Wear Valley Amateur Swimming Club swimmers were in action again at their first gala of the year, gaining fabulous times and earning a host of medals. The gala was held by Peterlee and Derwentside Swimming clubs at the Louisa Centre, Stanley over the weekend of 12th/13th January. A total of 15 swimmers from the club competed.
Three athletes (Kieran Baker, Mia Featherstone and Owen Potter) from the Junior squad, swam their first competitive gala. Kieran Baker competed in the 50m freestyle (free) and 100m breaststroke, taking 27 seconds off his entry time for this event. Mia Featherstone swam 3 events and narrowly missed out on a medal finishing 4th in the 50m breaststroke. Owen Potter swam 4 events for the first time, notably taking 18 seconds off his entry time for the 100m breaststroke. Oliver Sommerville gained personal bests (pbs) in the 50m breaststroke and the 50m free. Nicole Walker swam pbs in each of her events, taking 10 seconds off her 50m breaststroke time. Lauren Flint also gained 4 pbs and took 4 seconds off her 50m backstroke (back). Katie Brooks-Shea achieved 3 pbs and took 6 seconds off her 50m breaststroke time. Ella Sowerby swam a pb in her 50m fly.
Together with pbs, medals were also won in the Senior squad. Ryan Baker won gold in the 100m breaststroke and 50m butterfly (fly), together with a bronze in the 50m free. Thomas Power won a gold in the 50m breaststroke and swam a pb in the 100m backstroke (back). Joseph Dobson won gold medals in the 200m Individual Medley (IM), 50m breaststroke, silver medals in the 50, 100 and 200m free. Joseph also took 2 seconds off his previous 200m free time and gained pbs in the 100m free and 200m IM. James Holliday swam pbs in 7 out of 8 of his events and took 4 seconds off his 200m IM. Emily Whitton also gained 7 pbs out of her 8 events. Emily took 9 seconds off her 200m breaststroke time. Nic Cooper won a medal in each of his events, gold in the 50m free, silvers in the 200m IM,200m breaststroke, 50 and 100m back and a bronze in the 200m free. He also gained a pb in the 50m back. Annabel Cooper won gold in the 100 and 200m free and the 200m IM (also a pb), silvers in the 50 and 200m back and 50m free. A fabulous start to the year for the Wear Valley swimmers!