On Wednesday 12th February. Panathlon was joined for the day by 2 time gold medallist and 3 time Paralympic Swimmer, Graham Edmunds. We started off the day at Stanway School in Colchester, with an inspiring talk to 26 students. Graham was very inspiring with his story about how sporting participation can overcome life’s hurdles and how he came back from a major accident, to become a Gold Medal winning athlete. One student who was so inspired, said he will now take up swimming to try and follow Graham’s success.

After a great visit we then travelled half an hour up the A12 from Essex in to Suffolk to Crown Pools in Ipswich, for the Panathlon Swim Gala. 14 teams and 95 young disabled children were taking part in a range of individual and team relay races. With an extremely high standard of swimming all day, the winners of the gold medal in the Panathlon Competition was Priory School, with Beacon Hill taking the Silver and Thomas Wolsey the Bronze. The winners of the Discovery Competition by only 1 point and therefore the gold medal, was Felixstowe Academy; with Holbrook Academy taking silver and Farlingaye School the Bronze.

Here are the full set of results:

Discovery
1.  Felixstowe Academy  87pts
2.  Holbrook  86pts
3.  Farlingaye  82pts
4.  Copleston 70 pts
5.  Otley College 60 pts
6= Ipswich Academy 59pts
6= Claydon 59pts
8  Northgate 50 pts
9 Stoke 48pts
Panathlon
1 Priory 61pts
2. Beaconhill 52 pts
3  Thomas Wolsey  46pts
4  Hillside 38 pts
5  Bridge 10 pts

Thank you to Danny Thorington and Suffolk Sport for all you help at the Swim Gala and your continued support alongside Panathlon. Thanks also to the Swimathon Foundation for your support.

For a quick video of the days action – click below! Hope you enjoy!