Pembrokeshire Puffins Inaugural Open Disability Meet

01/12/07 Pembroke Leisure Centre

The Dragons Squad. Back Row from left to right; Ryan, Patrick, Scott, Nathan, Laurence and Bethan. Front Row from left to right; Philip, Sophie and Jonathan.

The Dragons Disabled Swimming Club took 9 swimmers to the very first Pembrokeshire Puffins disability gala held at Pembroke Leisure Centre on Saturday December 1^st. Included in the squad were two members making their debuts for the club, Sophie Hodges and Scott Goodman. The other members who competed were Patrick Alabaster, Bethan Eke, Jonathan Eke, Nathan Eke, Philip Lowman, Laurence Perks and Ryan Smith.

Starting us off was Sophie Hodges who swam in the 9m Freestyle race in the small pool winning a Gold Medal in her first swim for the Dragons.

Sophie Collecting her Gold Medal.

Second debutant Scott Goodman competed in three individual events winning 2 gold and a silver.  

Scott receiving a gold medal with Philip in silver medal position.

Top medal winners on the day for the Dragons were Patrick Alabaster and Bethan Eke, both winning 3 individual gold medals.

Bethan Eke and Patrick Alabaster topping to podium.

All swimmers came home with a haul of individual medals each with 22 personal bests being set in the 25 races.

Laurence and Nathan in silver and gold positions and Nathan topping the podium a second time.

Ryan in Gold with Philip in 4th. Scott in silver with Ryan in Gold again.

We also entered two relays in the gala. The first relay was the mixed 4x25m Freestyle Relay. Unfortunately, Megan Jones was ill on the morning of the gala and could not compete. This left us in a position where we had to enter an all male team into this relay. The team of Nathan Eke, Scott Goodman, Jonathan Eke and Patrick Alabaster won the gold and a shield for the club in a time of 1:34.79. After a brief discussion the team decided that it would not be fair to take the trophy after entering an all male team, but this offer was turned down by the organisers, as they believed that because of the circumstances we were deserving of keeping the shield. A nice gesture by both parties involved.

The 4x25m Freestyle Relay team from L to R; Patrick, Nathan, Scott and Jonathan.