Island Life Magazine Ltd January/February 2006 | Page 17
HOBBIES - SPORT - LEISURE
Duncan makes a
Splash at The Heights
Scores of young swimmers enjoyed the thrill of holding an
Olympic Gold swimming medal in their hands when Duncan
Goodhew handed round his medal from the Moscow games of
1980.
Duncan was visiting The Heights Leisure Centre in Sandown as the
VIP guest for the Island’s annual “Learn to Swim” Gala event,
sponsored by Southern Water.
“It was a great inspiration for the kids to meet someone like
Duncan,” said Heights Manager David McDine. “You never know, one
of them might one day be as successful in the water as he has been”.
But teaching kids to swim is not just about producing the
competition superstars of the future. As David pointed out, on an
island full of rivers, pools and unpredictable tides it’s also
particularly important for their own safety that youngsters are taught
to be good swimmers.
On the Island, the Southern Water sponsorship pays for equipment
and publicity and marketing for the ongoing Learn to Swim
programme, which is run at the three council-run pools.
The Heights alone can have 550 youngsters on the 6-8 week course
programme at any one time, and David reckons that over the past 10
years, thousands of youngsters have been taught to swim – some of
them going on to take it up as a competitive sport and others to
work as coaches back at the pool where they themselves learned.
before the coveted trophy was carried off by the team from the
Waterside Pool in Ryde.
Also competing was the home team from the Heights, a line-up from
Medina Leisure Centre in Newport, and the Isle of Wight Swimming
Team, drawn from members of the South Wight Swimming Club and
Seaclose Swimming Club. The team from West Wight were unable to
take part.
After the gala, Duncan Goodhew conducted an informal question and
answer session in which youngsters and their parents quizzed him
about his swimming and
heard how he’d overcome
childhood handicaps
including dyslexia and
premature hair loss to
become one of the UK’s
best-known Olympic
heroes.
The Gala, in which four teams competed for the Learn To Swim
Challenge Trophy, made for a thrilling programme of swimming –
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