Newcastle Swim Team’s Junior League Team have returned from the inaugural National Arena Junior Swimming League final in Coventry with a fantastic 3rd place finish.
The top 8 teams after the 3 qualifying rounds in May, June and July, all travelled to the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry on Sunday 19th September to race face to face in the grand final. The competition for 9 to 12 year olds, was made up of male and female 50m races in every stroke for each age group, as well as a mixed freestyle relay, mixed medley relay and a squadron freestyle relay to finish off proceedings with one girl and boy from each age group racing.
The final table finished with Basildon and Phoenix at the top on 171 points, Guildford City second on 158 points and Newcastle Swim Team third on 152 points. The other 5 teams in the final were Camden Swiss Cottage, Chelsea and Westminster, Woking, Plymouth Leander and Royal Tonbridge Wells Monson.
As well as taking a fantastic 3rd place overall, two of Newcastle’s swimmers came away with Top Swimmer awards. Congratulations to Eve Hallissey and Matthew Scott who were awarded the Top Swimmer for female and male swimmer in the 12 year old category. After what was already an excellent day the for the Club, the celebrations continued as Newcastle’s supporters picked up the Best Supporters Prize too. The large travelling crowd cheered from start to finish and really did the team proud.
Newcastle’s Head of Performance, Matty Allison said “The Club are really proud of not only the brilliant result but also of how the swimmers competed as a team, supported each other the whole afternoon and just had fun. It was a really long day but the swimmers showed loads of resilience and determination and the smiles on their faces were from ear to ear. I have to say a really big thank you to the organisers, it won’t have been easy to organise in a Covid world, the whole event went so well. And of course a big thank you to the families and friends who travelled all that way to support the team. It was great to be racing again and we’re all really looking forward to the new season.”
