Stradbroke centre forced to abandon Swimathon

An instructor has expressed his disappointment after a national swimming competition was cancelled due to coronavirus.

Stradbroke Swimming Pool and Fitness Centre was due to be among 600 pools taking part in the annual Swimathon event – only to see it scrapped following an announcement this week.

Swimming instructor Len Phoenix, who has been in charge of organising the competition at the leisure centre for more than 25 years, said the decision marked a great loss for young people in the area.

The 71-year-old said: “It’s disappointing, but we’ve still done amazingly well over the years.

“Swimathon generates a real togetherness. We’ve a great following over here and it really does pull people together.

“The majority of the swimmers are local swimmers, and we’ve helped plenty of youngsters around here.

“Around 200 swimmers take part and, for the past few years, we’ve been in the top four or five in the country, and that includes all the big national pools – we are a small pool in the middle of rural Suffolk.”

Raising money for Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie, the event sees swimmers take part in a number of different individual and team races.

Speaking about when it would be before Swimathon is able to be rescheduled, Mr Phoenix said it was too early to say.

“It’s difficult to forecast at the moment,” he said.

“You don’t want to build hopes up where there aren’t any, but we want to work towards some type of normality.”