Mitcham Marlins have won the Burvill Cup – a new award to recognise the most improved club at the Surrey Age Group Championships.
The cup was presented to the swimmers and coaches during a session at Morden Leisure Centre, one of the club’s training hubs in south-west London.
Head coach Tamami Tsujimura was thrilled the club were inaugural winners of the award, pipping Godalming, Redhill & Reigate and Farnham to the top spot.
She said: “We are a fast-growing, friendly club with big ideas and big ambitions, providing swimming coaching for children from Merton and the surrounding areas.”
Tsujimura also trains and swims competitively as a master for King’s Cormorants SC.
Surrey County ASA past president Carole Chaplin said the coaches were delighted that she had taken the time to bring them the trophy.
She said: “The swimmers had been told to turn up early ready for photographs, and a parent who is a photographer sorted out the arrangement of swimmers.
“Nicola [the county president] was unable to attend so I borrowed the chain of office and wore it in the photographs.
“The coaches knew I wasn’t really the president, and the swimmers probably weren’t too bothered who I was, they just liked the chain.”
The Burvill Cup aims to recognise not only the improvement in athlete performance but also the hard work of the clubs and coaching teams behind the athletes.
It is in honour of the late Julie Burvill, who many will remember as a key volunteer of swimming in the county and Woking SC.