Beckenham Rising Stars

Last weekend Ojays took 38 swimmers to Beckenham Spa for the Beckenham SC Rising Stars Gala. This was Beckenham’s first gala since before Covid and it was fantastic to be back in their super 8 lane 25m pool. With so many top-class clubs in attendance competition was fierce but Ojays certainly held their own with 59 (one third of all swims) recording a personal best. A big congratulations to all those who achieved new or improved county and regional level times.

An amazing 40% of all our swimmers came home with a medal – 4 Gold, 9 Silver and 17 Bronze, and a ton of 4ths and 5ths that came so close to the honours. There were so many other amazing swims and PBs so well done everyone that took part!

As usual, our swimmers were impeccable and fantastic ambassadors for the club.

Thank you to coaches Simon and Joe. TMs Jo, Julie, Lindsay, Mark, Shereen. Officials Amanda, Dave, Eoin, Mark and Claire. Special thanks to Dave for coming down to officiate without a swimmer (and missing Sam’s debut Mount Kelly gala in Plymouth …well done Sam too!).

Just to note, there are new J1 official courses available. Most of this is now online and we can even sign you off on disciplines from the comfort of our own pool during training. We do need the next batch of officials to come forward and volunteer as we can’t enter competitions or run club champs without you and as the older swimmers leave, we also lose our most experienced officials. We are in desperate need of more support for our swimmers so please email [email protected] for more information.