Children get in the swim at club’s successful meet

» CHELTENHAM’S Swimming and Water Polo Club’s first open meet for many years was a huge success with hundreds of children from around the region diving in.

The meet took place at Leisure at Cheltenham in Tommy Taylor’s Lane and involved 10 clubs from Gloucestershire and the West Midlands.

Around 265 children aged from nine to 18 took part and parent volunteers from the club helped ensure the smooth running of the event, taking on roles including pool-side officials, front-desk ticket sales, and marshalling.

Claire Wiggins, promoter for the meet, said the event was an excellent way not only to demonstrate the talent within the squad, but also to showcase the progress the club had made in recent years.

“We are a growing club, and we felt the time was right to take the next step in our growth by holding an open meet for us and other clubs within the region” said Mrs Wiggins, whose two daughters both swim for Cheltenham.

“We are nurturing a lot of talent and this is a great way to show this off – not only do we have some great swimmers at a local level, we are seeing many of our children reaching county and regional level.

“At the moment, with the ever increasing popularity of swimming in this country thanks to the success of Team GB at international level, we have a steady stream of enquiries about joining the club. W e are always on the look-out for more talent so we encourage anyone whose child might be interested in joining us to get in touch”.

The club, founded in 1887, now has about 200 swimmers, plus water polo and synchronised swimming sections.