MONNOW Swimming Club pulled off one of their best performances of the year at the Great Gwent Development meet on 24th October in Newport.

The swimmers won a total of 27 medals and broke three meet records out of the 38 races in which they swam.  

The swimmers arrived at the pool in Newport to find a packed spectator gallery and competitors from across south Wales.  

Most of the clubs in the area had sent swimmers to this meet including the larger clubs such as Cardiff and Newport.

This meet consisted of 50m races in all strokes, a 100m individual medley for the nine and 10 year olds and 200m Individual Medley for the other age groups.

Medals were awarded in each age group from nine years up to 13 years. Medals were awarded to swimmers who finished between 1st and 8th place but with as many as 40 swimmers in some age categories it was still a challenge for the swimmers to win a medal.  

Perhaps of even greater importance to the swimmers and the club in general was the challenge of beating individual personal best times and at this meet virtually all the swimmers achieved personal bests in several events.

The swimmers always like to take home medals though and there were plenty won.

Nanci Edwards (10) won two golds and one bronze and a 4th place medal;  Eleanor Emes (12) won one gold, one bronze, a fifth place medal and managed to achieve a national qualifying time in the 50m backstroke.

Alicia Jones (13) won five medals;  Elliot Lynch-Warden (12) won three medals; Joshua Murray (12) won three medals, Amelia Phillips (12) won one gold, one silver and two additional medals; Daisy Phillips (10) won three medals and Laura Willis (13) won two gold medals.

The swimmers and coaches alike left Newport very happy after a long day of racing.  

There has been a steady improvement in the swimmers’ time in the last few months and at this meet everything fell into place.  

The club will continue to train hard for a another meet in December and then take a short break for Christmas, safe in the knowledge that the swimmers are in great shape for the year ahead.