Here are my personal and highly subjective observations on the INF swimming Gala 5/11/05
The team was selected on merit from the performances at the BN Gala at Rugby in April. About 40 people in all went from BN, including about half a dozen supporters and the usual 6 BN Officers; Sports Officers Jim & Angela Russell; Chairman Mick Ayers & wife Ros; President Pat Thompson & Photographer husband Steve. This was a few more than last year went to Turin.
We met at StansteadAirport on Friday evening and flew German Wings to Cologne. A short train ride took us right to the large modern youth hostel in Cologne centre where all the teams were accommodated, mostly in comfortable rooms, 4 sharing. All the teams were staying in the same place, which gave a superficial feeling of togetherness though actually national groups tended to stick together without much mixing between them a pity I felt, and perhaps something the organisers could do something to address somehow in future.
On the Saturday morning we set of at in coaches to Bonn, 40 minutes drive away, where we had the pool complex to ourselves all day. It is a superb fairly modern facility, with 2 parallel 25 metre pools. The competition pool is 6 lane, and is 3.5 metres deep all along, and the training pool is almost the same, but with a shallow end and some flumes and leisure features. There was the usual warn up session and then straight in to the competition, which ran from 10am to about 4:30pm, and as usual was 50 metre sprints in freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke, male and female with age bands of about 5 years, plus a number of relays, variously structured.
There were fairly full teams from Germany, Holland, Britain and France, with small teams from Italy, Spain, Austria & Switzerland. Medals were awarded for first, second and third in each race.
The organisation was flawless and most of the swimmers were experienced in competition and so knew what to do anyway, so events proceeded faster than schedule. There was a break for lunch, served in the spectator area, and including a rather too good selection of desserts.
My only standard of comparison is last years event at Turin, and Id say that it compared well overall and a bit better in swimming terms. Last year the Dutch did not come at all, but this year they turned out in force, and proved to be a very strong team. The Germans won overall by weight of numbers, but the Dutch came a close second, with Britain third, ahead of France, and the minority teams not able to compete on points/medals through lack of numbers. As usual, judging was not too strict in the interests of goodwill, but adequate to keep the serious swimmers generally happy.
Strangely, appeals had to be made twice to accept medal presentations in the nude as a surprising number of people, mainly the German & Dutch teenagers, insisted on dressing or wrapping themselves in towels in between swims, though it was very warm everywhere.
At the coaches took us back to the Cologne Youth Hostel, where everyone donned their glad rags for the Gala Dinner in the evening. This was a pleasant sit down meal, which ended with speeches which were repeated in 3 languages and equally inaudible in all 3. After that there was a disco for the young and deaf, and quieter drinks in the bar for the older and conversational types.
Next morning we had a guided walking tour of the centre of Cologne and were then left to our own devices to pass the afternoon. This was no hardship, as it was a beautiful day, and Cologne centre has plenty to see, so people variously enjoyed the famous cathedral, the river Rhine, the fun fare, the parks, cable car, shops, restaurants, bars etc Later we trained it back to the airport and came back to Stanstead without a hitch.
It was an enjoyable weekend with some serious swimming competition, but some goodwill stuff too. The local organisation seemed to be done by remote control, with things happening efficiently, but no-one apparently running them. Last year we were superbly looked after by the Italian hosts, in a very personal way. This year, though we were well looked after I couldnt tell you what any of our hosts actually looked like all a bit impersonal by comparison. Jim & Angela Russell worked like Trojans to keep everyone doing the right things at the right place and the right time, and did all the back room planning in advance very well.
