Open Meet Report

We again attended a number of Open Meets in 2011 of varying standards and varying team sizes. Many of our swimmers came away with medals from these meets, as well as a host of PB’s, speed awards and club records over the course of the year. It was pleasing to see a number of swimmers competing in Open

Meets for the first time this year and it was even more pleasing to see them come back to further meets later in the year.

We try to attend a variety of meets with different distances and at different levels so there is a chance for everyone to find something to suit them, particularly since you get to choose the events instead of the Team Manager deciding.

On the website you will see pages indicating which swimmers have achieved County Qualifying Times. However, this only compares the qualifying standards to the swimmers’ PB. In order to actually enter the County Championships, the times must have been achieved in a licensed meet within the qualifying period.

So if you are interested in entering County Champs in future, please look out for details of the Open Meets we attend so you can aim to achieve the necessary times.

I am always pleased to see how our swimmers support each other at these meets – we may go with a small team sometimes but without exception our swimmers get plenty of encouragement from the others. Obviously, the more people we have there, the more noise we can make in support of the team so it would be great to get even more new attendees this year – keep an eye on the website for full details of events and of course, if you find out about a meet you would like to go to, please let me know.

I have mentioned above about the team spirit shown at these meets and I must also say that behaviour has been excellent, making my life on poolside far easier and enjoyable. My life is also made easier by the poolside help given to me, so that I don’t have to always be there with the team. I must therefore thank Alan

Brown, Jamie O’Malley, and Lisa Taverner for their help through 2011 (and apologies if I missed anyone – your help is appreciated nonetheless).

I look forward to seeing many more of you at the Open Meets this year.