Keynsham
  Lifesaving Club

On Sat 20th Sept, three teams from Keynsham Lifesaving Club travelled to Yeovil to take part in the West Region heats of the Royal Lifesaving Society National Championships.

Rebecca and Lauren entered in the Senior Girls' category, alongside Helen and Cam; whilst Emily and Michelle entered the Junior Girls' category and David entered the hotly contested Men's category. Although Helen, Emily and Michelle didn't have the necessary pre-requisites, the organisers were happy to let them take part as "guest" teams to gain valuable experience.

The land-based first-aid incident threw some teams with its simplicity. One casualty had dragged his friend out of a river and the exertion had triggered an asthma attack. His friend was lying on the floor, unconscious and not breathing. Most teams correctly identified the unconscious casualty as a priority and started CPR, whilst reassuring the other casualty and encouraging him to take his inhaler. To get top marks, the teams had to use the mobile phone to summon an ambulance. David just clinched first place in the Mens' dry incident with a 0.5 point lead over second place.

The next event was the water based incident. Top priority here was to get the able swimmers out of the water. Next, rescuers had to secure a non-swimmer (played by Carol) and a weak swimmer, before rescuing two unconscious casualties. Most rescuers grabbed the walking stick from poolside as an aid, whilst others decided that a floating aid would be more suitable and swam out to the lane rope to grab the body-board

Rebecca and Lauren made a good attempt to rescue the casualties without getting into the water. Prioritising their own safety in this way could have scored highly, but the mark-scheme went against them and they lost out to teams who decided to get straight in and start towing casualties to the side. Emily and Michelle had a superb incident, finishing just 1.5 points behind the other junior girls’ team.

The next event was the line-throw. The fastest time of the day was an awesome 11.34 seconds by Somerset's Chris Stock. David finished a credible forth with a time of 15.19 seconds. The 17m long ropes proved challenging for our younger competitors - with some good throws falling just short of the casualties grasp. Most frustrating of all was Cambria's final throw which reached the casualty, but too late to pull her into the side!

The final event of the day was a swim and tow race. The slippery poolside and raised lip at the edge of the pool forced organisers to ban diving - meaning all competitors had to start in the water. There were superb performances all round, with everyone from Keynsham giving their all to record some excellent times.