ON Sunday 11th December Monnow Swimming Club took a team of swimmers to compete in the Newport Christmas Cracker against swimmers from Abertillery Piranhas, Bridgend County, Caerphilly, Chepstow, City of Hereford, Heads of the Valley, Keynsham, Merthyr Tydfil, Severnside Tritons, Stratford Sharks and Tredegar.

The swimmers warmed up to Christmas music before getting down to the serious business of racing. Unfortunately the broad age categories put some of the Monnow swimmers at a disadvantage this time but there were still some excellent results with Katie Cameron (16) winning silver in 50 metre freestyle and bronze in 50 metre backstoke and 50 metre butterfly and Gwennan McConnell-Lawlor (9) winning bronze in 50 metre freestyle. There were also pentathlon awards given to the swimmers who accumulated enough points across races in all stokes and the Individual Medley and in this section Daisy Phillips (9) won bronze and Fizz Harper (15) was also third in her age category.

There were also many swimmers beating their personal best times and new swimmers experiencing competitive swimming for the first time. The rules on starting,  turning and finishing can be difficult to get right for even the more experienced swimmers but they all coped well.

The club will now take a break for Christmas and the swimmers will be back in the pool in January.