Reece Simpson and Megan Donovan start swim careers at Chatteris Empress pool and enjoy county success at Peterborough SC

Reece Simpson (13) and Megan Donovan (12) have proved how important it is to have a local pool available when you’re young.

They both started their careers in the local Chatteris Empress pool where they learnt to swim and then compete with the Chatteris Kingfishers S.C.

This eventually resulted in a move to Peterborough S.C. and success in the Cambridgeshire County Championships, where this year Megan became top girl in her age group, winning 13 top three medals, and qualification for the East Regional Long Course championships in Norwich over the bank holiday weekend.

Reece qualified and swam in 13 races over the three days, ranging from 50 fly to 200 I.M. and managed to get to the final of the 50 breaststroke, as well as swimming 12 personal best times. Megan had qualified for 10 races and got into the finals of the 200m butterfly, 200m I.M., 50 and 100m backstroke, 100m butterfly and was the reserve finalist for 50m butterfly, also getting PB times in all of her races. She finished in an excellent 4th place in 100m backstroke and 6th in 50m backstroke. They have both asked to express their support for the fight for the Empress pool, as without that, and tremendous dedication, they would never have achieved their success.