Barracudas win TWO Regional Awards

We have all be celebrating after scooping two prestigious awards from Swim England North West. We are continuing to make a splash after being recognised for how we adapted training during the pandemic and one of our coaches has been rewarded for inspiring the next generation of swimmers. We won the regional Swim England ‘Sport Innovation’ and ‘Inspirational Club Coach’ awards and will now go up against organisations from across the country in the national finals on 9 October.

Club Chair, Jon Ward said: “Like many sports we’ve been hit really hard by the pandemic and our volunteers have worked tirelessly in the background to support our swimmers throughout lockdown and while we’ve been able to get back into the pool with restrictions in place.” We knew maintaining contact with our members was key and we used technology to do that and provide a number of activities including training videos, virtual challenges and social events to help people keep fit and have fun at the same time. “The awards are a great reward for everyone at the club and our fingers are crossed for the national awards.”

As well as winning the ‘innovation’ award for the club, volunteer coach Cliff Taylor won an ‘inspiration’ award for the work he does in teaching the younger swimmers. ‘Coach Cliff’ as he is affectionately known came to swim coaching in retirement after bringing his granddaughter to lessons. Starting off as a poolside helper Cliff’s keenness to learn more saw him become a firm favourite with the swimmers and he has now completed his Level 2 coaching award, volunteering 14 hours per week at the pool.

We now wait to find out the winners of the national Swim England awards which will be unveiled at a virtual ceremony on Saturday 9 October.