SWIMMING: Best yet for Dunstable SC at County Champs

With 50 qualifiers, the biggest medal haul ever and highest amount of regional qualifying swimmers since 2005, the team had every reason to be extremely proud of its achievements.

The competition was held over two weekends, and was long course, being swum in the 50m pool at Luton’s Inspire Centre.

Following the first weekend of competition, DSC were in third position in the points table, and they held on to that during the second weekend too, claiming overall bronze with 969pts.

In total, DSC picked up an incredible 32 gold medals, 32 silver and 18 bronze, showing how far they’ve come in four years, when they managed a mere four golds.

There were also 40 boys’ and 29 girls’ new and broken club records, plus Fina points awarded to the top swims over the competition, and again DSC did tremendously well.

Oliver Bradshaw won his top swim for the boys 10yrs, Bryony Mathias won hers for the girls 10yrs and Walter Hackett in the boys 14yrs category.

For the first time at Counties, all the 50m and 100m races were heats and then finals, with many DSC swimmers reaching the top eight to make the finals in most events.

Tim Hutton, DSC head coach, said: “Counties is the highlight of Dunstable Swimming Club’s calendar with eight swimming clubs from across the county competing for two solid weekends.

“The Dunstable crowd were in full voice throughout the competition and created a great atmosphere to push our swimmers through the water.

“I am incredibly proud to be part of such a great club.

“The swimmers, parents, coaches and support team all work together tirelessly to achieve some amazing results so I would like to pass on a huge thanks to them.

“We now have our sights firmly set on winning the Chiltern League which will give us success in all leagues we have entered this year, something that has never been done in the clubs history.

“Further to this, we will have more swimmers than ever before in the forthcoming Regional Championships in Norwich and Luton.

“Dunstable is definitely on the rise and is now a club the whole community can be proud of.”

DSC will be taking an army to both Junior and Senior Regionals this year.

Senior Regionals will be held at Inspire in April, and Junior Regionals will be at the end of May at Sportspark UEA Norwich.

For a full set of results, see the News/Gazette on sale now.