NEWSLETTER MAY 2006

Dear Members

Apologies for the delay in putting together this latest Newsletter, we have been somewhat snowed under recently with the mass of paperwork to do with Swim 21. We are however making progress with this and our Action Plans are well on the way to being completed. We now have the task of having to put together the evidence files for each of the relevant modules. Whilst in Norwich the weekend before last at the East Region Youth Championships, I meet with Kim Stevens from the Regional Development Office. She went through all that we had done to date, and I am pleased to report that she confirmed that what we had done so far would be sufficient to score enough points to pass. We have to be in this position on every Action Point for all 4 Modules by the end of July, in order for the Regional Development Office to approve it for submission to the last Swim 21 Panel of the year, which sits in October.

On behalf of the Swim 21 Committee I would like to thank everyone who has helped on this and for everyone’s cooperation in the implementing of the many new procedures and policies that we have had to put in place. Many of you may have noticed various changes that have occurred within the management of the club, and also to our Website, which now displays all our adopted policies, copies of Minutes of Committee Meetings, and an entire new section informing you about volunteers and officials. We also hope to have 2 new sections on our website soon; one for Welfare and the other for Disability Swimming.

One thing that we will be doing over the next few weeks is issuing all members with the Code of Conduct and a new Membership Form, which will need you to completed and returned to your relevant Squad Liaison Officers:

Red Squad – Madeleine James; Black Squad – Dot Monte; Junior Development Squad – Gill Baynes; Marie Kelly – Masters. Your cooperation in getting these forms completed and returned as quickly as possible would be much appreciated.

Hopefully you have all noticed our new photo board in the Club room showing who’s who on the Committee. We will shortly be putting a similar version on the website detailing all the Roles and Responsibilities of each person. If any Committee Members or Poolside Personnel object to having their photo on the website please let me know as soon as possible. If anyone has not yet seen the draft document and wishes to do so please ask, I usually have a copy in my files.

A lot of people ask me how to access the website so I am now including the following in our Membership Packs but thought it might be useful to put this on the newsletter as well: If anyone is experiencing problems accessing information from the website please do not hesitate to ask any Committee member who will endeavour to assist you.

www.runnymedesc.co.uk

TO ACCESS SECURE AREAS OF WEBSITE YOU NEED A PERSONAL USER NAME AND PASSWORD.

THIS IS AVAILABLE FROM THE WEBMASTER.

TO OBTAIN THIS YOU NEED TO CLICK ON THE LINK TO THE WEBMASTER ON THE HOMEPAGE TO EMAIL HIM YOUR NAME YOU WILL THEN BE SENT THE APPROPRIATE PASSWORDS VIA EMAIL.

CONGRATULATIONS

Paul Eveleigh

On qualifying as a level 4 ASA coach,

From Everyone at Runnymede SC

We are very proud to have Paul as our Head Coach. He is now one of only 3 coaches in Essex to have achieved the level 4 ASA Coach qualification.

Head Coaches Report

I am very pleased to say that attendance at RSC training session has never been higher, with our early morning sessions having over 30 attendees regularly. This is and will continue to play a big part in the Club’s improvement. We are getting some excellent results in all the galas we have done recently so keep up the good work, now that we have been promoted to higher divisions we will be competing against some of the best clubs in the County next season.

I have noticed over the past year that swimmers are starting to take lengthy breaks during SATs exams. Whilst SATs are important (mainly for the schools themselves), it is not a good idea to completely rest swimmers for weeks just to do these; the children do need a break from studying to do other activities, plus swimmers who are competing at Regional level will be unable to regain their fitness in time for their events. Extensive research has proved that athletes tend to out-perform their peers in educational tasks due to the work ethic needed to succeed. If in doubt, please discuss with me, I don’t expect a member of my squad to go missing in these circumstances.

Keep up your hard work, attention on your strokes, starts and turns with the summer approaching.

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Assistant Coaches Report

We were very pleased to see so many of you at the last Time Trials, you all swam really well and there was a lot more swimmers achieving their bronze and above speed awards which shows that you all must be working very hard in training. It is good to see so many of you attending more training sessions, although it would be good to see more of you at the morning sessions, especially some of our newest members who have been coming to training for a little while now. The summer is a good time to start coming to at least 1 morning session a week, we would love to see you there, the more sessions you do the better your swimming will get. We have a few galas coming up soon – Mini League and Junior Speedo team galas and Opens at Colchester and Runnymede. We have had an excellent response from you for our Summer Sprints Gala with some 60 swimmers from Runnymede entering; this should be a great day and hope that you will all enjoy this gala. Keep up the good work!!

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Our New Assistant Coach

We are also pleased to announce the appointment of Stuart Jago as our new additional Assistant Coach; Stuart has been working with Borough of Southend S.C. for sometime and is an experienced swimming teacher having qualified in 1991/92. Stuart is also a qualified Fitness Instructor and will be helping out at our land training sessions together with assisting Paul with Red Squad.

Runnymede S.C. are pleased to welcome Stuart to our Coaching Team.

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IF ANYONE STILL HAS NOT PAID THEIR ADDITIONAL ASA FEE OF £3 WOULD YOU PLEASE ARRANGE TO DO SO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

THANK YOU.

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PLEASE NOTE THAT ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EVERY MONTH THERE WILL BE NO 2^ND HOUR TRAINING FOR RED SQUAD SWIMMERS AS THIS WILL BE FOR LIFEGUARD TRAINING.

Disability Swimming

Early in 2006, the club appointed its first Disability Liaison Officer - Maria Neary, to promote opportunities for disability swimming, at all levels, within Runnymede Swimming Club. Maria has also now been co-opted on to the Management Committee.

Maria will look at all aspects of disability swimming, and will help the club work towards providing competitive swimming training and competition for physical and learning disabled athletes.

If you have any questions regarding disability swimming and what opportunities the club will work towards providing over the next few months and years, then please talk to Maria at any time.

Swimmers News

We are Essex League Division 2 Champions

Well done to everyone in our Essex League Team. As a result of your excellent swimming, and by winning of all but one round of the Division 2 Championships, we have now been promoted to Division 1 for next season. This is an outstanding achievement and we are very proud of you all. Not only do you swim superbly, but you also all behave impeccably at Galas and you are a credit to the Club. Keep up the good work at training, as next year we will be swimming with all the elite Clubs in the County.

County Finalists

Congratulations to all our County Finalists this year – Henry Newton, Sarah Wright, Rebecca Scott, Jason Daniels, Charlotte Davis, Charlotte Delicata, Patrick Neary, Alex Delicata and Thomas Giles.

Runnymede Swimming Club had an excellent County Championships this year with more swimmers achieving the qualifying times than ever. 10 of the Clubs swimmers scooped an amazing 38 top six places between them, including 3 Gold Medals, 3 Silver Medal and 4 Bronze Medals.

Runnymede’s Top Boy Henry Newton finished 2^nd overall in his Age Group individual points (9/10 years) in the County Championships. Henry was in excellent form throughout this year’s competition with his talent showing in a variety of strokes and distances. He won 2 Gold Medals (50m and 200m Fly), 2 Silver Medal (50m Back & 200m Back), 2 Bronze Medals (50m Freestyle & 400m I/M), 2 4^th Places (50m Breaststroke & 400m Freestyle, and 2 5^th Places (200m Freestyle & 200m Breaststroke).

Sarah Wright (13 year Age Group) continued her excellent results at Counties again this year retaining her 100m Backstroke title for the 2^nd year running. Sarah won the Silver Medal in the 50m Backstroke event just missing out on the Gold in this event for the 3^rd consecutive year in the final by fractions of a second. She won the Bronze Medal in the 200m Backstroke, 5^th place in the 400m Freestyle, and 3 6^th places (100m I/M, 100m and 200m Fly).

Rebecca Scott in the 15 years age group also had an excellent Championship winning the Bronze Medal in the 100m Breaststroke, a 4^th place in the 200m Breaststroke and 5^th in the 50m Breaststroke events.

Newcomers to Runnymede Swimming Club brothers Jason and Ryan Daniels also had outstanding results in this year Competition, Jason won the Bronze medal in the 13 years 50m Fly and 2 5^th places (100m Freestyle and 200m Fly) while Ryan also took the Bronze Medal in the 50m Fly and a 4^th Place in the 200m Freestyle events in his age group.

Charlotte Delicata had one of her best ever years at the Counties with an outstanding 8 top 6 places. Charlotte finished in 4^th place in 4 events in the 14 years age group (200m Back, 400m Freestyle, 200m Breaststroke, and 800m Freestyle); She followed this with 2 5^th Places (400m I/M & 100m Breaststroke) and a 6^th place in the 200m Fly and 200m I/M.

Charlotte Davis also had some great results in the 14 years Fly events finishing in 4^th Place in both the 100m and 200m events in personal best times. Patrick Neary (13 years) took 5^th Place in the 50m Backstroke; Alex Delicata (12 years) and Thomas Giles (10 years) also had some great swims this year with Alex taking 2 6^th Places in the 200m I/M and 200m Fly and Thomas taking 6^th Place in the 50m Breaststroke.

East Region Youth Championships

Six of Runnymede’s older swimmers qualified to compete in the first East Region Youth Championships. The long course competition was held at the UEA in Norwich at the end of May. The competition at Regionals is of exceptional standard as it is attended by some of the top swimmers in the East of the Country. Charlotte Davis, Sarah Wright, Rebecca Scott, Donna Spooner, Charlotte Delicata and Charlie Beale all swam brilliantly throughout the 3-day event and between them reached the finals in 5 events.

Charlotte Davis had an excellent weekend reaching the final in the 200m Butterfly where she finished in 5^th place, and in the 100m Butterfly final she finished in 8^th place. Sarah Wright was also in outstanding form in all of her events and qualified for the final of the 100m Backstroke where she finished in 5^th place. Sarah was also 12^th in the 400m I/M and 23^rd in both the 400m Freestyle and 200m Backstroke.

Rebecca Scott also had an excellent weekend in the Breaststroke events reaching the final of the 100m where she was 6^th and finishing in 10^th place in the 200m. Donna Spooner had a brilliant race in the 1500m freestyle where she finished in 7^th place.

Charlotte Delicata had the busiest weekend competing in an incredible 7 events, she had some excellent results finishing 9^th in the 400m I/M, 10^th in the 800m freestyle, 13^th in the 200m Backstroke, 14^th in the 400m freestyle, 17^th in the 100m Backstroke, 18^th in the 200m I/M and 25^th in the 200m freestyle. Charlie Beale finished 34^th in the 200m freestyle.

Congratulations to all of you and GOOD LUCK to all our Age Group qualifiers who will be competing in their Regional Championships in June. Age Group qualifiers this year include Jason Daniels, Henry Newton, Alex Delicata, George Smith, Chloe Davis, Laura Humphreys, Ryan Daniels, Thomas Giles, Rory Geoghegan and Alice Cain.

Squad Promotions

Well done to all the following swimmers who have been promoted recently, apologies if I have missed anyone please let me know and I will include you in the next Newsletter.

To Junior Development

Charlotte Cox, Hannah Iredale, Callum Liddell

To Black Squad

Laura Brignall, Lucy Pullan, Lauren Green, Thomas Bournes, Lewis Kerr, Thomas Clarke, Hayley Mitchell, Melissa Collins, Murphy Talbot, Jade Jenning and Lauren Mitchell.

To Red Squad

Charlie Beckett, Matthew Brown, Rory Geoghegan, Eloise Jennings, Matthew Monte, Charlotte Nobes, Molly O’Brien, Ellie-Jade Smith, James Spicer and Ellie Wood.

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News Reporters Urgently Required

The club is in need of a few people to write news reports from galas. If anyone could assist us, even if it is just for one league or gala, then it would be a great help to the club. Any articles that you write will be proof read before we send them out so don't worry about making mistakes.

We also currently have a position vacant for a Press Secretary to coordinate these reports and newsletters.

Volunteers should talk to the Club Secretary Heather Davis or

Volunteers Coordinator Cheryl Ellis for more details.

Volunteers Courses

If any one is interested in attending any of the following Courses please let either Cheryl Ellis or myself know and we will arrange for the relevant details and dates/venues etc to be passed on to you.

1. Officials – There is a new list on the notice board for any one who is interested in doing the Timekeepers/Judges/Starters/referee courses.

2. Helpers – This is specifically designed for the older swimmers 14years plus who are interested in becoming involved with teaching etc.

C. National Pool Lifeguard Qualification – This is an area where we are currently seriously lacking, some of our existing Lifeguards qualifications are due to expire later this year, and the situation is that if there is no Lifeguard on duty we are NOT allowed to swim, i.e. the training session cannot take place. We urgently need some new people, preferably some parents to sign up for this course. The next course we will be running in during the 1^st week of the Club’s summer shutdown. It will be a 40-hour course spread out over the week and will be held at Runnymede Swimming Pool. Further details will be available shortly but in the meantime I would ask that if you are interested in this course then please come and talk to us as soon as possible.

Details of all these and other available courses can be found on our website www.runnymedesc.co.uk under the Volunteers/Officials Section.

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ASA Swimline & Child Protection

The Amateur Swimming Association is committed to promoting the welfare of children in our sport. That is why they have joined with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in creating SwimLine.
The service is provided for anyone involved in swimming, including children and young people who believe that the welfare of a young child is at risk.

This could be neglect or abuse, bullying or fear of someone, or anything that is worrying you and you don't know who to discuss it with.
What happens if you call?
When you ring, you will hear a message. This will explain that you wish to speak to someone urgently or it would not be convenient for someone to call you back - you can press a number to transfer straight to the NSPCC Child Protection Helpline.

This will be answered by trained and experienced counsellors who will advise you and act to protect children.
If there is a problem with someone calling you back and you wish to speak to someone who understands swimming, you will need to leave your telephone number and time when it is convenient for one of our Child Protection Group to ring. These people are members of swimming clubs who work in child welfare as a profession and have volunteered to help this ASA programme.
If there is an issue which causes concern the ASA will act to protect the child.
SwimLine calls are free and do not appear on itemised bills unless the call is made from a mobile phone. SwimLine does not use the 1471 code or any other call return or call display facility.
If you leave a message we aim to ring back during the next working day. If you phone over the weekend, we will aim to contact you on Monday.
Our Numbers
SwimLine 0808 100 4001
NSPCC Child Protection Helpline direct: 0808 800 5000 - (open 24 hours a day and calls are free).
Textphone: 0800 056 0566
Comments and suggestions on how we can improve this service are welcome.

Doping - 100% ME

This year UK Sport Launched an athlete centered education campaign designed to increase understanding and promote the benefits of drug-free sport. 100% ME will provide the athletes of today and of the future with the information, support and confidence they need to compete and WIN drug-free.

100% ME allows sportsmen and women to enjoy the plaudits of success knowing “That was 100% ME”. They are expanding our anti-doping work to include the next generation of swimmers, divers, water polo players and synchronized swimmers. What could be better than a 2012 Olympic Games in London with our athletes understanding the importance of being “100% ME.”

INADVERTENT DOPING!

Inadvertent doping occurs when an athlete takes a medication to treat an illness or injury – unaware that it contains a banned substance. It can also occur if an athlete takes a supplement, which contains a prohibited substance. This can either be through contamination or because not all the ingredients were listed. British Swimming and UK Sport strongly advise athletes not to take supplements. Under the WADA Code ignorance is no excuse in such cases – you are solely responsible for checking the status of all medications and substances you use.

It is also essential that club members declare all prescribed medication using the Medication Declaration Form (even for Asthma medication) available from the ASA website or from the Membership Secretary.

More information relating to doping can be found on the ASA website area dedicated to the subject ASA Doping Section

Start Clean

Report by Chloe Davis

UK Sports has a special website called START CLEAN especially for young athletes between the ages of 12 and 17. It has loads of information about drugs and doping with specific zones for students, teachers, athletes and a fun game called Olympic Island. I think this website is quite helpful as the information is easy to relate to. The game, Olympic Island is helping to introduce this subject to the young athletes of tomorrow. The site warns you of the consequences of taking illegal substances, making it a fun way to lean about drugs and sport.

¨ How to find this website -

www.startclean.co.uk

Or

¨ Link-Runnymede swimming club-links-ASA home-doping page-Start clean.

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Forthcoming Events

13^th May Mini League Round 2 at Runnymede. 6pm Warm-up.

14^th May Junior Speedo League Round 3 at Blackshots, Thurrock 3pm Warm-up

27^th & 28^th May BWFSC Olympic Meet – Waltham Forest

27^th May Colchester Open

3^rd/4^th & 10^th/11^th June East Region Age Group Championship at Norwich

10^th June Mini League Round 3 at Witham

24^th June Runnymede’s Summer Sprints Gala

8^th July Mini League Round 4 at Southend

9^th July Runnymede S.C. Summer BBQ – Fund Raising Day

PLEASE NOTE THIS HAS BEEN CHANGED FROM SATURDAY 15^TH JULY

15^TH July Mercel Harvey Gala at Canvey Island S.C.

14^th – 28^th August (Inclusive) – Summer Shut Down – NO TRAINING - HOLIDAY!!!

8^th – 10^th September – OZV BELGIUM TOUR 2006

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS 14^th MAY.