Shiverers improved upon their performance from rounds one and two to secure a 3rd place finish at Enfield/London on Saturday 10th December in the Arena league division one London (the top flight).

With part of team suffering from the cold/illness going around at this time (Harry Burnell not training all week leading up to this event for example) and other team mates coughing themselves up onto the blocks for the start, what transpired was remarkable in the least, and a true reflection of the Shiverers spirit!

1st place finishes were won in the ladies open 4x medley relay, girls 15/U 100m backstroke Karen Chan, boys 13/U 100m free Harry Burnell, ladies open 100m freestyle Amy Medlock and boys 13/U 4x freestyle relay.

For me (Alan Burnell, a humble turn judge at the non starters end) a couple of events remain in the memory the morning after.

• Event 44 boys 9-11 years 4x medley relay. The last leg swimmer Mackenzie Cannon was barely visible on the blocks from 25m away (compared to the much larger swimmers either side of him). Mackenzie entered the water with a few meters in hand and held on magnificently with a 50m swim 36.09s (PB) to claim 3rd place - small lad, big heart!
• Event 46 boys 13/U 4x freestyle relay. The Watford contingent were screaming madly when their team touched 3m ahead going into the last leg, surely an easy victory for them? Not so! Harry put away his cough and got a hurry on to overhaul the leading swimmers and grab 1st place for the team (Harry said, ‘the guys gave me a chance - we won. I could hear the team cheering, that helped‘).

There were lots of other excellent performances of course. Please refer to the coaches report for a more indepth appraisal of the performance across the three rounds.