Schoolgirl Orla Davies proved herself the fastest female swimmer in the UK, after dedicating her charity Swimathon challenge to her two beloved grandfathers.
Cheered on from above by her two biggest supporters, ‘Papa’ and ‘Taid’ who sadly died within a month of one another, over Christmas, Orla swam 200 lengths in a personal record time of one hour, six minutes and forty one seconds, raising over £700 for the Marie Curie charity and Swimathon Foundation.
This fantastic time has now been verified and places Orla, over the 5K distance, as not only the quickest girl age group (13 to 15 yrs) swimmer in Great Britain, but also the fastest female (9 to 90 yrs) swimmer in the country.
Orla has already received warm congratulations from Duncan Goodhew - the GB swimmer who achieved Olympic Breaststroke Gold & Bronze at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Orla said: “We all miss Papa and Taid so much. They loved to watch me swim - every length I swam was for them. I love you both and miss you triple dearly.”
In addition to her School Tri training at Myddelton College, Orla swims 12 hrs per week with Nofio Clwyd performance squad who are based at Connahs Quay swimming pool. She also trains with Deeside Athletics middle distance running group for two hours per week and trains with Ruthin Tristars for two hrs per week.
You can find Orla’s official results on the Swimathon web page. She was 7th overall in UK, 1st in girls age group, and 1st in overall female. https://swimathon.org/results
