CITY of Cardiff Swimming Club hosted their annual Invitational Meet at the International Pool on February 22.

Nine Clubs from around Wales and a large team from Oxford competed. The Swimming Gala is designed for the younger swimmer and 34 per cent of entrants had no Personal Best times set at the start of the day.

Cardiff swimmer’s showing a fantastic display of racing skills, as well as attitude as many swimmers were competing for the very first time and entering seven to eight events. These skills are foundation on which the swimmers are built and if all keep working and improving, then this is a very exciting time for the club indeed.

Virtually all swimmers set personal best times, with many in all events they entered, with swimmers winning medals and “Speeding Tickets,” which were given out by head coach Graham Wardell.

The gala ended with teams competing for “The Dave Haller Cup” in recognition of the club’s former head coach who retired last year. This was won by City of Oxford.

Head of academy squads Matt Williams said: “A fantastic end to what has been a busy part of the season, with members of the club competing at multiple competitions.”

The next gala which the club are running is the Tiger Bay Open Meet later this month. 35 clubs and over 500 swimmers will be competing over the weekend.

This year CCSC are the first Welsh club to have dedicated Para Swimming events in the Meet. Para Swimming has captured everyone’s imagination after the London Olympics and Commonwealth Games last year. Swimmers such as Ellie Simmonds are now household names.

In the past Para Swimmers have had to race with able bodied swimmers, but this is now changing and the club is specifically catering for these swimmers in this and future swimming galas.