DOUBLE FOR DOLPHINS Livingston club celebrate awards joy Shock defeat for Snakebite
Livingston and District Dolphins Amateur Swimming Club are celebrating a significant double achievement.
The Dolphins have once again been awarded the top level SwiMarkplus accreditation by Scottish Swimming.
The celebration reflects the achievement of both the ‘competitive’ Development section of the club, and the ‘Learn to Swim’ Dolphins Swim School both being re-awarded SwiMark plus.
Three years ago, LDD became the first club in Scotland to achieve this double and are delighted to again be accredited by Scottish Swimming.
SwiMarkplus shows that LDD can demonstrate a commitment to developing the club, swimmers, coaches, teachers, poolside helpers, and volunteers, in safe and effective ways as well as having structures and pathways in place to try to ensure lifelong participation in the sport.
Proud club president Graham Templeton explained the importance of the SwiMark plus accreditation.
“We aim to be a sustainable and strong community based swimming club, from Learn to Swim through to competitive swimming,” he said.
“To help achieve this we require all our coaches and teachers to be UKCC qualified, fully licensed with Scottish Swimming and to follow an ongoing programme of Continuous Professional Development, this includes first aid and lifeguard training.
“We also want to give all our current swimmers the opportunity to continue the long term future of the club by helping and volunteering at the club as they get older and we have worked hard over a number of years to get the relevant structures in place to achieve and maintain this.
“We have worked closely with Scottish Swimming to demonstrate how this works across the club and Scottish Swimming have visited the Dolphins Swim School to see our Learn to Swim programme for themselves.”
He added: “I would like to thank our committee, coaching team, teaching team, poolside helpers, squad coordinators, technical officials, and other volunteers.
“It’s all their ongoing hard work and commitment that ensures that we provide the opportunity for our swimmers to fulfil their potential”.
The Dolphins Swim School is the only Learn to Swim provider in West Lothian who are working in partnership with Scottish Swimming to deliver the new National Framework for Swimming in Scotland.
For further details about LDD email the club secretary lddsecretary@ hotmail. co. uk or if you wish to find out more about the Learn to Swim programme, email dolphinsswimschool@hotmail.com. lost to Stephen Bunting while sixth seed, and two times Grand Prix champion, James Wade took the first set in his clash with Terry Jenkins only to lose the next two and make a first round exit on the first day.
But the biggest name to make a swift exit was Phil‘The Power’Taylor who lost to Steve West in three sets.
Much like Wade, Taylor eased to the first set but West was in the form of his life on the doubles with a 101 check out seeing him win the second set before winning the tie with a 62 finish in set three.
Michael Smith, seeded eighth, also lost out in the first round, losing to Bo’ness man Alan Norris.
The final takes place on Saturday evening.
The 46-year-old Wright has been frustratingly inconsistent in his form this season, regularly reaching the latter stages of tournaments but being unable to push on and seal a title.
He will be playing in front of a home crowd next month when he goes for the World Series of Darts title at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow on November 5 and 6.