	Week Beginning 02/11/2009

Successful Gala presents memorial trophy for the first time......

     Anthony Swift, winner of the inaugural Mark Headden Memorial Award for the most
    improved swimmer of the year, pictured with Mark's parents at the recent Lothian
    Disability Sport swimming gala

The Lothian Disability Sport swimming gala for club swimmers with a disability took place at Dalkeith Campus on Saturday 26th September.

This venue has been the home of this event for the last four years and we would like to thank them for their efforts in making it such a success. The spectator seating was completely full and some were left standing as they watched the action unfold. This ‘sell out’ crowd certainly added to the atmosphere and made the gala even more memorable.

Almost 50 swimmers competed, many of which were making their competitive debut and everyone performed well. To see so many new faces and younger swimmers at the gala indicates that swimming in this area is improving all the time and that is testament to all the clubs, coaches and volunteers. We even had a team of six swimmers travel down from Stirling.

This cross-region partnership working increases opportunities to compete and the Lothian swimmers are more than welcome to compete on Stirling soil if they wish.

Unfortunately, there will be no Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) galas for the Lothian squad to compete at this year due to a deterioration of the relationship between SDS and Scottish Swimming (SS). These two bodies were once incredibly close, however they are now operating independently which cannot be in the best interest of disabled swimmers. Numerous meetings have been held and sportscotland officers have tried unsuccessfully to help SDS and SS find a solution. Central to the conflict is the determination of SS to take over all performance swimming and the management of representative Scottish swim teams. For over three decades this has been the responsibility of SDS as the lead body.

Hopefully, a solution to this dispute will happen sooner rather than later so that our swimmers can continue with their progression.

On a positive note, Lothian Disability Sport had the honour of presenting the Mark Headden Memorial Award for the first time and were delighted when Mark's parents agreed to attend to present this to the ‘most improved swimmer of the year.’

This accolade went to Lothian Racers’ swimmer, Anthony Swift who has made an enormous improvement over the past year. Anthony, who has Cerebral Palsy, has progressed from not being able to swim a length of the pool to competing in his first gala. In doing so he has shown a great amount of courage and determination as well as ensuring a smile is always on his face.

He was truly humbled by the announcement and we hope that his swimming continues to progress.

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                  Lothian Success at IPC European Swimming Championships

The 2009 IPC European Swimming Championships took place in Reykjavík, Iceland last week and Lothian swimmers Jim Anderson (MBE) and Sean Fraser were two of only three Scots to make the British team. Once again they were amongst the medals.

Sean took three individual bronze medals in the S8 class in the 100m backstroke where he repeated his finishing position from Beijing last year, the 400m freestyle, and the 50m freestyle where he had an impressive swim to break the British record. He also broke the British Record in 100m Freestyle finishing 4th. In addition, Sean swam in the heats of the 4x100m Freestyle relay, an event where the British team took gold in the final holding off a strong challenge from Spain.

Jim Anderson, in the S2 class, won gold in his first event, 50m Freestyle but was disappointed with his next two swims finishing out of the medals in the 100m Freestyle and 3rd in the 200m Free. He was happier with his last swim, the 50m Backstroke, where he took silver. Jim was also the lead off man in the men’s 4x50m medley relay team, which took a silver medal.