Our 9 – 12 year old team travelled to Corby on Sunday November 29th to defend the prestigious title – and enormous shield – that they won at their first attempt in 2014 at the National Junior Arena League Final.







The event was great fun from the word go and thanks to Laura we paraded in fluorescent green head and wrist bands. To complete the eighties vibe we had the inflatables- 3 electric guitars and a massive ghetto blaster. Much dancing and the National anthem later we got down to the serious business of swimming.

The team were in lane 5 with the formidable teams of City of Leeds and Stockport Metro on either side. The first batch of relays went very well with 3 wins and 4 runner up spots out of the 8 relays. The 9 year old girls’ team consisting of Isabella Dash, Louise Bressler, Heidi Hemming and Lara Turan swam the 4×25 freestyle relay and broke the record with a time of 1.02.00.

The individual events saw the team being very consistent with 7 wins 10 runner up spots and 7 third places out of the 32 races. The 9 year old girls broke 3 more records; Lara Turan in the 50 free (33.03) and 25fly (16.00) and Louise Bressler in the 50 breast (43.68)

The battle continued with Stockport turning out to be the main adversary. Going into the last block of relays the noise level increased tremendously. Once again the team rose to the occasion with some fantastic team swimming. 4 more wins and 3 second spots cemented the victory. The last event was the 8×1 freestyle canon relay and it was 2 teams fighting for the win with Stockport just pipping us by about a second.

Overall the team swam to 39 1st to 3rd places out of the 49 events on the programme and that extremely high level of achievement gave the team a most convincing victory with a 29 points lead!

After much more dancing the presentations were made. Lara Turan won top 9 year old girl and overall Top Girl Record Breaker. The team excitedly applauded all the other teams and then gleefully accepted their medals and posed for the winning team photographs with captains Izzy Fakkel and Jordon McPhail very proudly holding the winner’s trophy and the massive League Shield.










The squad coaches Steve, Sally, Araceli, Andy and Laura were absolutely thrilled with the swimmers’ attitude and tenacity and a fantastic level of performance. Beyond proud!

FULL RESULT

GUILDFORD CITY 320
STOCKPORT METRO 291
CITY OF LEEDS 254
SOUTHPORT 200
PLYMOUTH LEANDER 183
GATESHEAD AND WHICKHAM 175
CITY OF NORWICH 172
NORTHAMPTON 167