Gala at Heywood on 9th May 2009
A 50m sprint swimming gala was held at Heywood with 65 of Cinderford’s swimmers taking part to celebrate the club achieving the ASA Swim 21 Accreditation.
Swim 21 Accreditation is a 'Quality mark', it recognises nationally and regionally the clubs that are committed to providing safe, effective and quality services for the benefit of their members. Clubs have to work steadily towards achieving the attainment of a series of outcomes all of which are seen as essential if the right level of support is to be provided at each stage of an athlete's development.
Cinderford & District Swimming Club has been awarded Swim 21 for 3 different stages: - Teaching, Skill Development and Masters (Foundation). Alan Green, ASA representative, came to present the Club with their awards and also present 5 swimmers with their young volunteers’ awards – Dean Embling, Lauren Mitchell, Nia Westlake, Abby Marshall and Sophi Bingle.
The swimmers were put into 5 teams, with Supremo Nemos and Flying Saucers eventually tying in first place. 5 young swimmers taking part in their first gala were James Piercy, Lewis Morgan, Tyler Adams, Emily Wilson and Siobhan Johnston all who were unfazed by the event and showed great promise in their swimming. As usual the older swimmers had excellent races, but the younger ones also had memorable swims to the cheers of the swimmers and their families, these included 9 year old Luke Mills who took a massive 28 seconds off his breaststroke time, 17 seconds off his freestyle and 12 seconds off his backstroke; and Rebecca Howard showed great improvements with a 15 second PB in her breaststroke, 9 seconds in her freestyle and 7 seconds off her backstroke time.
8 year old Jess Tingle showed ability in all strokes by taking 7 seconds off her freestyle and backstroke times and 6 seconds off her butterfly time and Andrew Cole (also aged 8) powered his way to take 8 seconds off both his backstroke and breaststroke times. Powerful swims gave Kim Smith a 13 second PB in her breaststroke and 9 seconds off her butterfly time. Fast swims by Tamara Yemm saw her take 15 seconds off her breaststroke and 9 seconds off the freestyle. Natalie Watkins showed determination to take 7 seconds off her breaststroke and 6 seconds off her freestyle.
Other personal best times smashed at the gala were:
Butterfly – Kurtis Nash (by 11 sec), Josh Peck (by 6 sec), Danny Collins (6 sec) and Sam Jenkins (9 sec).
Backstroke – Owen Morgan (by 13 sec), Chloe Phillips (12 sec).
Breaststroke – Will Smith (by 9 sec), Ajay Slade (by 28 sec), Maddie Worgan (9 sec), Kiah Dickinson (9 sec), Amisha Cormack (7 sec), Chloe Kibble (11 sec), Charlotte Clarkson (9 sec) and Chloe Howard (11 sec).
Freestyle – Megan Cameron (by 7 sec)