Excellent performances by our younger swimmers at the recent Future Challenger meet

Our younger competitors got a taste of the competitive side of swimming at the recent Future Challengers meet organised by SWSC in the Douglas pool. In many ways this group, which represents the future of the club, were most affected by the pandemic. While the Seniors and Intermediates had regular exercise Zooms throughout the lockdown, the Juniors were prevented from swimming, with most of the younger ones still in the Learn to Swim group. Now under the new Assistant Head Coach Michael Merrigan and his team of coaches they are improving rapidly!

The recent Future Challengers meet featured nearly 50 SWSC competitors, a record number in recent times. Many had recently been promoted from the Learn to Swim program and showed excellent skill levels across all four strokes. Apart from individual events where there were a large number of first, second and third places (see results elsewhere on the website), there were nine SWSC relay teams competing which added greatly to the excitement. The improvement in technique and race strategy was very apparent, and it was particularly pleasing to see everyone competing in the Individual Medley events. To succeed in swimming, a mixture of improving fitness and higher skill levels is required and both of these aspects are being developed. 

Crucially, we believe that these youngsters are enjoying the competitions (which is vital if swimmers are to continue in the sport). Their successes are a testimony to the great work being done by Margot and her LTS team also. The team spirit displayed by all the swimmers was notable but it would not have happened without the major support by team managers and parents. 

We look forward to the next one 👏.