Clissold Graded league gala 14 October 2007

Thank you all for taking part in the gala last night, especially those of you who stepped in at short notice. We were quite short of swimmers, especially older, more experienced ones, but still achieved a fantastic result. I was really thrilled with 2nd place and very proud of you all.

We got 14 x1st places, 8 x 2nd places and 6x 3rd places out of 46 races, which is a great result.

Congratulations to:

• Hannah - 1st in 50m backstroke
• Matilda - 1st in 50m fly
• Ella - 1st in 50m freestyle
• Adam - 1st in 50m freestyle
• Max - 1st in 50m breaststroke and 3rd in 50m backstroke
• Anthony - 1st in 25m breaststroke
• Joanna - 1st in 25m fly
• Amber - 1st in 25m freestyle
• Charlotte - 1st in 25m backstroke
• Ben - 1st in 25m backstroke and 2nd in 50m freestyle
• Kieran - 2nd in 50m backstroke
• Tao - 2nd in 50m breaststroke and 3rd in 50m fly
• Leyla- 2nd in 50m breaststroke
• Sakinah - 2nd in 25m breaststroke
• Billie - 3rd in 50m breaststroke
• Tylar-3rd in 25m breaststroke
• Sean - 3rd in 25m backstroke

There were also 4 first placed relay teams:

Ben, Sean, Max & Joe in 4 x 50m freestyle Joe, Adam, Kieran & Tylar in 4 x 50m medley Adam, Anthony, Kieran & Gaspar in 4 x 25m medley Amber, Grace, Sakinah & Ella in 4 x 25m freestyle

Billie, Joanna, Charlotte & Matilda came 2nd in 4 x 50m freestyle, as did Tylar, Ethan, Gaspar and Adam in 4 x 25m freestyle and Matilda, Billie, Amber & Leyla in 4 x 25m breaststroke. Sakinah, Joanna, Grace & Leyla came 3rd in 4 x 25m freestyle.

The majority of those swimming individual races achieved PBs:

• 100m freestyle - Joe
• 50m freestyle - Sakinah, Adam & Ben
• 25m freestyle - Carlotta, Sean, Amber & Adam
• 100m breaststroke - Demera
• 50m breaststroke - Leyla, Billie & Max
• 25m breaststroke -Matilda, Sakinah & Tylar
• 50m backstroke - Hannah, Kieran & Max
• 25m backstroke - Charlotte, Sean, Leyla & Ben
• 50m fly - Matilda
• 25m fly - Joanna

Therefore PBs were achieved in 24 of the 32 individual races. In addition,Anthony and Tao both clocked up times in races they had not previously swum.

Sean took nearly 5 seconds off his PBs in each of 25m backstroke and 25m freestyle, as did Joanna in 25m fly and Joe in 100m freestyle. Charlotte took over 6 seconds off her 25m backstroke time, while Sakinah took over 11 seconds off her 25m breaststroke time.

Joe (100m freestyle), Sakinah (50m freestyle), Carlotta and Sean (both 25m freestyle) and Tao (25m fly) all swam fast enough to exceed the upgrade time. Amber, Sakinah, Hannah and Carlotta were upgraded in the 4 x 25m medley relay, as were Ben, Max, Sean, Ethan, Gaspar, Anthony, Tao & Joe in the boys squad relay. In both cases, the relay teams were within half a second of the upgrade time, but just too fast to take 1st place.

Adam set new U10 club records in both 50m and 25m freestyle, while Joanna set a new U10 club record in 25m fly.

So, all in all, there were a lot of very good achievements. Well done all of you, and especially Grace, Gaspar and Ethan who were all swimming in their first gala.

This gala would not have taken place without the help of a great number of volunteers. A huge thank you to:

• Alina & Simon - team coaches
• Andy - who did a great job with the start gun (and I think also did the placing as well - can men really multi task this well?)
• Chris & Tim - timekeepers
• Colin - who not only remained completely unflustered while announcing, but even injected some humour (and threatened to sing, a threat which fortunately was not carried out)
• Ann & Sarah - who proved that women really can multi task by not only keeping the score impeccably but also reloading the starter pistol every few races
• Sharon & Myrtle - who manned the entrance desk and ran the raffle
• Alan - who printed the programmes
• Ildilko & Chock - who dispensed drinks to officials
• Anna - team photographer
• Kate - who marshalled the swimmers on poolside and did a lot of work prior to the gala organising some of the volunteers listed above

Thank you all of you and if there is anyone else I have forgotten who contributed in any way, thank you too.

The last gala in this year's graded league series is on Saturday 10th November at Cathall Road. We are currently in 3rd place in the league, just 1 point in front of Acton & Haringey, so as long as we do better than both of them in the final gala, we will finish the league in 3rd place (out of 9), as we did last year.

We will also be competing in the John Watson trophy gala on Saturday 3rd November and the Jim Savory Trophy gala on Saturday 24th November. These are both open galas for U12s, U14s, U16s and Open.

So, as you can see, November will be very busy. It would help enormously if you could let me know NOW if you will NOT be available for selection for any of these galas.

PS full results sheet HERE