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After fantastic performances in each of the three qualifying rounds of the Nuneaton & District Junior Swimming League, Walsall’s Junior Team qualified for the Division Three Final in top spot.
Congratulations and very well done to all swimmers that competed in the qualifying rounds. See you all at the Final in September.
Walsall’s journey to the Final
Round 1 : Saturday 2nd April 2022 @ Pingles Leisure Centre, Nuneaton
Walsall’s Junior team travelled to Nuneaton for the 1st round, not knowing what to expect having not competed in the Junior league since June 2019 due to the Covid pandemic.
Only a handful of the present team had experience of competing in a league gala.
The team performed fantastically well exceeding all expectations, finishing in 1st place with 297pts, 83pts above the 2nd place team.
Round 2 : Saturday 14th May @ SnowDome, Tamworth
Expectations were high for Round 2, but the team were up against Evesham, the team that won the corresponding gala in the 1st round.
After 26 of the 51 events Walsall were in 2nd place with 121pts to Evesham’s 128pts. The gap widened to 9pts following a disqualification in event 43 leaving the team with 8 events to try and pull it back.
With two events to go Walsall still trailed Evesham by 4pts. In the penultimate event Walsall took 1st place with Evesham finishing 4th, so going into the last event Walsall had narrowed the gap to 1pt.
It was all on the last event, the 8 x 25m Freestyle Cannon, one last big effort required.
Walsall pulled out all the stops to win the event with Evesham finishing in 2nd place.
This result meant that Walsall and Evesham both finished on 243pts equal 1st place.
A fantastic fight back by the team.
Round 3 : Saturday 18th June 2022 @ Pingles Leisure Centre, Nuneaton
The Team went into the 3rd and last qualifying round knowing that one more good performance would see them in the final.
The result of the draw for the 3rd round saw 5 of the top 6 teams being drawn together, a very tough gala.
After 24 events Walsall were lying in 3rd place with 115pts, behind Evesham with 117pts and Warley Wasps with 120pts.
Some determined swimming by the Walsall swimmers saw the difference narrow and after 36 events Walsall 180pts had pulled up into 2nd place one point behind the leader Evesham 181pts, with Warley Wasps dropping to 3rd place with 174pts.
As in the second round it was between Walsall and Evesham.
Fantastic swimming by Walsall swimmers saw Walsall go into a 12pt lead with 3 events to go and barring a disaster another 1st place for the team.
Walsall finished the gala in 1st place 11pts above Evesham in 2nd.
After the three qualifying rounds Walsall topped Division 3 and qualified for a place in the Division 3 Final on the 10th September at the Queens Diamond Jubilee Centre, Rugby. The teams competing in the Division 3 Final along with Walsall are:
Walsall
Evesham
Warley Wasps
Nuneaton & Bedworth B
Cheadle
Camphill
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