On Saturday 3rd October 2009 20 cadets and staff travelled to HMS Temeraire in Portsmouth for the annual Inter Wing Swimming Championships.

Following on from the Inter Squadron competition in September we initially looked like having a strong team.  Unfortunately an unusually large number of cadets that came 1st or even 2nd were not available for the next round.  This resulted in a number of cadets who did not attend the Wing competition being pulled into the team at short notice.  At the 11th hour with many phone calls and emails to units and cadets home addresses we managed to fill three out of the four teams.  The senior girls was the only team we didn’t fill.  With the relay races up for grabs with double points this left us missing out of a maximum of 24 points.

In the Junior Girls  with the minimum number of competitors they managed to come a creditable 2nd place.  Notable performances by Cdt Lauren Derrick (1350 Sqn) and Cadet Katie Hoolahan (2327 Sqn) both winning their events.

The Junior Boys lost out on 1st place due to a mishap in the freestyle relay.  Cadet Ashton Sewell (2407 Sqn) was the anchor man of the team winning all of his events (Butterfly / Back Stroke / Individual Medley) and helping the team to 1st place in the Medley relay. 

The Senior Girls without the relay points managed to come 5th in their class. Sgt Meager (1391 Sqn) had a change to her events on the day as we were unable to field either of the two girls that took part in the Inter Squadron events for the Butterfly.  As Sgt Meager was the only one of the three girls at Portsmouth that could swim Butterfly she had to give up her place in the freestyle race to swim this instead.   This meant a late call up could swim the easier free style race maximising our chance of points.  Sgt Meager did fortunately manage 1st place in her Back Stroke event.

The Senior Boys with only just enough swimmers managed 4th place.  Cpl Alastair Kew (1350 Sqn) was the only event winner in this class in the Breast Stroke.

Despite not having out our strongest team we managed to come 2nd place overall.  The follow cadets have been selected to represent South West Region at RAF Cranwell on Saturday 14th November: Cadet L Derrick, Cadet K Hoolahan, Cadet A Sewell, Cadet Sergeant K Meager & Cadet Corporal A Kew.  Good luck to all these cadets.