THIS time last year Gala ASC recorded one of their biggest ever medal hauls in the East District Age Group Championships (EDAGs) and set the benchmark for 2018. It would be fair to say that although the 2018 medal haul was slightly less this year’s EDAGs were more impressive due to the breadth of Gala Swimmers competing and their overall performances.

The third and final round was held at the Royal Commonwealth Pool from February 2 to 4 and apart from the 200IM on the Friday night the distances are all 50M and 100M which means the events come thick and fast. Nine Gala ASC Members made their way up the A7 for what turned out to be a fantastic three days of competition swimming.

Special mention for Archie MacDonell and Lucy D’Agrosa made their EDAGs debuts in the junior age groups and overcame some pre-swim nerves to record impressive PBS. Jake Shepherd (one swim), Beth Johnston (three swims) and Andrew Watt (two swims) all recorded PBs over the weekend.

Elsbeth Roper had seven swims putting in some very strong performances and Maili Brown reached the final of the 15-years 100M Back finishing 7th and had four other great swims.

Laura Frizzel had a whopping nine swims, racked up a good few PBs, and reached the final of the 14-years 200IM (6th), 50M Fly (5th) and 100M Fly (4th) and although missed out on adding to her Silver medal in Round 2 can be very proud of her performance.

The star of the show for Gala was Anna D’Agrosa. Having made her EDAG debut in Round 2 where she reached the final of the 200M Free she was in the mood to go even better in Round 3.

Anna reached the finals from all three of her swims picking up Silver in the 100M Free and went one step better in the 100M Breast collecting Gold. A hattrick of medals was cruelly denied in the 50M Free where she finished 4th in a fantastic final where the top four placing were all within 700ths of a second of each other… such are the fine margins in this sport.

With medals, PBs, scintillating all round performances and impressive debuts by our younger swimmers the forecast for Gala ASC is looking good for the rest of the year.