By Alex D, Year 10

On the 26th January, we travelled to the Guildford Spectrum Leisure Centre for the GDST Swimming Rally 2023. It was an early start, but worth it for such a great day of racing for both the junior teams and the senior teams.

After an extremely busy warm up, the U11s started with their individual races. All of the U11Bs stormed their way into the finals and 3 of the U11As did the same. After the junior individuals, the senior teams competed. The U14 team swam well and many of them got PBs in their 50m swims! Then the U14 team swam and Zara Dannatt and myself made it into the finals for 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle respectively.

Then it was time for the finals, we waited and cheered on the U11s while they raced. They all swam amazingly, with Yeeting winning silver in the U11B breastroke, Bella winning gold in the U11B backstroke, and Violet winning the silver in the U11A backstroke. In the U14 finals, Zara and I swam well and we both came top 6, despite being the youngest in the age group.

Then came the relays, the most fun part of the day, as we got to swim together as a team. All of the age groups swam well and we got some team PBs in the progress!

Overall, it was an extremely fun day and we all learnt a lot, as well as getting to meet swimmers from all across the country!