Meet a member – Laura

Laura has always been a front crawl swimmer, as she never really saw the point of the other strokes!  Her Mum missed Laura’s first strokes of front crawl (aged five) as she was still in the pool changing room.  Laura progressed fast and she soon joined a swim squad and spent many years training for the 100m freestyle, until discovering at about 16 that she was actually much better suited to the 800m.  She went on to achieve 2nd place in the 800m at the Devon County Championships.

Laura raced for the university swim team but then travelling (and working too hard to raise the cash to fund her travels) meant that she did not start training again until she moved to Southampton to take up her first graduate role. Joining a swim team seemed a good way to make some local friends.

Laura moved to London in June 2015, to work for Network Rail, helping to deliver track renewal projects and improved and more reliable track infrastructure, which in turn result in more reliable and robust timetables and improved railway performance for all of us.  She took a while to find an affordable swim team with training times and locations that worked around her work.  Finally, in May 2017, Laura signed up for a trial session at Ernest Bevin and she has not looked back.  “Everyone there made me feel really welcome and encouraged me to come back – so I did!”

Laura now trains with us two to four times a week.  She is a keen competitor, and tries to go to Sheffield every year for short course Nationals as well as entering regionals events, the Surrey County championships and more local “fun” events.  She also went to Eindhoven in 2013, swimming for GB in the European Championships.  Her favourite events at the moment are 200m and 400m freestyle, and her current aim is to get her 200m freestyle time down to as close as possible to the time from her youth.

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