Open Meet Report

We again attended a number of Open Meets in 2014 of varying standards and varying team sizes. Due to illness, injury and swimmers departing for other clubs we had only a small number of swimmers at County Champs in 2014 compared to the previous year.  However overall in Open Meets we had 41 different swimmers who competed in at least one meet, which I think is a record number.  By the time of the AGM there will already have been more swimmers competing in their first Open Meet in 2015. 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.

 

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.

 

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 Lou Gooden, Karen Jones, Richard Jones, Susanne Sulaman and Jack Jackson for their help through 2014, as well as our senior swimmers who have helped me when they have been swimming. (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.

 

Kevin Binns

Open Meet Co-ordinator