James Clark & Cathal
Westman
James
Clark and Cathal
Westman were
presented with the
Dolphin “swimmer of the year” Cup on Monday night to mark their outstanding achievements
during the 2005/06 season. They were
joint recipients of the accolade and followed in the footsteps of previous winners
Nigel Masters (03/04) and Jon Audis (04/05).
James excelled
in all stokes last year qualifying for, swimming in, and reaching finals in every
event available to him at the Regional Championships held
at Millfield School in June. He finished
the competition as the 11 year old British Age Group Categories (Bagcats) champion
and brought home gold medals in the 200m & 400m individual medleys, and the 100m
& 200m Breaststrokes. He subsequently
went on to qualify for 9 out of a possible 11 national age group events, swimming
5 of them (200m & 400m IM, 100m & 200m Brs and 200m Frs) at the National
Age Group Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield in July. He
reached the finals in all these events, collecting bronze medals in the 200m IM and
200m Brs and was placed an incredible fourth overall in the 11 year old National Bagcats.
Cathal got
an excellent competitive 05/06 season off to a winning start by taking the Wiltshire
Bagcats title in his age group in April. Leg
problems restricted his Regional Championships in
June to 2 events but he emerged with gold medals in the 13 year old 100m & 200m
breaststrokes after winning both finals. He
went to the National Championships in Sheffield
in July ranked number sixth and second in the 100m & 200m breaststrokes respectively,
and came back home with a silver medal, the highest place ever achieved in a national
final by a Swindon Dolphin age group swimmer, after coming second in the 200m final
in a time of 2.35.65. He was selected
to represent the county team at the National
Counties Championship in
in September and was chosen for the ASA 2006
Talent Programme. He was also presented
with the “most improved swimmer award” at the AGM in November.
Source:
Dolphin Press Team
