Champion staff at Long Eaton’s West Park Leisure Centre made a big splash in a prestigious lifeguard competition – ensuring the centre scooped a top ten place in the national contest.
The National Lifeguard Triathlon, staged recently in Manchester, is an annual event organised by the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management and aims to promote excellence in lifeguard skills.
The intensive test saw Anthony Blackler, from West Park, finish 20th out of 728 entries from leisure centres across the UK - which puts him in the top 3% in the UK.
The competition features three sections - swimming, which involves a timed swim to rescue a ‘casualty’, a 40 question theory paper and a Cardiac Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) test.
And the success for West Park continued when Leisure Centre staff Daniel Bacon gained 97th place; Richard Mallon and Andy Rhodes joint 126th place and Emma Keaton 258th in the individual category.
Councillor Mike Wallis, Erewash Borough Council’s Lead Member for Culture and Leisure, says:
“My congratulations go to the West Park team members for their excellent results in this annual competition – they were up against leisure centre staff from across the UK and really did us proud. Their combined efforts ensured West Park was in the Top Ten overall, making it, rightly, one of the elite centres in this country.”
