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Wandsworth Swimming Club
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National Arena League Wandsworth Swimmers Excel in London Arena League Wandsworth Swimming Club clinched fifth place in a closely fought championship final featuring the strongest clubs in Division 1 of the London League. In Saturdays event, at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre, Hatfield took an early lead over Ealing but the Wandsworth swimmers more than held their own and achieved twelve top three places in individual and relay events. The gala is the culmination of a winter programme which involved twenty four clubs in London and surrounding areas. The top eight after the first two rounds were selected to compete in Saturdays final, which according to Wandsworth coach, Marina Pollara, was itself a good achievement: “It was impressive to make the finals - to actually come fifth was just fantastic. For many of our younger swimmers this was a first exposure to such high level competition and it really gives them something to build on in the months ahead.” Wandsworth will now enter a virtual national swim off based on times from Saturdays races - the outcome could result in swimmers competing in Sheffield next Easter. To get so far is a sign of how hard the South London swimmers have worked - many turning up for training sessions during the recent snow and some of the older ones swimming for up to eighteen hours a week. A large number of supporters came to cheer the team on and were impressed by the times achieved in individual and relay events.
Hiroki Harazawa did a personal
best to come second in the 100m Butterfly and then went
one step further to clinch first place in the 15 and
under 100m Breaststroke. Another convincing win was
achieved by Katie Mackenzie in the girls 13 and under
Breaststroke and the girls relay teams in both 13 and
under, 15 and under and the open age groups were
consistently strong. The same was also true for the boys
15 and under and open relay teams. Some of the boys
Freestyle events were so close it was almost impossible
to see who had touched first, with swimmers like fifteen
year old Jack Beddoes achieving terrific times. According to coach Marina Pollara it is a punishing schedule but the hard work definitely pays off; “All of these youngsters deserve such praise for what they’ve achieved. To do so well at this level gives us a great boost and shows that if you put the effort in there’s a lot of reward. The gala was terrific and I couldn’t be happier with how well they’ve done. I said to them at the beginning the most important thing was to pull together as a team and they did that in terrific style and to great effect.“
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