Address from the President at the
Welsh Masters Open Swimming Championships at Bangor 11th 12th March 2000:
As this is the last competition I
will be attending as President of the Welsh Amateur Swimming Association I
feel that it is appropriate that I should say a few words about at least one
of the great successes in Welsh swimming during my year of office. During
1999 one of our Welsh masters swimmers moved up into D age group, and on reaching
that magical age when life begins, she took the world by storm. If you haven't
already guessed, the person I am referring to is standing alongside me, Lesley
Wilde.
Lesley
went to Innsbruck in Austria to the European Masters, she came away from there
with three Gold medals for all three Backstroke events and the title of three
times European Champion, in doing so Lesley broke all three British records.
Next it was time for the Nationals in
Sheffield, two weeks before she was due to go to Sheffield, Lesley was involved
in a road accident and suffered whiplash. Nevertheless she went to Sheffield
and once again won all three Backstroke events. This time in her favourite event
the 200m Backstroke Lesley surprised herself by clocking up a lifetime personal
best time, and in doing so set new World, European, British and Welsh records.
I could go on, but I am sure that by now you have got the message that everyone
in the WASA is very proud of Lesley's achievements, and in recognition of those
achievements I would like to present Lesley with an award and offer her and
all the other Welsh Masters our best wishes for this summer's FINA World Masters
Championships in Munich.