2017 proved to be a year of change in the history of St Neots Swans Swimming Club. It saw the 30 year anniversary of the club - no small achievement and thanks and all credit to Linda Ashley-Davidson who founded the club from scratch. However, 2017 also saw Linda’s retirement from the club, leaving Linda to focus on her role of President of Cambridgeshire ASA. 

Enter a Swan of long repute to return to the nest as our Chief Coach - Andrea Gilbert. Once in swimming - always in swimming! 

At the start of the new year, Andrea took the helm and already there’s a buzz of excitement across the swimming squad. Not least to see who can beat the new coaches PB’s! For Andrea was once a Swans swimmer when she was younger and her love of swimming took her onto obtain her degree at Northumbria University in Sports Studies. Followed by 15 years in the police force and our coach is fully equipped to keep order whilst delivering a demanding training schedule. Andrea’s looking forward to making full use of her sports training to the benefit of all swimmers at Swans.  She relishes the challenge of improving every individual members swimming achievement over the course of the coming year, so that all can be the best that they can be. Andrea has already introduced land training in support of the new pool training schedule she is delivering on a 10 week cycle. Already results are being seen with many PB’s being smashed at the County Championships. Several swimmers made the finals of their heats; two bronze, one silver and one gold medals won and that County Champ achieving regional time! A great achievement by all who swam at the County Championships.

Since the new year the club has seen an increase in new members to the squad particularly in the younger Cygnets group. With so many new swimmers, the need to get times recorded is paramount. Andrea has already started to monitor swimmers times through a series of test sets and will post these results on the notice board. The aim is to provide a method of displaying progress that an individual may make over the course of a year. 

Andrea has high hopes for all swimmers at Swans and is looking to field a full team for racing in the Fenland league and to see many more qualifying for County over the course of the next year. 

It’s an exciting time to be a member of Swans. How far do you want to progress? With Andrea’s coaching and your commitment - your personal best is out there for you to swim!