A busy weekend of swimming for Diss Otters saw the club take part in numerous events across the region.

Saturday saw two squads roll into Norwich and Newmarket respectively. The squad at Norwich took part in the Midsummer Madness Gala at the UEA Sportspark. Fifty two individual swims resulted in thirty one new personal best times and twelve county qualifying times for 2019.

The evening saw a Fenland League gala take place at Newmarket Leisure Centre with teams from Diss, Bottisham, First Strokes and St Neots competing.

Diss led the gala from start to finish with some tremendous swimming across the team, resulting in twenty nine race wins from forty seven events, including in the traditional finale, the cannon relay which always sees the swimmers and supporters raise the roof and Saturday was no exception with team Diss storming to victory cheered home by the crowd.

Final scores at Newmarket were Diss 182, Bottisham 161, First Strokes 154 and St Neots 124.
The Otters now progress to the second round on September 29th and will be one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

Sunday saw two more events with a team going to Crown Pools in Ipswich for the July Surprize Gala which saw forty six individual swims produce twenty six new personal best marks and another host of County Championship qualification times.

Finally also on Sunday, Otters Callum Blair, Adam Lelean and Sally Lelean took part in the Cambridge Mill to Mill open water event with Callum finishing 2nd in his category clocking a hugely respectable 43 minutes for the 2.5km course.

Nine swimmers from Diss Otters took part in the Great Yarmouth Swimming Club Development gala held at UEA Sportspark on Saturday.

Seventeen swimmers from Diss Otters took to the pool at Bury St Edmunds Leisure centre at the weekend for West Suffolk Swimming Clubs A"May"Zing Spring Gala.

The club sent a mixed squad of novice swimmers (including Blossom Day who was swimming in her first ever Open gala) and experienced competitors who helped mentor some of the younger team members.

From 85 individual swims the Otters had 41 top six finishes which included 11 gold, 8 silver and 4 bronze medals.

The swimmers also set 56 new personal best times based on their entry times.

To cap the weekend at the conclusion of the action Rosie Munnings was presented with the "Top Girl" trophy for accruing the most points throughout the weekends racing.

The Diss squad members were Callum Blair, Freya Button, Harry Button, Olivia Chapman, Oslo Chapman, Amber Daly, Harry Daly, Blossom Day, Lily Ellis, Imogen Grimes, Alex Jackson, Darcie Martin, Matthew Munnings, Rosie Munnings, Emma Neve, Finlay Neve and Ciaran Strike.

Diss Otters have had squads of swimmers take part in three competitions in the last fortnight. A team of sixteen juniors and one masters swimmer took to the UEA Sportspark pool for the Norwich Swan Open meet on the 21st and 22nd of April.

With the team swimming in a total of 91 races they finished top six in 48 of those with 22 podium positions consisting of 4 golds, 7 silvers and 11 bronzes. The team also hit many new personal bests which the coaching team are always pleased to see.

 
A special mention to Jacob Shadbolt and Nathan Hunt who were both swimming in their first open gala. The Diss medal winners were Ciaran Strike (2G, 2S,4B), Rosie Munnings (1G,1S,4B), Lily-Anne Jones (1S), Matthew Munnings (1S,1B), Ottilie Miller (2B), Sophia Pickering (1G) and Oslo Chapman (2S).

Sixteen Otters (pictured) travelled to Dereham last Saturday for the Norfolk Junior League B final for the Christine Clarke Cup and finished a very creditable second to host team Dereham Otters. Diss laid second throughout the evening without quite being able to catch the leaders.

On the night Diss won 13 out of a total of 45 races which were individual and relay events with a team consisting a mix of experienced and novice swimmers, so a very satisfactory result.

Also on Saturday seven swimmers took part in the Beccles Development gala.
These galas are a great stepping stone towards more competitive competitions and the Diss swimmers came home with medals and personal bests aplenty.

The Otters competing at Beccles were Freya Button, Lily Ellis, Eleanor Godbold, Darcie Martin, Ella Townsend, Toby Townsend and Molly Wilson.

The prestigious Eastern Regional Championships take place over the two May Bank Holiday weekends with Matthew Munnings having qualified for the senior (14-16yrs) weekend in Norwich and Daniel Bachu for the junior (11-13yrs)weekend in Luton.

A very well done to these 3. Today they competed in the Stowmarket Spring into Spring Open Meet. They did Diss Otters proud.

Fin came away with 4 PB's including 2 silver medals and a bronze. Alex 3 new PBs and Emma 2 PBs. Well done guys proud of you!