Our Amazing Special Olympic Swimmers

In September, a team of swimmers from the Cheshire Penguins went over to Puerto Rico for the Special Olympics. They said they had a fantastic time and everyone in the team won a medal which was a brilliant performance that we are all really proud of. Four of the swimmers were from the Old Fire Station.

Jodie Bowyer swam a season best in the 50m backstroke final, just missing out on a bronze medal. She swam a personal best in the 100m freestyle heats abd as a result was put into a top race. Despite the tough race she gave a really good account of herself , coming first over the first 2 lengtht but unfortunately she tired over the last 50m and finished 7th. She picked herself up and swam the anchor length of the realy and by holding her nerve brought the team upto a bronze medal.

Emma Calvert swam 100m freestyle, achieving a personal best in the heats. It's not normally her best event but in her final she was consistent with her time and came home with a bronze medal!

Her next event was 200m breaststroke and she had a really strong opponent from the USA. Despite this she still came home 2nd and went under 5 minutes again, which is a good landmark for her. Probably her best swim of the competition was her last race, knocking 8 seconds off her heat time for 100m breststroke, winning her final in style.

Sean Daniels has worked so hard for this tournament - he's been lake swimming and jogging and lost quite a bit of weight, and that helped him back up his strong heat times with strong swims in the finals. He finished 4th in 50m backstroke, narrowly missing out on a medal. In the 100m freestyle he knocked 2 seconds off his heat time, something he's struggled to achieve in the past. His ultimate swim was doing the first leg of the medlay relay, holding his nerve and not letting anyone down when faced with the Italian team taking a flyer and officials looking to disqualify them. The situation added to a lenghty wait for Sean but he still gave the team a solid start on the first leg, and as a result they came home first, which never really looked in doubt.

Peter Edwards quietly went about his business as he always does - he did all his talking with his swims in the pool. His first race was the 200m freestyle, knocking 26 seconds off his heat time to come in 3rd - it was a personal best and a momentous effort. He swam the 50m freestyle in both heats and finals consistently just off his best time. Unfortunately he got unlucky with his final allocation and was entered into the toughest race of his life. Despite this he gave a good account of himself, finishing 4th - a medal chance was just a little too difficult. Peter's ultimate challenge was to perform the 3rd leg of the freestyle relay. The 3rd leg involves the skill of waiting for the oncoming athlete to touch before he sets off, something that had never really been asked of him before - and what a great job he did, helping the team win a gold medal.

We are so so proud of all of you - well done doesn't cover it!

Thanks to Ann Calvert for the report and for looking after the Penguins so well..