Saturday morning, and some of the OTS Open Water crowd met up at Parliament Hill Lido for their Christmas dip, the 'Mincey Pie Plunge'. The weather was festive, as were the outfits. It was 4 degrees in the water and sparkly tops, antlers and Santa hats did nothing to warm us up. However, everyone jumped in, and most swam a couple of widths or more in the bright winter sun and the screams and laughter could be heard all over Hampstead.

After a long shower, warming drinks, mince pies and Christmas cake helped heat us all up and reminisce about the many open water swims of 2011.

Merry Christmas!

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Update from Lizzie:  £101.65 was raised for PACE on Saturday!

Well our Xmas splash and fun was exactly that. The SKINs event ‘OTS, it's a knockout' was a real hoot and the added complexity of choosing strokes for each heat really put the cat amongst the pigeons, leading to some unexpected results. But we saw some great swims and it was fabulous to see all lanes being so competitive and racing against each other, also watching those swimmers who have come through the lessons programme getting into it all and doing so well.

But the winners of each lane were:
Lane 1 - Dougie
Lane 2 - Oscar
Lane 3 - Thiboult
Lane 4 - Thusitha

This was followed by the water polo matches, with mixed ability teams, which were great fun to watch, and well done the A team for your success.

We then descended on the New Bloomsbury Set for drinks, well done Dan for organising reasonable drinks prices!! After short speeches summarising the key successes for the club, the 2011 awards were given out to the following OTS members

1.  Male swimmer of the year - Martin B
2.  Female swimmer of the year - Lizzie B
3.  The most improved swimmer - Geovanny R and Katie
4.  Water polo player of the year - Gareth J
5.  Most improved waterpolo player - Kate S
6.  Syncro swimmer of the year - Rick S
7.  Most improved syncro swimmer - Ronan D
8.  Open water swimmer of the year - Rick S.

Well done to you all and especially Rick for doing the double! We are all looking forward to building on our success for 2012.

Lucille

On Saturday the ASA's Swimtastic 2011 awards were held at the Ponds Forge centre in Sheffield. Nominated for the Community Project of the Year award for the work they do for the YMCA Positive Health Scheme were two of our very own coaches, Hilary Gerlis and Martin Purcell. (Last year, another of our coaches, Vicki Carter, won the Top Teacher of the Year award.)

The nomination was as follows:

Martin Purcell and Hilary Fassnidge - YMCA Positive Health Swim Group based in London

• Martin and Hilary volunteer each week to train people living with HIV and AIDs at the Positive Health Swim Group.
• Many of the people they teach have suffered from a long term illness and over the past three years they have not only helped the swimmers to gain a love of swimming but they have helped them to improve their health and fitness too.
• With the help of the swimming lessons many of the swimmers have gained in confidence, which has enabled them to get back into employment.
• Martin and Hilary have created more than a swimming club, they provide an important meeting place for people living with HIV.

Well, the good news is that Hilary and Martin won the award and I have to say I don't think it could have gone to two more deserving people. Both of them are very modest about the considerable time and effort they put into Y-Positive (and OTS for that matter). Out to Swim is indeed privileged to have Hilary and Martin as coaches and we are also very proud of our support of Y-Positive.

Chair of OTS, Lucille Thirlby, had the following to say: "A huge well done to them both. It is great to see martin and Hilary's commitment and energy being recognised by the ASA - we are so lucky we benefit from them coach the club so regularly!".

Martin and Hilary were accompanied by a group of supports and members of Y-Positive to the awards dinner in Sheffield, held in the Ponds Forge centre. Earlier in the day, though, the group had an opportunity to swim with the stars; which was a fun hour or so in the leisure pool swimming spent with some of the top young swimmers. The big event was of course the gala dinner. There were a lot people there and the ASA did a grand job in organising the evening. The speeches were fortunately short, the food plentiful (and good) and the company excellent.

It has to be said that when Hilary and Martin were announced as the winners a particularly loud cheer was heard from their fan club.

Well done Hilary and Martin!

Here's the official press release:

Two volunteers from the Central YMCA Positive Health Programme have been awarded a community award by the ASA - swimming's governing body.  Hilary Gerlis Fassnidge and Martin Purcell were presented with the Kellogg's ASA Swimtastic 'Community Project of the Year Award' by Olympic diver Nick Robinson-Baker at a star-studded event in Sheffield on Saturday 5th November.

The annual event celebrates the achievements of swimmers from all ages, including teachers and coaches who drive swimming at grass roots level.

Katie Brazier, ASA Sponsorship Director said:  "this year we were overwhelmed with nominations for 'the ASA Swimtastic Community Project award 2011' so to get into the top three is an achievement in itself.  The reason the YMCA's Positive Health 'swim group' have been recognised is because of Hilary and Martin's outstanding contribution to training people living with HIV.  They have inspired so many people to use swimming - sports only true life skill - as an effective exercise."

The ASA and Kellogg's - the events sponsor - invited all the finalists for a day of fun at the Ponds Forge, Sheffield, where they were able to swim with past Olympic and Commonwealth champions and future hopes for London 2012 Olympics and Para Olympics. They included: Olympian and Commonwealth gold medallist James Goddard; Olympian and diving champion Nick Robinson-Baker; Para Olympic hopefuls James and Emma Hollis and Claire Cashmore, to name but a few.

The Positive Health Programme is a medical referral scheme that introduces HIV positive individuals to exercise in a non-clinical setting. Over the last fourteen years the programme has helped improve the quality of life of thousands of individuals, helping them to manage fluctuating conditions associated with HIV.

Sam Fraser, Positive Health coordinator said: "We are so thrilled that the ASA have recognised the hard work that Hilary and Martin put into our swim programme. One of Positive Health's main aims is to break down the barriers associated with gyms: our swim group does that and much more besides, it is one of out best attended and most sociable groups."