Speedo Dubai make a big splash

Hosts RSH Speedo Dubai claimed top honours in last weekend's Three-Way Swimming Championships held at the Emirates International School.

This inaugural Three-Way competition held between swimmers from Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE, attracted more than 100 competitors.

On a warm and humid afternoon, and after the first 18 events, Bahrain maintained an edge with 72 points,with the RSH Speedo team following closely in second spot with 68 points and Qatar further down third with 54.

However, from then on, the RSH squad made the move as Hayley Foster struck gold in the girls 10-11 years breaststroke.

Neal Thomson further consolidated the home team position with a win in the 50 metres 12-13 years event and Craig Slement proved too strong in the 14-15 yrs group, winning in a time of 35.71 seconds to give the home side the lead.

During the 4x25m Medley relays, a couple of bad back crawl to breaststroke take-overs saw the younger Speedo teams disqualified and lose double points, thus allowing Bahrain to edge up again.

The depth of the squad however, proved too much for the opposition and gutsy shows byMaxence Adam, Becky Fletcher, Hendrik Smit and Stephen Cousins and Megan Mileham gave their respective teams the lead in their races giving the home team a slender advantage going into the final individual events.

The 100m Freestyle saw Lauren Evans swim a 68.1 secs to win comfortably, even as Dan McLennan took the boys 100m Freestyle in 60.03 seconds to keep up the pressure.

In the Individual Medley races, Mark Thomson and Ollie Lamprell swam to first place ahead of the second Speedo team of Jack Stapley and Sam Gardner and Jenny Balac and Robyn Groomsbridge touched in first with Alicia Cameron and Maryam El Rashid second to maintain the advantage for the home squad. Going into the final events, the 4x25m Freestyle relays, the RSH Speedo knew that barring disqualifications, the trophy was theirs.

Speedo proved too strong for the opposition, and although Bahrain and Qatar won several events, the Speedo team again had too many points against their credit.

The home team ended with 635 points, a clear 142 points ahead of St. Christopher's team from Bahrain.

Robert Taylor-Hughs, General Manager of Nivea Middle East presented the trophy to team captains Lauren Evans and Dan McLennan.

The overall winner's trophy will remain with the RSH Speedo Dubai squad until the next meeting scheduled for the same time next year.

Overall Standings: 1. Speedo Dubai (635 pts); 2. St. Christopher's Bahrain (493); 3. Qatar Swim Club (318).