CARNEGIE GRADED MEET - REPORT
SATURDAY 21 & SUNDAY 22 JANUARY 2012
CARNEGIE LEISURE CENTRE, DUNFERMLINE

13 swimmers from DCA competed in this graded meet over two days at the recently refurbished pool at Dunfermline - an excellent facility.  The gala was very busy and many of our swimmers entered were not accepted due to the numbers of competitors.  DCA swimmers competed in 34 events achieving 26 PBs, 1 gold and 1 bronze medals, 4 x 4th and 2 x 6th
places – an excellent achievement.

The poolside was very busy and it was a long, tiring weekend for some of the swimmers competing, especially those in all 4 sessions. There was some fantastic swimming with many achieving personal best times.  Some younger swimmers were competing in their first big competition so well done to them; this was a good learning experience.

Congratulations to Darren Mitchell who took 4th place in the 100m butterfly, and 6th in the 200m free and 100m backstroke events with massive PBs! 

Jamie Ingledew took gold in the very exciting 100m breaststroke event, 3rd in the 100m butterfly, and 4th in the 400m freestyle events. 

Fergus Ingledew took 4th place in the 100m backcrawl events.

Other swimmers competing were Bethany Cathro, Rachel Strachan, Cara Walsh,  Jack Dalgety, Kristof Hornyik, Conor Walsh, Keiran Forster, Luke Macintyre, Greg Roberts, and John Watson– congratulations to all for their efforts in the pool – well done swimmers!

Chris Gellatly had to withdraw due to a broken wrist, Natasha Teto has chickenpox, and Adrian Venter, Frances Eva and Lorna Husband all had to withdraw due to stomach bugs. Hopefully they will all recover soon and be back in the pool
ready to compete again soon!

The swimmers behaviour and attitude pool side was excellent – well done to all.

Gillian Burnett, Junior Coach

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Info for swimmers and coaches attending the Carnegie Graded meet on Saturday and Sunday 21 and 22 January. 
The pool manager has requested that the first warm up is put back to 9:00am both days, to allow time to set up in the morning. This means the afternoon warm ups will be at 1:30 each day and the gala will finish at 5:30. Apologies for the late notice. 

Swimmers should store their clothes in the lockers in the changing village for which a £1 refundable deposit is required. 

Please ask swimmers to bring their belongings poolside in small bags and to store most of their kit in the lockers. 

There will be no access to the poolside until 8:50 each morning.  Gala swimmers will be asked to wait outside the changing village until about 8:40 although the facility will be in use by other swim groups. 

There is a separate dry changing area at the rear of the building also providing lockers, which officials and coaches should use. 

There is now a free shuttle bus service from the free Leys Park Road car park to the Carnegie Leisure Centre: 

Tesco will be providing a FREE shuttle bus service during the period between the closure of the existing Pilmuir Street and Bruce Street public car parks and the opening to the public of the new Tesco car park. The shuttle bus will operate between Leys Park Road and the Dunfermline Bus Station, including a stop at the newly refurbished Carnegie Leisure Centre when it reopens, at a frequency of every 15 minutes between 0700 and 2000 Monday – Saturday and 0700 – 1800 on a Sunday. 

Hope you all have a great weekend,

Andra Laird
Gala convenor.

ALSO: Swimmers/Parents There will be no training at St John's for junior potential and development squads on Saturday 21 Jan due to the Stirling and Caenigie meets at the weekend. Gillians squad still training at 9.00-10.00. 

Drew 
Squad Coach

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News

1st Division – DCA Team 2

The final 1st Division gala for 2011 was held on Saturday 12 November at Olympia hosted by DCA.  Congratulations to all the swimmers who competed – some were participating in their first competition and this was an excellent opportunity to gain experience competing in the pool and being part of the team. 

There were some excellent performances – well done to all swimmers in the team.

DCA Team 2 finished 4th in this gala and were placed 4th overall in the league for 2011.   Perth City are the 1st Division League winners for 2011 and the team was presented with trophies at the end of the gala.  Many thanks to all the swimmers from DCA who stayed after the swimming events to congratulate and applaud the winning team – this was greatly appreciated by Perth City officials and swimmers and their President asked me to pass on their thanks to the team from DCA for this very sporting support.

However, it must be pointed out that it was very disappointing that there were so many swimmers and relay teams missing at this gala. A huge number of 27 swimmers who were selected to compete in this meet pulled out for a variety of reasons and it was not possible therefore for DCA to have a full team on this occasion. Swimmers missed out on 8 relay team events as there was not the required amount of swimmers in age group teams. Swimmers and parents have known the dates of all the league galas since January and these are posted on the website and noticeboards.

The league galas are very important for DCA – we are a competitive swimming club. The coaches would like to see a huge improvement in commitment and attitude in 2012 from swimmers selected to compete in the league galas.  Dates and teams will be announced early in the new year – get the dates in your diary or phone reminders as soon as they are announced and please make every effort to attend if selected.  Thank you.

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Baby News

Congratulations to Izy on the birth of her baby girl on Saturday 12 November.

Izy coaches the young swimmers in the Skill Development Squad and we hope to see her back helping with DCA soon ……….. and DCA has a new swimmer for the future!

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Letter sent to Dave Clark, President of DCA:

Dear president.
 
I don't know if it protocol for parents of a swimmer to contact the hosting club after a gala. So please disregard this e-mail if it it is not the done thing.
 
My daughter was swimming for Coast at the weekend, and had a fantastic time. She swam well had some good pbs and won a couple of medals. But far and above that, what made it a fantastic weekend for her was the general atmosphere of the gala which your swimmers contributed massively toward.

Despite being very competitive in the water, your swimmers were very friendly, and gracious out of it, and were a fantastic example, of the true meaning of sport. My daughter reeled out lots of names of  swimmers who were very friendly and chatty at the meet, with  Ellie, and Kirsty being the names I remember, but there were many more on top of that younger and older.
 
Id just like to say what a fantastic advert they were for your club, and no doubt an example of the sporting and friendly ethos that is passed down from the coaches, committee and senior swimmers at your club.
 
As i said i don't know the correct protocol, regarding passing on thanks, but if it is possible please pass on our thanks to everyone associated with the gala. And everyone on poolside for being such welcoming and friendly hosts.
 
Kind Regards

Well done everybody - you are all such ambassadors for the club...

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Cap order has arrived.  Please pay any balance due before collecting from Jenny

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DCA Tracksuits - A special order will be going in for DCA tracksuits soon.. see Tracksuits.doc (orders to be placed by 23rd October)

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