First session back at Riverside

Last night we completed our first training session back in Riverside Leisure Centre pool - our new home pool!

After four long years of closure after the huge fire that took place, we are so happy to finally be back training at Riverside. Thanks to Exeter Leisure, we have been able to make Riverside our main training base, with club branding throughout the pool area, including green and white lane ropes, green and white lane flags, a new banner celebrating Riverside as the home of Exeter City Swimming Club and club logos on our race blocks.

Although it has been four long years without the use of the pool, it is fantastic we are finally back. The improvements that have been made are brilliant. The pool feels so fresh, with new ventilation making the poolside environment feel so much more comfortable, new spectator seating, new changing rooms, as well as all our club branding around the pool. It makes it feel a really nice pool for our swimmers, coaches and parents to be in and the feeling of it being a permanent home for us will I am sure inspire the swimmers moving forwards.

It is really nice to be able to finally find a permanent home for our new race blocks. They were purchased over two years ago, with a view to them being installed at Middlemoor Police HQ (our former home pool), but due to structural issues, Devon and Cornwall Police decided to demolish and not replace the pool. This compounded the issue of Riverside being closed, which meant we were struggling for adequate pool time for our swimmers. The blocks being installed at Riverside means that our swimmers can now regularly practice their starts on the latest competition blocks, which will definitely help them to perform the best starts in races and it is these little opportunities that help to make the small differences towards success in a race. We are very grateful to Exeter Chiefs Foundation for their generous donation towards the cost of these blocks.