The island’s swimmers are gearing up for a return to pool training next Monday for the first time in several months.

It has been a frustrating couple of years for the Isle of Man Swimming Association since all of the NSC pools closed for an upgrade in August 2018.

Originally scheduled to last nine months, the main pool was only declared fully operational in October last year after a fault in the control mechanism for the boom that divides the fixed level floor of the pool from the flexible level floor was fixed.

Training at other pools around the island allowed the swimmers to continue preparations for off-island competitions, including the Island Games in Gibraltar where the Isle of Man finished top in the swimming medal table.

But with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in March, swimming joined other sports in grinding to a halt as the island went into lockdown until restrictions were gradually eased in recent weeks.

During that time, swimmers have undertaken land specific training sessions in order to maintain fitness, as head coach Lee Holland explains:

’We’ve been running land specific training sessions. Firstly, we were doing a daily remote land training session which then developed to outdoor classes of nine athletes (six classes per night).

’We then moved on to classes of 30 ahead of the pools being back online.

’Competitions have been cancelled in England until 2021 but I can’t see why we can’t resume racing as long as the borders stay shut.

’We’ve got swimmers trying to qualify for the Island Games and Commonwealth Games so they need to compete, especially when racing on-island has been so badly affected with the NSC closure.

’Some of our athletes came home when they could before borders closed and it’s always nice to see them at sessions.

’We’ve been training outdoors in a strength and conditioning capacity until the pools re-open. We are lucky to have Fay Holland, the only local S&C coach to have trained European and world junior medallists, so we know they are in safe hands.

’It looks like we’re starting back in the pool this Monday, June 29 but it will be a reduced workload as we wouldn’t want to end up with a 14-month season as we need to be on peak form to top the medals table at the 2021 Island Games like we did in Gibraltar.

’We are hoping to get some race practice at the NSC before the borders open, which I feel is important to keep the progressions moving forwards towards Island Games and Commonwealth Games qualifying standards.’