Peggy & GBR Water Polo team prepare for European Champs

The British Gas GBR Women’s Water Polo team is preparing to head to Budapest next month for the LEN European Water Polo Championship finals.

The team qualified second in Group A in January and will face Greece, the Netherlands and hosts Hungary during the competition which begins on 14 July.

Coach Kostas Vamvakaris said: “Training is going well. The team has been centralised in Manchester for the last six weeks which has been really good and meant we have had time to work on tactics and fully prepare for the tournament. “The win against Spain in April was a huge confidence boost for the players. They feel very positive at the moment and believe in themselves which is great.”

The team travel to Madrid on 9 July to take part in a training camp with Spain before heading to Budapest. This will be GBR's second consecutive European Championships having finished seventh in Eindhoven two years ago.

Water polo is Hungary’s national sport and as such the two week tournament, which also includes a men’s competition, is expected to draw large crowds.

Good luck team GB & Peggy.

Middlesex Race Report 2013

Your fellow Otters made the long and arduous trip up to Enfield, to Southbury Leisure Centre to defend the club's honour in the Middlesex County Masters Meet. This is their story.....

The annual Middlesex meet saw 40 Otters turn out to defend the club's county titles. Ths included debut swims for Heather Shannon, Annette Coomer, Lex Higlett, Michaela Krejci, Giulia Campisi, Viviana Castagna, Mel Evans, Nima Vazari, Olivia Reynolds, Joana Sandrin Gauer, Craig Gillespi, Chris Grey and

The team produced excellent performances all round with Sarah Westwood, Dave Warren, Helen Prentice and Gina Hobson putting in particularly strong pre-Nationals swims. 

The confusion that is the relays (think an exercise in matching up as many swimmers with as many teams as possible ending up at the right end of the pool for the next heat) went off with only the merist hint of a hiccough. Field Marshalls Thomas, Hasnain and Hobson were on hand to execute Tony and Ben's master plan with aplomb, resulting in near domination across the age groups.

Otter took the ladies', men's and overall titles, taking the latter with 1079 points to second-placed Barnet's 489; to say coach Steve was pleased is only a small understatement ;o)! Full results are available with some pics, contact me if you haven't received them from Ian already.

Special thanks go to: Jess Trevellick for actively encouraging her team mates to attend. This takes place every year, chat to those that attended, the buzz was that it was a lot of fun and not at all pressured!

GB Long Course Nationals

A romp of 22 Otters made the long journey down to the seaside, to the new Plymouth Life Centre facility. This weekend the team, fresh off a decisive Middlesex victory, took on the ‘Best of British’ at the annual GB Masters Long Course National Championships. Although the Otter contingent may have been a bit smaller than the usual, what they lacked in numbers, they certainly made up for in the quality of their achievements.

Early on in the meet Otter made its mark with record breaking success in the Men’s 200+ 4x200m F/C relay and the team didn't look back. In the short space of 2 hours the team of Pete Kirk, Peter Rae, Dan Bullock and Dave Warren not only broke the British record in the 200+ 4x200m F/C relay, they also broke the British record in the 200+ 4x100m F/C relay, not bad at all for an afternoon’s work! It has to be said the boys did make it somewhat nail biting on the 4x100 relay, taking the record by a mere 0.03s. Worth a day off work on Friday – Well done Gents!