After all the early morning sessions, the ASAs, the academies, hundreds of gallons of water swallowed, the thousands of meters swam, the hours of travel and the sheer effort of training every week, the first season of Wellington Aquatics is drawing to a close. What a way to finish our first season. The last big event of the year, ‘The Rocket Science Long Course Championships’, hosted at the Oriental Sports Centre. For the majority of our swimmers, this was their first opportunity to swim in a full sized, 10-lane 50 meter Olympic size pool. A fantastic venue for our swimmers to showcase what all of their hard work and sacrifice has been for. The team, as throughout the year, set out to prove that they are a force to be reckoned with here in Shanghai and across Asia. Over a particularly grueling event of 12 hours, the team competed at the highest of levels and most of our swimmers again set new personal bests during the day. Medals are to follow from the organizer and will be handed out in assemblies over the next few weeks. It’s fair to say, that the inaugural year for the Wellington College Swim Squad and for Aquatic Sports in general at the college has been a huge success. A great deal of thanks is owed by the Aquatics Team to all the parents for their support, not for just for getting their kids to the pool so early in the mornings, but their cheers and support at all the various meets we have attended, locally and internationally and for putting up with exhausted and grumpy swimmers, who demand more food and more sleep than most growing elephants. We would also like to thank all the staff at the school, who have allowed us to take over at times, stealing students for extra training and sending exhausted children to their classrooms after tough early morning training sets. Lastly, we would like to thank the swimmers themselves, not simply for their efforts and hard work in the pool, but for their commitment to the team, their high level of sportsmanship and their great senses of humor during training and in competition, it has been a pleasure for all of us to coach the team this year and we look forward to an even more successful 2015/16 season. The Aquatics Team