Postponed Great Swim launch goes ahead anyway.

Last year's Great Swim

While the hardy souls in Great Waldingfield continued with the Summer Fayre, other events did less well.   Sadly the Great East Swim scheduled to take place at Alton Water yesterday was cancelled due to the prospect of high winds.   It is probable that the event will be rescheduled for later in the year.

On Friday I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of this year’s event, which, despite the cancellation, went ahead in the calm and weather free environment of Endeavour House.

David Davies, who won medals for swimming at the Athens and Beijing Games, gave an inspirational talk about his career.  In addition to sponsors from the business community, also present were a number of young swimmers from Farlingaye School in Woodbridge, at least one of whom is already getting up at 4 a.m. to train.  He does not yet drive so his mother has to get up too and drive him to Ipswich every morning.

I spent some time talking to Olympic handball player, Louise Jukes, who comes from Ipswich. Handball is not a game that is much played in the UK, but is very popular in Europe where it is the second most popular sport after soccer.   Unfortunately without much supporting infrastructure here,  Team GB did not do too well in the 2012 Olympics, and now funding has become a problem.

This is a pity because I learned from Louise that handball is a high scoring, fast and exciting game for both sexes and for all ages.  It sounds a lot more fun than netball and is relatively cheap to set up a place to play.  Louise is hoping to organise a small tournament for local schools near Ipswich.  If it is a success perhaps we could invite her to do the same in the West of the county?

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