Arena League - Round 1
This was my first opportunity to be with the PSC team at a National Arena Swimming League competition. Having been promoted to the Premier Division we were up against some top teams, so we knew that we had to perform well on the day. There were some excellent performances from our swimmers and I would like to congratulate everyone on a great team performance.
When I arrived at the pool, I was concerned about the depth of water at the shallow end and diving into water of only 1.0 metre depth. On balance, I was relieved when it was eventually decided that all races would start form the deep end – albeit without starting blocks.
Our older swimmers stepped up to the mark and put in some superb swims. Equally, some of our young Junior Squad swimmers put in some cracking performances too. This was the first time these young swimmers had experienced a competition of this level and I would like to mention just a few of them here. Congratulations to Sacha Rines who swam a 2 second PB in the 50 metres Backstroke in a personal best time 40.11. Well done also to our 11 and under boys who came first in both of their relay events. Ollie Weston swam well with a split time of 36.45 in the freestyle relay. Similarly, Rafael McCreath swam a good final leg in the boys medley relay. Not to be outdone, our 11 and under girls came a respectable 3rd in their medley relay. Well done, especially to Georga Harrison who had a fantastic split time, along with newcomers Sacha Rines, Elizabeth Brednya and Emmeline Ansell. Well done too to Jasmine McCrea and Charlotte Smith who swam personal best split times in the 11 years freestyle relay.
I know that there is still much work to be done with our younger squads but since I took on the role of Junior and County Squad Coach in April, I have already seen some big improvements and fantastic PB’s. As your coach, I will continue to make every effort to motivate and inspire our younger swimmers to swim well and swim fast and emulate the achievements of the swimmers in our higher squads.
Well done everyone
Jan
Janet Hutchings
PSC Junior, County and Masters Squad Coach
