THE first weekend of what is possibly the busiest time in Okehampton Otters Swimming Club?s history took place last week.
There are three inter club galas followed by the annual club championships, which will cover three consecutive training nights.
The first of the galas was hosted by Ilminster Swimming Club with the invited teams of Wellington, Minehead, Honiton and the Otters competing for the honours.
With a near full-strength team swimming for the first time in a while the Otters went into the gala with a sense of optimism as Honiton and Ilminster had been recently defeated at Sidmouth.
So it was the teams of Wellington and Minehead that would need to be watched closely.
After the first five events the Otters were winning and as the gala wore on the team gradually pulled away from their opponents by being more consistent in gaining first and second places. They recorded a well deserved winning performance. The margin of victory was 28 points ahead of Minehead and 43 in front of Wellington.
Seventeen first places were recorded with double winners being Vicky Medlyn, with a club record in the 50m breaststroke. Jenny Rice, Matthew Westlake, Charlotte Rowe, club record and county qualifying time in the 50m free, the girls? 13/u freestyle and medley relay teams of Kate Dennis, Vicky, Imogen MacCullock, Natalie Bowles and Becky Rowe.
Individual firsts were swam by Gavin Best, John Radnor, Paul Lawrence, girls? 15/u medley
relay, Becky Rowe club record and county time for 50m back, girls? accumulator relay and finally the mixed canon relay.
These swims were backed up by 12 x seconds with Matthew Westlake and Jo Cade gaining a pair each. Matthew also gained a county time for his breaststroke.
Janek Jachnik also swam a new club record and county time for his effort in the 50m breaststroke.
Surprisingly, only 12 personal best times came from the quality of swimming on show. Amellia Allen erased four seconds from her 50m fly time, Imogen MacCullock swam two seconds faster, twice on her 50m fly swims, and Matthew Westlake erased two seconds from his breaststroke time as well as a pb in the fly.
Other pbs were swum by Nick Bowles, Janek Jachnik, Paul Lawrence, Vicky Medlyn, Charlotte Rowe x 2 and Rebecca Rowe.
Luke Wonnacott and Alex Law swam in their first competitive outing.
Coach Nigel West and one of his assistant coaches, Keith Webber were given the customary dunk by joyous swimmers.
Nigel said it was nice to see some of the swimmers enjoy success for the first time in competition. ?I?m hoping they will go away with a lot of memories from this and taste even more success really soon.?
The club are looking for more people to join the rookie life-guarding session on Fridays at 6pm. If you are interested in joining this or the swimming side of the club contact Nigel on 53431.