Swim West Lothian took part in the 40th Internationales Schwimmfest in Neheim-Husten

Sep 8 2011 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

Swim West Lothian crowned No.1 at international meet

SWIM West Lothian (SWL) travelled to Germany to take part in an international swim meet – and came home champions.

The SWL received an invite from SV Neptun, in North Rhine-Westphalia, to compete in the 40th Internationales Schwimmfest, a competition in which they came second last year.

Having narrowly missed out on the Top Club award last time out, SWL were eager to make sure that this year they brought the trophy home to Scotland from the meet in the town of in Neheim-Husten.

This was the club’s fourth visit to East Lothian’s twin area of Hochsauerlandkreis, and they set off on June 9 with their biggest squad to date, with 46 swimmers aged 11 to 17 and six staff.

Not only had SWL expanded their team numbers, but to celebrate the 40th anniversary of this meet, SV Neptun had also significantly increased its size.

The West Lothian team joined over 700 young swimmers from Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Hungary, Nigeria and Ghana for three days of open-air competition.

Under a grey sky and with a bit of a chill in the air, the competition kicked off on a Friday afternoon with the 400m freestyle, 400m individual medley and the 200m fly events.

After a chilly afternoon in the water, SWL’s girls 14 and over, and the boys’ 4x200m freestyle relay teams braved the cold for the final swims of the day.

Last year the girl’s team won this event, and this year they repeated the feat – while also setting a new meet record.

The challenge was on for the boys, and, not to be outdone, they came racing home to lift the second trophy of the day.

The achievement was often repeated over the weekend with the SWL team setting two more relay meet records, with the under-13 girls doing the double, setting records with their 4x100m free and 4x100m medley.

Out of the 10 relay events, SWL won seven and took silver in the other three.

Last year, each swimmer was entered for between 10 and 12 swims from the 14 individual events.

This year was no exception, and when the final medal count was announced, SWL had not only taken Top Club, they had done so with an impressive haul of 187 medals: 72 gold, 65 silver, 50 bronze.

Every SWL member also received a certificate for a top-six placing.

Having picked up a relay gold on day one, the 14-and-over boys went up against the best of the rest for the final event of the meet – the 4x100m freestyle.

Although the youngest (and smallest) team on the starting platforms, the four from SWL, had their sights set on gold.

Encouraged by the deafening poolside cheers from their teammates, the boys battled back from fourth to first place in the final two legs to bring trophy No.7 back to Scotland.