National League Rd 3 - Truro Swim Club

Truro City finish 4th in the National Swimming Western Division 1 Final ...

Truro City Swimming Club's final journey of 2008 saw them travel to the new 50 metre International pool at Cardiff to compete in the Western Division 1 final of the National Swimming league, formerly known as the "Speedo League". With 10 teams competing in the gala there were a lot of points to be gained and the opposition came in the form of teams from Swim Swansea, City of Newport, Torfaen County, Blaenau-Gwent, Cardiff City 'B', Weston Super Mare, Yeovil, Dinnaton & Stroud.

Truro started the gala in third place in the division behind Swansea and Torfaen, with Newport close behind in fourth, and with promotion to the Premier division available to the top two clubs, the pressure was on the swimmers to perform at their very best.

The first two events were the Open 200m Individual Medley swims which produced a 4th place for girls captain Natasha Diment and an outstanding victory for the unstoppable Dave Bartlett. Good start, however the next 8 events of age group relays only brought two top three for the Truro team, those being 2nd in the girls 13/under medley relay for Kay De Courcy, Amelia Grigg, Nicola Russell & Kasharna Staines, and 3rd in the Open boys medley relay for Jack Middleton, Dave Bartlett, George Haynes & Andrew Cooke. Truro were now 7th overall in the gala and, even though it was early, the league leaders were charging off into the distance!

The next 32 events produced some exceptional swimming from Truro's youngsters as they proceeded to fight their way back up the leader board, but with the standard of the competition it was always going to be tough in the long course pool. However they gained a number of top three placings for the following swimmers:- Amelia Grigg - 2nd in 13/u 50m Breaststroke; Luke Hollis - 1st in 13/u 50m Backstroke; Natasha Diment - 3rd in Open 100m Backstroke; Josie Williams - 3rd in 13/u 50m Butterfly & Open 100m Freestyle; Dave Bartlett - 1st in Open 100m Breaststroke; Dominic Goodwin - 3rd in 11/u 50m Freestyle; Kay De Courcy - 1st in 13/u 50m Freestyle; Meisha Wardman - 3rd in 15/u 100m Breaststroke. Truro were now back up to 5th place overall going into the final batch of relays. Could they finish with a flourish?

With another 3 top three places in the final 8 relay events they did their very best. The girl's 13/u Freestyle relay team of Kay De Courcy, Nicola Russell, Kasharna Staines & Josie Williams were victorious in their event and the boy's equivalent age group team of Luke Hollis, Alex Stephens, Matt Trewella & Luc Hesdon finished in 3rd place. The final event of the Open 6 x 50m Freestyle relay saw Truro come 2nd with the team of George Haynes, Michael Grant, Chris Panther, Charlie Middleton, Andrew Cooke & Dave Bartlett.

So Truro finished 4th overall with 284 points behind the champions Swansea, runners up Newport and surprise third placed Weston Super Mare. A wonderful effort all round from Truro, as some of the younger swimmers were doing individual swims for the first time. Well done Truro City Swimmers.

For the full Results click Here