Well done to all our swimmers at the Soundwell Open Meet at Hutton Moor in Weston-Super-Mare.

You all did so well with plenty of PB’s and many adding to their County qualifying times.

Swimmers achieving Club Records were Harriet Purshousr taking Hannah Kibbles 200m Freestyle record from 2013 and improving on Zea Levys 200m Backstroke record from 2014 by 10 seconds. Thomas Rawlings also improved on his own 200m Freestyle record.

Wow, a great 3 days of competition for swimmers, we hope everyone had a great time.

The results are on Swim England rankings, Swim Manager and our noticeboard at the pool. Plenty of swimmers achieved County Championship qualifying times for 2024 or improved on their already QT. The County list is also on our noticeboard.

Well done to the following swimmers who achieved Club Records in their races:

Nia W improvement in her 200m breaststroke

Jessi S a new Club Record in 100 breaststroke for 8 year olds

George R and Beatrice P, new Club Records in 100m freestyle for 8 year olds

As always, a great big thank you to all the coaches, officials and helpers – we could not do it without you.

All our competitive swimmers aspire to achieve qualifying times for the Gloucester County Championships (and Regional) as they improve their speed and strokes.

What is the Gloucester County ASA Swimming Championship?

It is a competition organised by the County held in January and February each year at the 50m pool in Bristol, it is open to all swimmers aged 10 and over (age as at 31/12/2024) who qualify from the 20 clubs in Gloucestershire.

To qualify for the 2024 Championships, swimmers must have achieved a time between 1^st January 2023 and end of December 2023 in a Licenced Meet faster than the published Gloucester County qualifying time (found on our website and noticeboard).  Licensed Meets are all the Open Meets the Club enters during the year where you pay for individual races and our Club Championships.

We have put a list on the noticeboard of Gloucester County Championship qualifying times and swimmers’ current times.

Please talk to the coaches or our reception if you need more information.

GL1 Pool was the venue for the latest Gloucester City Open Meet. After some last minute concerns following the abrupt closure of the venue, the organisers saw that the event ran smoothly and with no disruption to the swimmers.

27 Cinderford swimmers took part, as always among great team spirit and encouragement, achieving 52 PB’s, 41 Gloucester County qualifying times and 2 South West Regional qualifying times. The results are on our noticeboard. Well done to everyone.

New Club Records were achieved by:

Chase L in 200m IM who took Todd’s record which had stood since 2012

Harriet P who to Zea’s 100m Backstroke record which had stood since 2014 and

Thomas R who improved his own 400m freestyle record.

The Teaching group had an opportunity to put all that training into practice with races of 50m Frontcrawl and 50m Breaststroke on Monday and 50m Backstroke and 50m Butterfly on the Friday. All the swimmers were up for the challenge and it was so exciting to see so many smiling faces around poolside. Well done to all of you.

The County and Development squads had team galas both days with swimmers cheering on their team mates and lots of swimmers taking on new distances and strokes. Hopefully this will get everyone in the mood for the Club Championships in November.

We were also very lucky to have 10 new timekeepers doing their practical assessments over the 2 nights – thank you and well done to you all.

Well done swimmers at the Sprint Meet in September, there were fantastic results by everyone. The day went by in a blur with so many swimmers competing at 50m of all strokes and 100m IM. Also the girls put in teams in all age groups.

Medals were collected by Flora for her 50 fly and 50 free, Chase for 50 free, 50 breast, 50 fly and 100 IM, Thomas for 50 breast and 50 fly, Nia for 50 free, 50 fly and 100 IM, Harriet for 50 back, and the freestyle relay team consisting of Daisy, Libby, Nia and Millie.

Swimming County Championship 2024 qualifying times on the day were James, Chase, Thomas, Nia, Daisy, Grace C, Izzy B, Toby and George. Swimmers who now achieved or improved on their qualifying times for their first County Championships were Millie, Flora, Harriett, Florence and Lilly-Ann.

The Club is very proud of Nia who finished off the seasion at the SW Summer Open Nationals at Swansea with great results. She achieved a silver medal for her 200m butterfly and a bronze medal for her 400m IM against very strong opposition with new long course PBs in both.

She also PB’d in the 200m breaststroke in both her heat and again in the final.

Wow what a great team spirit was shown by all our swimmers at the final event of the Junior League – the relays at GL1.  To add to the atmosphere all our swimmers were given hats and cheered each other on with great enthusiasm.

10 new swimmers got their first opportunity to swim for the Club, showing no nerves and we hope this has given them a flavour of competing and that they will be keen to participate again. They were:

• Kyriee
• Yona
• Tabs
• Bethany
• Grace W
• Alex J
• Alex H
• Gilad
• Jack
• William

Well done to ALL our swimmers, who swam at their very best and were a credit to the Club.  We hope you all enjoyed the evening and look forward to the next competition.

A great weekends swimming for Cinderford in a relaxed atmosphere at GL1 at the Gloucester City Open Meet.

All the swimmers stepped up to the blocks with confidence and this showed in the many, many PBs and new times achieved over the weekend.

6 Club Records were broken:

• Thomas Rawlings in the 200m freestyle took the record for the 13 year age group held since 2008 and also the 400m freestyle record held since 2010.
• Nia Westlake improved on her own 200m IM Club Record, also the 100m butterfly record held since 2016 and improved on her 200m butterfly record by over 3 seconds.
• Morgan Peck swimming in the Open age group in the 400m free took the record held since 2013

Gold Medals were won by: Chase Lane (100m Breast, 200m Breast, 100m Fly, 50m Breast), Flora Loveridge (50m Fly), Penelope Tudor (100m Fly), Nia Westlake (200m Fly, 400m IM), Libby Hughes (400m IM)

Silver Medals were won by: Daisy Stuart-Gunter (50m Back), Penelope Tudor (200m IM), Nia Westlake (200m IM, 100m Fly, 50 Breast, 200m Breast), Chase Lane (100m Free, 50m Fly), Thomas Rawlings (200m Free)

Bronze Medals were won by: Thomas Rawlings (100m Free, 50m Fly), Chris Hadfield (400m IM), Morgan Peck (100m Back), Daisy Stuart-Gunter (100m Breast, 100m Back), Grace Plant (200m Back), Aaryan Halai (50m Fly), Libby Hughes (100m Free, 50m Free)

Adding to the growing number of swimmers with County Qualifying Times for 2024 were youngsters:

• Lilly-Ann Rogers           100m free and            50m Back
• Flora Loveridge            50m Fly
• With Morgan Peck adding another 2 new events to his portfolio: 100m Free and 100m Back

Swimmers taking part in their first Open Meet were:

• Flora Loveridge
• Florence Gardener
• Betsie Matthews
• Kyriee Childs

And competing in strokes or distances never competed at before were:

• Ella Plant                       400m Free
• Lily Bevan                      200m IM       
• Penelope Tudor           200m IM and 100m Fly
• Chris Hadfield               400m IM
• Thomas Rawlings         400m Free
• Chase Lane                    400m Free
• Libby Hughes                200m Fly

Well done to everyone who took part, who coached or officiated on the weekend, to see the swimmers reap the rewards of their efforts in training was great to see.

Thank you to everyone who came to Beechenhurst for this years annual event, as always it was a memorable event for all involved. Thanks to the team on the BBQ and refreshments for all their efforts and thank you to Andy and the bike team for their endeavours despite the rain shower, we hope you all enjoyed yourselves.