Swimming Gala v Gayhurst School, Thursday 4 February 2016
12th February 2016
On 4 February, 33 children from Years 4, 5 and 6 took part in a friendly gala against Gayhurst School. For some pupils this was their first experience in a swimming gala, for others it was another chance to show improvement. Each competitor took part in at least one main event and one or more relay races. Last time we competed against Gayhurst it was a boys only event, however now that Gayhurst has a few girls it was a very different fixture indeed.
We started the competition with a Year 6 individual medley, this is a difficult event as it involves swimming 100 metres (25m with all four strokes) Evie F, Jess C, Elliot H, and Ethan H gave it their best. Jess finished 2nd and Ethan 3rd in these events. Back crawl races followed; Gateway came 2nd in most of the races except Emily B and Lily P who performed exceptionally well and succeeded in finishing first. Gateway performed well in the Breast stroke races gaining 1st place in 4 of the 6 races. Lucy Q in Year 4 stormed ahead of the others finishing first with Penny D showing great effort finishing a little behind her in second place. Lucy A and Amelia O in Year 5 swam with similar success coming 1st and 2nd respectively. In Year 6 Jess C and Oakley D also finished 1st, well done!
The Year 5 and 6 butterfly races followed. This is a very difficult stroke and all who took part gave it their very best effort. Here Amelia O, Year 5, was successful in coming 1st.
The last stroke in the individual category was the freestyle race. Once again, we were successful in winning races or coming 2nd. Lucy Q finished 1st again, this time with Polly G in second place. In Year 5 Abigail H and Harry N both managed to win their races with Stephanie B and Oakley D behind them in 2nd place. Emily B (Year 6) came 2nd in her race. Well done!
The medley relays were next and this time the teams were mixed with 2 boys and 2 girls in each race. Year 4 came 1st and 3rd; Year 5 - 2nd and 3rd and the two Year 6 teams came equal 3rd. In the Freestyle relays, Year 4 and 5 came 2nd and 3rd and Year 6- 2nd and 4th.
The last race was the squadron relay in which I thought we needed 2 Year 4, 2 Year 5 and 2 Year 6 swimmers, however I was mistaken and we needed twice that! Unfortunately therefore I had not organised the team to our advantage so sadly we finished 3rd and 4th but it was indeed an exciting race!
The effort the children made at this gala was magnificent, so much so that the atmosphere it created made for a truly friendly but competitive evening. Many of the races were extremely closely fought. Everyone who took part should be very proud of themselves, no matter where they finished. I was truly delighted with their performances. Well done to all! Gayhurst enjoyed it so much they have offered us another date in June to compete again. So keep swimming!!
The pupils who took part were:
Yr 4 – Lucy Q, Penny D, Polly G, Felicity B, Amber O, Toby G-K, Alex H, George C, Sam W, Aidan D
Yr 5 – Abigail H, Amelia O, Lucy A, Lily P, Stephanie B, Josie G-R, Harry N, Oakley D, Thomas T, Kieren M, Dominic H
Yr 6 – Jessica C (Capt), Evie F, Emily B, Hannah W, Jack W (Capt), Ethan H, Harry H, Cai L, Cormac N, Elliot H, Jamie R, Alex P.