Saturday, the 7th of June saw the second Rising Stars Gala of 2025 at the prestigious Manchester Aquatic Centre with Wythenshawe Swimming Club managing to take home both the Team and Relay trophies.
The event is sponsored by AWB & Son, who are notable for Compliance Solutions relating to Fire Safety, Water Hygiene, Training and Technical Advice, and organised and officiated by volunteers from the City of Manchester Aquatics Swim Team, with the elite swimmers from the senior squads providing timekeeping and support.
160 swimmers attended the event and competed in 50m of Freestyle, Breaststroke, Butterfly, and Backstroke, together with a 100m Individual Medley, with Team Freestyle relays to finish the evening.
The Gala is an invitation event for the local network of Manchester community swimming clubs. The clubs involved are Broadway, Harpurhey, Wythenshawe, COMAST Raven Moss, COMAST Hough End, COMAST Academy, the Matt Walker Academy for disability swimmers, Chadderton and Wright Robinson School.
Medals are awarded to the top three in each event and age groups of 8 to 14/15 years, with overall and relay team trophies.
Wythenshawe SC won the overall Team Trophy, keenly contested by Harpurhey, and Hough End in third.
Wythenshawe SC also finished 1st in the “A” Team Relay to do the double, only just finishing 1.06 seconds in front of Hough End, with Hough End bringing up 3rd place just over 4 seconds further back.
In attendance were Cllr John Hacking and Cllr Annette Wright. Both were enthused by the highly charged atmosphere that comes from so many children, aged 8–15-year-old taking part in a competition in a World Class venue.
COMAST international swimmer Jess Calderbank was on hand to present the trophies.
Full results can be found on this LINK.
The next gala is scheduled for 20th September.
