THE CITY of Cardiff Swimming Club hosted a prestigious swimming meet at the Cardiff International Pool last weekend.

The event, which caters for swimmers aged nine years and upwards attracted swimmers from all over Wales, and as far afield as Oxford and Exeter. The calibre of swimming was such that 43 new event records were established.

This year, the meet included events for the paralympic swimmers which is a first for a club meet in Wales. The aim was to provide the paralympic swimmers with the chance to race prior to travelling up to Glasgow for the IPC World Swimming Championships trials taking place at the end of the month. Local swimmer Bethan Eckley was on fire, winning four of her events and placing second in one other. 14 year old Bethan has been working very hard in training in preparation for Glasgow which represents the first time she has qualified to compete at such a high level.

The meet also featured an exhibition swim by Linus Kanth, a Swedish international swimmer who has been living and training in Cardiff since the start of the year. Linus has been working with Cardiff’s Commonwealth swimmers Ieuan Lloyd and Xavier Mohammed in order to qualify for the Swedish team for the upcoming World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia. The whole of the club lined the poolside to cheer him on as he demonstrated his excellent skills.

There were many notable performers for the Cardiff Club. 16-year-old Robert Couzens and 15-year-old Andrew Flannigan were in outstanding form winning four gold medals and one silver medal each. Robert showed all round strength in depth winning his gold medals in the 200m Backstroke, 50m Freestyle, 100m Butterfly and 200m IM, while Andrew secured his gold medals in the 200m Backstroke, 200m Butterfly, 200m Freestyle and 50m Backstroke.

Other Cardiff swimmers who won multiple gold medals were Rebecca De Torres, Kaden Edwards, Nia Evans, Katie Harthill, Lili-May Hutchinson, Bethan Jerrett, Caitlin Jones, Lily McAllister-Sutton, Adam Murray, Jac Skuse, Sophia Strinati, Cai Wardhaugh and Rhys Wardhaugh.

The swimmers now move on to the Welsh Closed Championships in Swansea over the Easter weekend, followed by the British trials for the World Swimming Championships and the IPC World Championships. Head Coach Graham Wardell said: “I was delighted with the quality of the skills and the speed shown by all of our swimmers at this stage in our preparations. It was great to see our swimmers stepping up to perform across a range of events and distances. Many thanks must also go to all of the volunteer helpers and meet officials who gave up their time to make this happen for us. We couldn’t run these meets for the benefit of our swimmers without this fantastic support."