Year End Announcement – From President Nick:
Sunday, July 6, 2014
A message from President Nick
Greetings pod!
As the season draws to a close, I want to congratulate everyone on another great swimming year! The 2013/2014 season has been excellent for the London Silver Dolphins. Thanks to coaches Ken, Jay, Liz and Dan, who put us through the paces and motivated everyone to have fun, get fit and swim fast! Thanks to the executive (Julie, Spence, Glen, Margie, Marketa, Chuck, Paul, Bill and Anneke) for helping the club run smoothly for another season. And thanks to “butterfly” Jeff (and SmartWebPros) for maintaining our website.
In March, we took a team of forty-eight to Windsor where we won the Ontario Provincial Masters Swimming Champions for the sixth time since 2006. The dynasty continues!
In May, we sent a smaller (but very enthusiastic) team of twenty-eight to the Canadian Masters Swimming Championship (also in Windsor). Everyone swam well and the result was fabulous. The London Silver Dolphins are Canadian Masters Swimming Champions for the first time ever! Way to go Dolphins!
On July 12, we host our annual Sunset Outdoor Masters meet at Thames pool. Come on out for a fun meet (and BBQ!). Thanks to Paul Cappa and LAC for pulling it all together again this year. Entry form is on the LSD, MSO and MSC websites.
In August, several Silver Dolphins will be competing at the World Masters Swimming Championship being held in Montreal. It going to be a great meet, with over 8000 athletes expected from all over the world!
The CGAC (our home pool) is closed for major upgrades and is not scheduled to open until late October. Our season will begin in September as usual, but we will be swimming in Thames pool for most of September and then at Western U pool until CGAC is open. Dates and times are not finalized yet…stay tuned. We are aiming to have at least three workouts per week until CGAC is open again, when we revert back to our usual schedule of five swims per week.
The new registration package for the 2014/2015 season will be posted on the website soon. You will notice that fees are going up by approximately 10%. Our costs were greater than revenues this past year (by about $5000). As a non-profit organization, we’re not trying to make money, but we have to pay the bills! We have been using our club “reserve” to make up the difference. This cannot continue, so we have to either increase fees or cut back on pool time and coaching (our main expenses). At our recent executive meeting, we unanimously agreed that a fee increase was better than cutting back on pool time. Our club fees are still an excellent value. For a full membership, it works out to about $3.50 per workout.
In closing, I want to congratulate some excellent results from the 2013 swim season that were announced at the awards banquet at Nationals in May. Several London Silver Dolphins set Canadian records and/or were ranked in the top ten FINA world rankings in 2013.
Canadian Records set in 2013:
20-24 Angela Quick 800 and 1500 free
50-54 Len Gushe 200, 400, 800, 1500 free, 200 fly, 400 IM
Top Ten FINA World Masters Rankings in 2013:
25-29 Amber Hutchinson 50 free 5th
25-29 Whitney Rich (Rose) 100 breast 10th
200 breast 9th
400 IM 4th
50-54 Len Gushe 200 free 2nd
400 free 2nd
800 free 2nd
200 back 1st
200 fly 1st
400 IM 2nd
70-74 Bryan Finlay 400 IM 8th
In addition, Andrew Dragunas and Bryan Finlay won the most “positional” points in Canada for their respective age groups. This means that they ranked well nationally in several events each.
Congratulations to everyone on a great year of swimming! Have a great summer and see you in the pool!
Nick
Greetings pod!
As the season draws to a close, I want to congratulate everyone on another great swimming year! The 2013/2014 season has been excellent for the London Silver Dolphins. Thanks to coaches Ken, Jay, Liz and Dan, who put us through the paces and motivated everyone to have fun, get fit and swim fast! Thanks to the executive (Julie, Spence, Glen, Margie, Marketa, Chuck, Paul, Bill and Anneke) for helping the club run smoothly for another season. And thanks to “butterfly” Jeff (and SmartWebPros) for maintaining our website.
In March, we took a team of forty-eight to Windsor where we won the Ontario Provincial Masters Swimming Champions for the sixth time since 2006. The dynasty continues!
In May, we sent a smaller (but very enthusiastic) team of twenty-eight to the Canadian Masters Swimming Championship (also in Windsor). Everyone swam well and the result was fabulous. The London Silver Dolphins are Canadian Masters Swimming Champions for the first time ever! Way to go Dolphins!
On July 12, we host our annual Sunset Outdoor Masters meet at Thames pool. Come on out for a fun meet (and BBQ!). Thanks to Paul Cappa and LAC for pulling it all together again this year. Entry form is on the LSD, MSO and MSC websites.
In August, several Silver Dolphins will be competing at the World Masters Swimming Championship being held in Montreal. It going to be a great meet, with over 8000 athletes expected from all over the world!
The CGAC (our home pool) is closed for major upgrades and is not scheduled to open until late October. Our season will begin in September as usual, but we will be swimming in Thames pool for most of September and then at Western U pool until CGAC is open. Dates and times are not finalized yet…stay tuned. We are aiming to have at least three workouts per week until CGAC is open again, when we revert back to our usual schedule of five swims per week.
The new registration package for the 2014/2015 season will be posted on the website soon. You will notice that fees are going up by approximately 10%. Our costs were greater than revenues this past year (by about $5000). As a non-profit organization, we’re not trying to make money, but we have to pay the bills! We have been using our club “reserve” to make up the difference. This cannot continue, so we have to either increase fees or cut back on pool time and coaching (our main expenses). At our recent executive meeting, we unanimously agreed that a fee increase was better than cutting back on pool time. Our club fees are still an excellent value. For a full membership, it works out to about $3.50 per workout.
In closing, I want to congratulate some excellent results from the 2013 swim season that were announced at the awards banquet at Nationals in May. Several London Silver Dolphins set Canadian records and/or were ranked in the top ten FINA world rankings in 2013.
Canadian Records set in 2013:
20-24 Angela Quick 800 and 1500 free
50-54 Len Gushe 200, 400, 800, 1500 free, 200 fly, 400 IM
Top Ten FINA World Masters Rankings in 2013:
25-29 Amber Hutchinson 50 free 5th
25-29 Whitney Rich (Rose) 100 breast 10th
200 breast 9th
400 IM 4th
50-54 Len Gushe 200 free 2nd
400 free 2nd
800 free 2nd
200 back 1st
200 fly 1st
400 IM 2nd
70-74 Bryan Finlay 400 IM 8th
In addition, Andrew Dragunas and Bryan Finlay won the most “positional” points in Canada for their respective age groups. This means that they ranked well nationally in several events each.
Congratulations to everyone on a great year of swimming! Have a great summer and see you in the pool!
Nick