South Tyneside Autumn Gala Report: Coach Adrian
Well, that was some weekend at the South Tyneside gala at Haven Point. We had fast swims, long swims, fire alarms, noise (oh, lots of noise!) and a bunch of very happy swimmers by Sunday evening.
We kicked off with 9 swimmers entering the 800m event, with seven achieving amazing PB’s, which set the tone for the weekend. On Saturday we had 27 swimmers attending the morning session and 29 attending the afternoon session, which kept our TM’s on their toes, particularly as the squad were placed in the cool down pool area well away from the main pool.
Sunday was even more exciting. We had 30 swimmers for the morning, which was interrupted part way through for a fire alarm, and we had to evacuate the building for 30 minutes, which meant trying to keep our swimmers warm. Lots of foil blankets were dished out, and we eventually returned for a new warm-up before we could get underway once again. For the afternoon we had 25 swimmers to see us through to the end of the gala.
| Session | No. of swims | No. of PB’s | Overall % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 | 7 | 78 |
| 2 | 45 | 24 | 53 |
| 3 | 49 | 22 | 45 |
| 4 | 60 | 31 | 52 |
| 5 | 42 | 26 | 62 |
This gives us an overall PB rate of 58% for the gala, which is an extremely positive start to the new season. We’ve not had the greatest of starts to this season to prepare the swimmers for the first external gala of the season, especially with the pool being partially out of use for the initial two and a half weeks.
The future is looking very promising, with our new Performance Coach, Calum, starting tomorrow. I have no doubt that his energy and enthusiasm will rub off on all the swimmers, and his impact will be seen across the club as we move through this season.
A huge thank you to Sam for coaching the swimmers throughout the weekend. To all our TM’s, Debra, Laura, Linda and Helen for managing and supporting the swimmers superbly in not ideal conditions. To our officials who supported the gala so well, Paul, Jo, Miriam, William, Victoria, Sarah, Stephanie, John and Chloe.
And finally, to the parents for turning up and shouting our swimmers on so loudly. We definitely know where the Durham contingent sit at every gala!
