel to The Jason Kenny Centre for Bolton Metro Swimming Squad’s Annual Spring Sprint Meet. With 21 clubs attending the meet, it was extremely busy poolside but a fantastic Marlins’ turn out meant our blue and white team strip dominated the top corner of poolside and was a great sight to behold. It was fantastic to see so many Marlins walking together around poolside to marshalling and some of the heats swamped with our swimmers. Even with the very difficult and cramped seating conditions, our swimmers showed great maturity and just got on with it, without complaint! They listened and followed their coaches’ instructions, organised themselves quickly and ensured they were ready for their races. Our swimmers were very helpful, particularly some of our more experienced swimmers, who offered additional support to our novice gala swimmers, this was much appreciated by their coaches. In summary our swimmers showed impeccable behaviour all day and in addition, the event organiser also commented on how clean and tidy they had left their area after the competition. A HUGE WELL DONE to you all! You made your club very proud. For over half of our swimmers, this was their very first external individual gala and probably the one they and their parents will always remember! A massive congratulations to all of these Marlins, they didn’t let the unfamiliar surroundings put them off or let their nerves get in the way, they rose to the challenge and all achieved personal best times, in many cases significantly slashing down times. What a terrific result for you all! Overall our club swimmers had a great day with 80% of races being pbs – Tremendous Work! With such excellent performances from so many of our swimmers, it’s difficult to mention everybody but two Marlins that deserve a special mention are Lauren Waddington and Jordan O’Hara, who, not only achieved pbs in all their races but also managed to medal. Lauren, at her very first gala, received a silver medal in the 9 year old 50m backstroke and Jordan O’Hara was awarded his first, external to club, Gold in 100 fly and a Silver in 50 fly in the 13 year old category. Jordan also finished 4th in his other 4 races narrowly missing out on bronze medals in each. Others finishing just outside a bronze position were Stephen Brown (13yr 50 & 100 breast) and Liam Hardman (12yr 100 free). Huge congratulations also to our Preston Squad Swimmers, Elizabeth Woodcock, Chloe Cottam and Jack Hardman, who racked up 15 pbs between them and 14 medal wins! Lizzie and Chloe dominated the 13 year old age group: Lizzie Woodcock – Gold in 200IM, 100Back, 50 free & 100 free. Silver in 50 back & 50 fly. Chloe Cottam – Gold in 100 fly, 50 back & 50 fly. Silver in 50 free & 100 free. And Jack Hardman, 15, in the difficult age category of 15&over, beat off older boys to achieve – Gold in 100 back. Silver in 200IM & 50 back. Thank you very much to the coaches poolside and to Kath Cottam and Stuart Anwyl for helping with the officiating. And also thanks to the spectating families, who braved the hot, cramped conditions to watch their swimmers perform so well. I think you’d all worked out the timing board by the time your swimmers raced?! J If any of you have any suggestions for information you would have benefited from before the gala and things that you were told about that helped you on the day, then please let me know at competitions@chorleymarlins.org.uk. I’m hoping to put together a ‘beginners’ guide to galas’ in the near future. Here’s the link to the results page: http://bmswimsquad.co.uk/results/apr2015/ I look forward to receiving entries for our in house, Chorley Marlins’ Sprint meet, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th June. Entries will open soon……….
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