What it's like to take part in the European Trials

Here's Charlotte Robertson's take on the experience of being in a major championship meet!

The European Trials were such an amazing experience.....even if i was a little bit nervous about swimming with Commonwealth and Olympic medalists!!
The first famous person i saw was Darren Mew outside Primark (who later that evening qualified fastest for the 100m mens breaststroke final)!!
And of course knowing who else was there and how good they all were i decided to watch some of the Finals & Semi finals on the tuesday night before i swam.
It started with a bang, the first event being Katie Wylds' 100m freestyle semi-final.
She had already p.b'd earlier in the heats and she managed to better that by going a 57.20!! WOW!! Obviously that earned Katie a place in the final the following night...and she was ranked 3rd!!
The best race of the night though i think had to be the mens 400m free final.
It had so many well known swimmers in it! : Robie Renwick,
David Carry,
David Davies &
Ross Davenport. To name just a few.
But also another good race was the Mens 50m Fly Semi.
Another good swimmer from Surrey, Owen Morgan (Who swims for Kingston Royals and swam for Wales in this event and was a semi finalist in the 50m crawl at the Commonwealth Games.) was in this, he did a 24.50 which i dont think was quite a p.b but it was a good enough time to get him seeded highly for the final wednesday evening.
I knew Owen because when we all went on the training camp to Tunisia him and a few other good swimmers of Kingston Royals were also there training ( In Owens case it was more posing and sunbathing than training...but we couldn't really complain!) and my dad being my dad decided to challenge him to a 50m fly! Quite obviously Owen won.
Wednesday morning was definitely the highlight of the 2 days i was there though.
As I was waiting for a lift to go down to breakfast David Davies and Gregor Tait came out of their room and GOT IN THE SAME LIFT AS ME!! WOW two commonwealth GOLD medalists and me in the same lift....proves what a great hotel the Bristol is for celebrity spotting.....only if your a swimming junkie!!
Then it was over to the pool with Chris (Ashton) & Ron for our warm-up & races.
Chris started off the day in the 200m IM, he didnt do a p.b but it was still a very good swim.
Then it was my turn to swim. I was in the Final heat of the girls 800m free ( i wasnt by any means the fastest but it was seeded strangely ) This meant though that i was swimming in the same race as Kerri Anne Payne who just missed out on getting a medal at the Commonwealth games.
Ron gave me instructions to go out a bit faster so that if i didn't die i would get a faster time than the last time i swam this event at the Surreys.
I definitely went out faster, so much so that i nearly got my NQT on the first 400!! Oh well maybe next time at our Easter meet.
In the end my time was about the same as last time i swam it but with different splits. ( Something to work on ) But at least Ron smiled.
I returned to the pool once more after my race in the evening to watch Katie in the 100m free and all the other finals and semi's. But before going on poolside i nearly managed to trip Bill Sweetnam up ( Not purposely of course.....)
Well Katie's race was definitely worth staying for, she did yet another P.B and got a bronze medal! WOOHOO!! What an amazing achievement.
Also not to be outdone our friend Owen also got a Bronze medal in his 50m fly final.
The multi disability swimmers may not be as well known, but they were still good races to watch. The best one being the 50m free where i was lucky enough to see a new WORLD RECORD be set by Matt Walker in the 50m Free.
I now can't wait till Nationals to see all the swimmers again, but i really hope i can manage to get the Qualifying time for the 2007 British Long Course Champs so i can experience the event once again!!
Chris, Stuart, Dave, Katie and Claire our girls Club Captain are still there representing the club and I have checked the results page today, Stuart McCrea (Pat's son ) has qualified for the mens 50m back semi and also Katie for the womens 200m free
GO LSC!

Charlie