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Rotherham Metro – Introduction

Rotherham Metro Amateur Swimming Club (Metro) was formed in 1976 to organize and provide competitive swimming for its members who were also members of the Council’s Swimming Training Scheme (STS). In January 2006 the council withdrew their support for competitive swimming in Rotherham and Rotherham Metro Limited was formed to take over the running of the scheme. The Metro committee is made up of volunteers who provide input into all disciplines, some of the committee currently have competitors within the scheme and some did have competitors in the past but now freely give their time to pass on valuable experiences to others.

All our members are well catered for with varying levels of competition. The training available is in line with National recommendations and enables members to reach the highest level of their chosen discipline. In competitive swimming Metro provides training time at local pools, currently Maltby, Aston, Swinton and Wath, and also provides the coaching staff. Metro arranges for swimmers to compete and pays for coaches to attend these competitions to provide guidance and encouragement.

Metro have produced many County Champions, District Champions and National Medallists. Our Water Polo section has had great success at all levels. Norman Leighton is their coach, and he also coaches the GB team. In 1998 our under 16 team were national champions. Our juniors were national club winners in 2001, and in the same year our seniors gained 2nd position nationally. The Seniors have been in the top three in the National league every year since. 2002 was the first time Water Polo had been in the Commonwealth Games and two of our members made the senior teams. Chris Kirby helped the men win a bronze medal and Frances Leighton gave a superb performance for the ladies. 2006 sees the games move to Australia and again we have three members in the squad, Andrew Scholefield and Richard Leighton will hopefully represent the men and Frances will once again represent the Ladies.

In 1995 Masters swimming was introduced and this is very popular. One member won Gold medals at the Europeans and World Championships. In 1999 we held our first Masters Open Meet, and this has become an annual fixture. We also have long distance swimmers and a channel swimmer.

Diving was added to our disciplines in 2000 when Maltby Diving Club joined our ranks. In 1982 we staged our first Designated Open Meet; this continues to be a great success and is now held in May each year. In recent years we have attracted swimmers from Belgium, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Switzerland, Estonia, Canada, the USA, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Southern Ireland. Club families host these swimmers and many of our swimmers have made the return visits.

As long course competition has now become vital to top swimmers, we have transferred the event to the Ponds Forge complex at Sheffield, and this has proved to an extremely popular venue. Since 1987 we have held an annual B Grade Open Gala at the end of January. This is set at a standard to allow less experienced swimmers to compete in a major event. In 2003 we changed the format to be ‘A’ and ‘B’ grade, this opened the door for even more swimmers to take part. We now run the event Long Course in January and short course in July.

Please read our notice boards. These are where you will see information about our current activities and forthcoming events.

This then is a brief introduction to Rotherham Metro. May your time with us be both successful and enjoyable.

John Whaling – Chairman