The Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Carolyn Parry opened the annual Canterbury Open swimming gala on Saturday to great applause from the 250 visiting swimmers and their families. During her speech, the Mayor said it was great to see so many young people involved in a healthy sport and she welcomed those that had travelled a distance to compete in the city. She was also very complimentary of Mercedes Benz of Canterbury, who were the main sponsor of the gala, stating how positive it was to see a major local business support an event in Canterbury like this. Similarly, she enjoyed reviewing the programme of events where she noted numerous local businesses that had sponsored different races during the day. .

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The Lord Mayor, who was accompanied by her consort, Stephen and her two younger children – Georgia and Sebastian, enjoyed watching some of the keen competition and cheered on the swimmers. After some light refreshments, the party were introduced to several of the club’s leading swimmers, including Jazz Malcolm, who had been with the club since he was 8 years old and is now one of the county’s top 19 year old swimmers and Nick Boylan, captain of the GB’s S14 disability swim team. Her visit culminated in a photo shoot with a few of Canterbury’s best female athletes, Catherine Lough, who is on the GB Olympic development programme for Modern Pentathlon, Dominika Szucsova, who completed a team channel swim this summer and Helen Robinson who has just returned from a successful trip to Germany with the Kent Swim team.

Mr. Shaun McLaughlin, from Mercedes Benz of Canterbury presented the club with a much appreciated cheque for £1000.00 in front of some stunning new Mercedes on display during the event.

The City of Canterbury City of Canterbury swimming club would also like to thank all the other companies and people who also sponsored various elements and activities during the day.

These include; Pfizer, The Marlow Theatre, Fenwicks, Marks & Spencers, Tesco's, Enterprise Rent a Car, Asda, Contemporary Flowers, Sainsbury's, The Flower Shop, Champs Builders, Britainnia Security, The Robinson Family, Josh Maley, the Foreman family, Intake Engineering, the Brawn family, Des Macnally Locksmith, Kingsford Solicitors, Barretts, the Hendrick family, Trevor Stroud, Locksmith, Cafe Solo, Revival and Precise Driving School