Salisbury Stingrays Shine at the Wiltshire County Swimming Championships

The Salisbury Stingrays Swimming Club has made an excellent showing at the Wiltshire County Swimming Championships this year. 54 of the young swimmers entered 385 races and achieved 236 personal best times. 14 of those swimmers have also recorded times that qualify them to race at the South West Regional Championships later this spring.

In total the club won 219 medals including 43 golds, 64 silvers and 54 bronzes. There were another 58 medals for 4th to 7th County places.

The County Championships are held over a five-week period and hosted at Salisbury’s Five Rivers Leisure Centre, Marlborough College and the Link Centre in Swindon. Each session is comprised of age group events with distance from 50m to 1500m. The shorter 50m and 100m sprint heats are decided by finals and the Stingrays made 89 final appearances.   The Stingrays train at Fiver Rivers and Godolphin school pools most days. They all work terrifically hard with the two-hour early morning session starting at 5:30am. Many of the young athletes swim before and after school, showing up at up to 7 swim sessions each week. In addition, many of them attend extra gym sessions.

The Salisbury Stingrays Swimming Club is made up of three sections, a swim school, age group squads and a Masters squad.

The swim school is managed by Jamie Goodge and teaches beginners aged 4-12 the essential skills and can take them to competency in all four strokes. Stingrays lessons are popular and have an excellent teacher to learner ratio so it’s advisable to join the waiting list as soon as you can.

Children can join the Stingrays squads from the age of 9 where there are different pathways within the club with competitive and non-competitive options. The competitive squads have some promising swimmers and, under the guidance of head coach Chris White, contain swimmers hoping to qualify for the National Championships held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

The active Masters squad promotes lifelong swimming and fitness. Masters swimmers train twice weekly with some members swimming for leisure and fitness and some actively competing.

If you’re looking for swimming lessons or would like to progress to the squad levels contact Salisbury Stingrays for more information or to request a trial.