REN96’s 2024/25 season started with a big splash when the club hosted its ‘Pentaqua’ meet at Linwood’s On-x swimming pool. In this unusual event format every swimmer who entered had to swim all 5 events, which included 100m individual medley, 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle (for the youngest swimmers in the 7-8 year old group it was 25m butterfly, breast and freestyle) and it’s a great sign of the depth of talent at REN96 that they were able to field an impressive 69 swimmers for this great event. It was good to see the season get off to such a fast, exciting competitive start as the visiting clubs (from Inverclyde, Kilmarnock, Milngavie and Bearsden, Oban, Rutherglen, West Dunbartonshire, Bellshill and Stranraer) brought great squads with them.
REN96’s Head Coach Ross McCafferty said “It was amazing to see our athletes back in the water, racing fast and on home soil as well. For it being the first meet of the year our swimmers came diving off the blocks, achieving huge personal bests and a massive medal haul - 23 gold medals, 22 silver medals and 21 bronze medals. Congratulations go especially to REN96 swimmers Orla, Evie, Rhys and Ryan who surfaced as overall champions in their age groups. A huge thank you to the 8 clubs from all over the west of Scotland that made the Pentaqua meet so exciting, competitive and fun and to all the coaches and volunteers who helped organise and run the meet - without their constant support these meets would not be possible.”
There is also exciting news for some of REN96’s Senior Performance swimmers with Charlotte, Adam, Tom and Magnus having been selected for the prestigious National Youth Academy, and Charlotte, Adam and Magnus having also been selected to represent Scotland West at this year’s Intercounties Championship. It’s great to see their hard work and excellent performances last season being rewarded with exciting development opportunities.
What an excellent start to REN96’s 2024/2025 season!
Allan Kelly for REN96
