• Laverne Austin was afraid she’d walk into the Lakeland Family YMCA and see snacks and balloons.

    Sure enough, she did.

    “(They) knew how old I was,” she said.

    Laverne posed for photos in a glittery pink birthday hat. She even wore it in the pool for her water aerobics class. At 98, all eyes tend to find an energetic senior.

  • Federica Pellegrini allegedly received the Leone del Veneto (Lion of Venice) award at the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista held in Venice, Italy on January 11th. Well, Pellegrini is the first woman to receive Lion of Venice award, which is given out by the regional council to a Venitian citizen who have distinguished themselves in professional or humanitarian endeavors. This award was established in the year 1999, which was most recently awarded to Federico Faggin for his role in creating the first microprocessor.

    Pellegrini, has been nicknamed the Lioness of Verona, because she was trained in Verona but she hailed from Venice, where the Lion of St. Mark is in the city Coat of Arms.

    Read Blackbird News

  • Around 60 swimmers of all ages took to the water off Eden Rock Sunday afternoon to support the conservation of the popular George Town dive and snorkel site.

    Led by organizer Rory Joe McDonough those who participated in the Eden Rock Solidarity Swim swam roughly 150 meters from the shoreline and back to show their love for the spot.

  • Four-time Olympic gold medalist Allison Schmitt is getting ready for life after swimming. Schmitt wants to pursue a career in a mental health-related field and worked an internship counseling students last year.

  • The Tampa Bay swimming community is remembering the life of a 16-year old Carlos Medina following a crash on Davis Islands last weekend.

  • Hungary, Spain, Netherlands reach semis like in 2014, 2016 and 2018, Russia returns after 2012

    The champions in the previous three editions, Spain (in 2014), Hungary (in 2016) and title-holder Netherlands all made the semi-finals, re-joining just like each occasion since 2014. Russia returns for the first time after 2012, they beat Italy with ease, and 2018 silver medallist Greece is also out.

    Women’s tournament
    Quarter-finals: Hungary v France 16-3, Russia v Italy 13-7, Greece v Spain 9-12, Slovakia v Netherlands 2-22
    For places 9-10th: Croatia v Israel 7-11. For places 11-12th: Serbia v Germany 11-11 (penalties: 2-4)

    Fixtures for Thursday:
    Semi-finals: Hungary v Spain (17.30), Russia v Netherlands (19.00). For places 5-8th: France v Greece (14.30), Italy v Slovakia (16.00)

    The semi-finals will feature three teams which were constant players in the top flight in the last three editions, in fact they were the respective winners in those championships. The Netherlands (champion in Barcelona 2018) and Hungary (Belgrade 2016) enjoyed an easy ride what is a usual reward for the group-winners: since the top six sides are far above the rest of the field, the 4th placed teams they face are no match for them.

    In the first quarter-final the Dutch downed the Slovaks by 20 goals and in the evening the Hungarians blew away the French too. Here the resistance was a bit tougher from the underdogs as they trailed only 8-3 at halftime but they ran out of power for the second half where the Hungarian rallied to an 8-0 rush.

    More excitements were expected in the middle two fixtures but both matches had a calm finish as Russia out played the Italians and Spain also sank Greece with a convincing performance. Italy’s 6-goal defeats from Spain and the Netherlands in the prelims showed that the Setterosa wasn’t in top shape and the game against Russia was another painful proof for that.

    The Italians could hold on till half-time but when Russia netted two in 50 seconds to go 8-5 up early in the third, the Italian team started fading away. They were 10-6 down before the last break and there was no way back from there – they lost the second half 7-2. One of the most telling stats (besides taking only 23 shots, compared to Russia’s 32) was their disastrous man-up play, 0 for 10 in this match (Russia was 5 for 11). This also meant that Italy, which had always made the semi-finals between 1991 and 2016 (13 editions in a row), will miss the top four for the second consecutive championships.

    The following encounter was something similar: Spain also led 6-5 at halftime before they started rolling. The Greeks couldn’t keep up with their rivals in the second half: they similarly had fallen below their first-half level against the Hungarian and the Russians. Though they equalised for 6-6 but then the Spaniards netted three unanswered goals in a span of 2:13 minutes and added two more in the fourth to go 6-11 up and that decided the outcome.

    The early matches produced more thrills, especially the one played for the 11th place by Germany and Serbia. The Germans jumped to a 2-5 lead in the second, the Serbs bounced back any early in the fourth they led 11-7. But the Germans didn’t give in and netted four connecting goals, the last one came 11 seconds from time to save the match to a shootout and they won the first penalty-roulette at this Europeans. Then Israel staged a great 6-2 run in the second quarter against the Croats and maintained that gap till the end to clinch the 9th place, just like in Barcelona 2018.

    For more details, detailed statistics, play-by-play descriptions and video clips of each goal, visit:
    http://wp2020budapest.microplustiming.com

    Press release from LEN, images courtesy of Deepbluemedia

  • A video about most convenient swim bag when swimming in cold water. What happens to the blood flow when immersed in cold water. What is important to do after getting out and why. Winter / cold swimming advice. This video was filmed at Levens near Milnthorpe, an area near to Morecambe Bay.

  • Do you feel like you have no catch when you breathe? It could be because you’re doing THIS in your stroke…

  • This film is one ‘episode’ from a fundraising challenge in which Liu and Georgina attempted to cycle the entire coastline of Kent, while trying as many different sports as they could along the way – all in just one weekend!