Swim Wales E-Newsletter No Images? Click here Welcome to Swim Wales E-newsletter 'Making Waves in Wales'January 2017 Making Waves in Wales is designed to inform and keep you updated on all news relating to Welsh Aquatics. Please send us any feedback, suggestions or ideas as well as any articles or information you would like including in the next edition of Making Waves in Wales LATEST NEWSNew Year....New StartA very Happy New Year to everyone! Hoping you had a good Christmas break with your family and friends. The Swim Wales team and I are looking forward to working collaboratively with you in 2017. Thank you for your continued support and commitment to our sport. Fergus Feeney, CEO City of Cardiff Swimming Club2017 started with a bang for City of Cardiff Swimmers with three galas already completed in January; however, the Club’s excitement turned to shock with the unexpected news that Keith Bewley the club’s Elite and Performance coach for the past seven years had passed away, suddenly, on Sunday evening, 15th January. It was with great sadness that Leigh Atkinson released a statement to inform the Club. Keith had been an inspiration to so many of Cardiff’s swimmers and coaches over recent years and to many of the UK & Ireland’s Olympians over
the past four decades. Training resumed Tuesday evening for swimmers who felt they would like to swim. A book of condolences is being made available by CCSC for everyone to record their thoughts and best wishes for Keith's family. Below are two links from BSCA obituary & Swim Vortex article remembering Keith: BSCA - Click HERE , Swim Vortex - Click HERE Swim Wales: It is with deep sadness Swim Wales heard of the passing of Keith Bewley. Keith died suddenly on 15th January. Swim Wales Board of Directors and Staff send their deepest condolences. Thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends and all at City of Cardiff Swimming Club at this very sad time. Keith was a coach at City of Cardiff Swimming Club working with Elite and Performance squads. Keith was a respected coach for many years and had a wealth of knowledge and experience and will be missed by the club and all those who knew him. RIP Keith, thank you for your huge contribution to swimming and your dedication developing swimmers to reach their full potential. British Swimming During his career Keith successfully coached 16 swimmers to Olympic Games selection. He also coached at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games and the 1982, 1986 and 1990 Commonwealth Games. He was inducted into the British Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame as an Olympic medal-winning coach after guiding the women’s 4x100m Medley Relay to silver in 1980. Keith became Elite Performance Coach for City of Cardiff Swimming Club in October 2009. Between 2006 & 2008 he was the Head Coach to Swim Ireland and set up Ireland’s first High Performance Swimming Centre at the University of Limerick. Previously Keith was the head coach for Wigan Wasps SC for 27 years. Our thoughts go out to Keith’s family, his many friends within the swimming community and City of Cardiff SC. ASA Tributes have been paid to respected swimmer and coach Keith Bewley who sadly passed away earlier this week aged 69. Prior to his distinguished coaching career, Keith was a regular international swimmer. He originally swam for Bootle and North Liverpool, and later joined the strong city of Southampton squad under Coach Deryk Snelling. Keith competed in both freestyle and butterfly, winning bronze in the 110 yard Butterfly at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, as well as medalling in the 110y, 220y, and 440y Freestyle at ASA Championships. Before taking up the Head Coach role for Swim Ireland in 2006, Keith spent 27 years as head coach for Wigan Wasps SC. In 2009 he became the Elite Performance Coach for City of Cardiff Swimming Club. During his career, Keith successfully coached 16 swimmers to Olympic Games selection and coached at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games and the 1982, 1986 and 1990 Commonwealth Games. Following the medal success of the women’s 4x100m Medley Relay in 1980, he was inducted into the British Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame. On behalf of all our members we would like to send our condolences to Keith’s family and his many friends at this sad time Many, many more tributes, too many to list have been received by CCSC which can be found on their Twitter page On Sunday 8 January, our team of younger swimmers competed at the annual Celtic Dolphins Sprint Meet in Neath. On the same weekend, we sent a team of 75 swimmers to Bristol for the UBSC New Year Level 1 Open. Medals and new pbs were achieved across the team across all events. The third gala attended in January was the Derek & Val Ross Memorial Gala hosted by Severnside Tritons. This is an evening of relays along the lines of the National Arena Swimming League. Our young team raced so well and showed fantastic team spirit by being so supportive of each other. Team Manager, Keri was really impressed with the team spirit shown and tenacity of the swimmers who'd all trained for two hours in the morning and then did multiple races in the evening! The Trophy was won by City of Newport. We thank Severnside for their hospitality and all coaches & volunteer parents who ensured the gala ran smoothly. We are also looking forward to the return of Coach Dale and Chloe Tutton, Xavier Mohammed & Harriet Jones who have been training in Australia as part of the Swim Wales camp preparing for the Commonwealth Games. Aaron Moores MBEPara-swimmer Aaron Moores has been named in the Queens's New Years Honour's List. Aaron becomes a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to swimming. An MBE is awarded for an outstanding achievement or service to the community. This will have had a long-term, significant impact and stand out as an example to others. Congratulations Aaron! Important InformationDBS – THE CORRECT LEVEL OF CHECK FOR THE ROLE FULFILLEDIt is important we all ensure the right level of DBS check is applied for and as checks are now performed at club level and to enable clubs to check this The Disclosure and Barring unit provide an online checking tool; https://www.gov.uk/find-out-dbs-check DBS checks are free for volunteer members only. Before you can make an application you must ensure the applicant is a registered member of Swim Wales/club. Applications processed for non-members are chargeable. Persons in a regulated position such as a coach/teacher/Team Manager will normally require an enhanced check with a check to see if they are registered on the barred list. This will check whether someone’s included in the 2 DBS ‘barred lists’ (previously called ISA barred lists) of individuals who are unsuitable for working with:
People on the barred lists can’t do certain types of work. There are specific rules for anyone working with children which differ from those working with adults and we request you familiarise yourself with this by checking directly on the DBS website. https://www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check/dbs-barred-lists Standard This checks for spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings. Enhanced This includes the same as the standard check plus any additional information held by local police that’s reasonably considered relevant to the role being applied for. Enhanced with list checks This is like the enhanced check, but includes a check of the DBS barred lists. A DBS CHECK IS NOT ENOUGH FOR SAFE RECRUITMENT It is important that all reasonable steps are taken to ensure that all individuals working, either paid or unpaid, are appropriate and able to work with children and young people. Anyone expressing an interest in volunteering/applying for a role/job must complete an application form to gain information required about the individual, their employment history, relevant experience, qualifications and training. A minimum of two written references should be sought, one from a referee who knows of the individual’s previous experience/employment with children, if possible. This should be in writing and confirmed by telephone. An induction to the role should include; · Verification of their qualifications relevant to the position. · Completion of a profile to identify training needs/aspirations. · Formal signing by volunteers of the club and Swim Wales Codes of Conduct. · Explanation of Swim Wales and club Child Welfare policy and procedures and related policies and procedures. · Training needs should be identified and met within set timescales. Additionally, the expectations, roles and responsibilities of the job are clarified. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, you have a duty to act if you have a concern. There are so many news stories relating to safeguarding concerns, we must be vigilant, we must take every care to ensure our members can participate in a fun safe environment and every club is responsible for good governance making certain they apply safe recruitment procedures for anyone working/volunteering with their members. Moving forward – it has been agreed that our Child Protection Policy currently known to many as Y Plant will mirror that of the ASA’s Wavepower. This will ensure consistency in Aquatic Sports. Once amendments have been done to reflect Swim Wales a bound copy of the policy document will be available to all clubs. We will ensure the policy is available on the Swim Wales website. The revised policy has considered what we must be putting into place when safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and the procedures to follow when a child protection issue arises. Athletes take note!Anti-Doping Prohibited ListThe 2017 Prohibited List came into effect on 1 January. It is extremely important that athletes and support personnel take the necessary time to read all of the information that is available to them, understand the changes, and ensure that the contents of any medications or supplements they may be using are checked. The below resources have been produced in order to support you in helping athletes and support personnel understand and action the changes to the List. · The UKAD website, which gives background information on the List and provides a summary of key modifications in the 2017 version · A Clean Sport Blog, which breaks the List down further and provides guidance on two particular changes that have been made in the 2017 version
Swim Wales New Year PentathlonThank you to all young swimmers, coaches, officials, volunteers, young ambassadors and spectators who attended this years Pentathlon event at Wales National Pool. A great experience for the swimmers, over 200, some who had never entered a big competition before. Also a very big THANK YOU to Olympic Swimmer Ieuan Lloyd who attended to present the medals, an inspiration to all the swimmers. Newtown Swimming ClubNewtown had a very good result for one of their swimmers at the Swim Wales New Year Pentathlon Eleanor Taylor earned a hard fought and well deserved bronze in the 13 years age group. " Newtown SC said "We are very proud of her". Eleanor was presented with her medal by Olympic swimmer Ieuan Lloyd. Swansea Sports Awards 2017Congratulations to the following for being shortlisted to the final of Swansea Sports Awards 2016
The 2016 winners will be announced in a special ceremony held at the Brangwyn Hall on Thursday 16 March 2017. Tickets are on sale now by clicking HERE Good Luck to you all Swimming ‘Opt-Out’ option for the domestic summer meets.In 2017, British Swimming along with the Home Nations will be providing a new ‘opt-out’ option for the domestic summer meets. Invitations for the British Summer Championships, ASA Summer Meet, Scottish Swimming Summer Meet and the Swim Wales Summer Meet are generated based on performances recorded during a specified qualification window. In 2017 this ‘window’ runs from 10th March 2017 – 29th May 2017 (inclusive). We are aware that there are always swimmers who compete in the window, but then for a variety of reasons decide they do not want to compete, or are unavailable to race in the abovesummer meets. We are encouraging these swimmers to let us know if they do not want to receive an invite to these competitions. This will help improve the number of swimmers accepting the invitation to compete and also open up the summer meets to a wider group of swimmers. To opt out we would ask you to email British Swimming at HNMeetChoice@swimming.org to request this. The window to do this will run from 1st January 2017 – 1st May 2017 (inclusive). Please note, if you decide to opt out, this will apply to all the competitions listed above. Swim Wales welcomes new staff memberSwim Wales are proud to announce the appointment of Graeme Antwhistle as National Coach Development & Performance Pathway Manager. Graeme has over 20 years of coaching experience and has spent the last 8 years working as a High Performance Coach for British Swimming at the hugely successful Bath National Centre. During this time, Graeme has helped coach swimmers to a total of 63 senior international medals, including five Olympic silver medals. Graeme’s international experience is extensive, having coached for Great Britain at European Youth Olympic Games, European Junior Championships, World Junior Championships, World Championships and Olympic Games. Graeme will work closely with the Swim Wales National Performance Director, Ross Nicholas, in the delivery of the performance programme across Wales and will specifically be tasked with the development of technical, personal and arena skills of the coaches across the Swim Wales Performance Club network. ‘Graeme’s knowledge, skills and personality will have a hugely positive impact on performance swimming in Wales, as we strive to continue our international success and to develop our performance pathway, clubs and coaches.’ Ross Nicholas, Swim Wales National Performance Director National Arena LeagueCongratulations to the National Finalists 2017 in both the Cup Final and the B Final which will take place in Cardiff City of Cardiff Swimming Club make the Cup Final and City of Swansea Make B Finals Well done to you both and Good Luck! Colwyn Bay ASC.Colwyn Bay ASC held its annual award winning ceremony on Sunday 11 December. An excellent night was had by all. Pictured (left) are all the award winners. Well done to you all !! Swim Wales Open Water FestivalEver thought of taking part in an Open Water swim? Check out our video of the Swim Wales Open Water Championships 2016 for inspiration. This year's Swim Wales Welsh Open Water Festival incorporating the Welsh National Championships event will be taking place on July 1st at Parc Bryn Bach, Tredegar. Wales National Squad Training CampSwim Wales National Squad have headed out to the Sunshine Coast, Australia this month for their warm weather altitude training camp before heading over to the Gold Coast. Preparation is now well and truly underway for the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Swim Wales took a team of 12 swimmers along with the coaching team. The Welsh team are receiving great publicity from the sunshine coast on social media and also a great write up from the USC pool which is the swimmers base, to read full article, click HERE The National Squad got a surprise visit! Gwyneth Bruce who works for the Sunshine Coast Council and her husband Bryan turned up at their training camp during their visit. Gwyneth was born and raised in North Wales and is very proudly Welsh. She moved over to Australia over 40 years ago but can still speak Welsh. The team donated a squad T-Shirt signed by the team. Georgia Davies presented the T- shirt to them, Gwyneth was absolutely over the moon. The team moved to the Gold Coast and competed in the Miami Super Challenge. The pick of the results came from Chloe Tutton who took a commanding victory on the 200m breaststroke ahead of Australian international Tessa Wallace in 2:24.90, strong for an early season showing. Welsh teammate Cerys Coley picked up third place in the same event. Alys Thomas was a double victor, taking first place in the 100m butterfly in 59.62, less than a second outside her lifetime best she set to win the Olympic trials last year, and adding top spot in the 50m freestyle for good measure. Teammate Harriet West took the runner up spot on the fly while a Welsh clean sweep was completed by Harriet Jones in third. West was also runner up behind Georgia Davies in the 100m backstroke. Davies posted 1:02.10 for the win having earlier won the 100m freestyle. Amongst the men, Calum Jarvis, looking to regain the form that earned him a world relay title in 2015, posted 1:51.05 in the 200m freestyle, while Xavier Mohammed won both the 200m fly and individual medley. Upcoming eventsAvailable Courses
**************** Open Water (QCF) Expression of InterestTo register an expression of interest in our Level 2 Coaching Open Water course in South East Wales, please email HERE For more information please contact Katie Genan on 01792 513580 or click HERE Swim Wales, WNPS, Sketty Lane, Swansea. SA2 8QG Tel: 01792 513636 |