Nuneaton Relay
Nuneaton Relay Gala – 7 January 2012
GCSC swimmers and supporters turned out in force to take part in the Nuneaton Relay Gala at Pingles Leisure Centre on Saturday evening. In fact the team of swimmers, and supporters was so large we had to hire a full size coach and a 24 seater mini bus. A fantastic first in recent years!
We arrived in the nick of time for a 6pm warm up and were drawn in Lane 2. With an age as at 31 December 2012 we had some very excited 8 year olds in the team competing in their first gala for GCSC. Fortunately we had plenty of older swimmers to show them the ropes and look out for them on poolside.
Being an all relay gala, the emphasis was definitely on fun! The pool complex was packed with a huge number of swimmers, coaches, chaperones and officials on poolside and each team having a full set of supporters cheering them on.The combination of relay events was interesting, having mixed boys and girls and a butterfly and breast stroke relay team.
We didn’t really know what to expect from the competition although we knew that the Nuneaton & Bedworth and Kingsbury Aquarius teams would be strong from our experience at Nuneaton League.
Points were pretty even after event 12 with GCSC in 2nd place. By event 24 we had dropped to 3rd place but a late rally of 1st and 2nd place finishes saw us finish in 2nd place. We ended up with a total of 10 1st place, 5 2nd place and 8 3rd place finishes.
Final points as follows:
- Kingsbury Aquarius – 160
- GCSC – 141
- Nuneaton Blue – 140
- Bilston – 126
- Nuneaton Red – 113
- Lichfield – 62
This was not a night for individual glory but a chance for our swimmers to work together in teams to fight for every point.
With a total of 23 top 3 place finishes out of 36 races it was teamwork at its best.
Special mention to our newest and youngest members of Team GCSC – Katie Estelrich, Mary Pang, Lily Reichwald, Ellie Jones, Oliver Wheatley and Trafford Russell who are all just 8 years old and Megan Harries age 9. You were all fantastic and gave it your all.
Thanks go to our coaches Andy and Jane, our chaperones, officials and also to all our parent supporters for making it a great night for our swimmers.
And finally.... well done to all our swimmers from the youngest to the oldest in Team GCSC. Two coaches full of happy but tired swimmers returned to Gloucester late on Saturday night.
Alison Munden
9/01/12