When Rob Bale and Daniel Sliwinski along with Coach Greenwood left our shores for Mexico with the G.B. Junior squad, nobody could have expected them to achieve the phenomenal records and results they are now bringing home.
Daniel won his 1st individual Gold of the games in the 100m Breaststroke at the same time setting a new WORLD JUNIOR RECORD and BRITISH AGE GROUP LONG COURSE RECORD.
Rob Bale broke the WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD in the heats of the 200m Freestyle only to see it unfortunately slip away in the final later in the day where he took away a well deserved and hard fought Silver Medal place.
Rob also took 4th place as part of the Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Team only narrowly missing out on the Bronze medal. Rob then followed the trend as part of the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Team which blasted their way to victory and the Gold Medal position in a NEW JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD time.
Describing his experience, Rob said, "The meet was a great experience and gave me an indication of what it takes to compete at a world level, I've learnt so much that will help in future internationals!"
Both swimmers excelled themselves yet again on the final day of the competition. Daniel now has his 2nd individual Gold Medal of the competition in the bag, this time taking the 50m Breaststroke. In doing this he yet again broke both the BRITISH JUNIOR LONG COURSE RECORD and the BRITISH AGE GROUP LONG COURSE RECORD.
Dan said of his success, "Racing against the Worlds best is what I train day in day out for, and this week has been a huge motivator for me and has made the dream of racing in London 2012 a realistic goal! The programme we have at Gallica has played a huge part in my medal success this week I couldn't have done it without my teammates and coach Greenwood!"
Finally in the Men's 4 x 100m Medley both Daniel & Rob were part of the team where yet again their grit and determination was rewarded with the Gold Medal slot, swimming the Breaststroke and Freestyle leg respectively. In total the Gallica boys have brought home 2 individual Gold and 1 individual Silver medal along with Gold each for the Medley Relay and Robs Gold as part of the Freestyle Relay.
A MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS MUST GO TO DANIEL & ROB and of course to Rob Greenwood who has worked tirelessly with his swimmers to make them what they are today, but, watch this space as both lads along with team mate Catherine Marcroft, yet again under Rob's wing are now making final preparations for their next adventure when they will be jetting off to the European Junior Championships at the end of the month.
COPYRIGHT GALLICA 2008