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    17

    Jun 2020

    Last Updated: 17/06/2020
    Ripon
    Ripon

    Bungee training keeps Ripon Grammar School swimmer fit

    by Tim Flanagan

    | 17 Jun, 2020
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    0

    An innovative way to keeping fit, involving a bungee cord fixed to a swimming pool, is helping swimmer Darcy Harper to keep fit.

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    A bungee cord attached to the side of a pool is providing champion swimmer and Ripon Grammar School student Darcy Harper with an innovative way of keeping fit during the coronavirus lockdown.

    The 14-year-old, who lives near Bedale, has competed in national championships with her school swimming team and has qualified for the Irish national championships and got the idea from one of her mother’s work colleagues.



    Darcy, said:

    “We bought a four-and-a-half metre pool, which was hard to get as they had almost sold out – we got the last one!”


    Boarding student Darcy, who has achieved third and fourth placings in county and Ulster championships, has been swimming in her rigged-up pool most days of the week, initially in a wetsuit until she can buy a heater to warm up the water. She pointed out:

    “It has been great for me to train in and help strengthen my ankle after a netball injury.”



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    Swimming competitively from the age of nine, she has also been running and cycling to stay fit in lockdown and her ambition is to qualify for regional swimming championships and earning herself a Ripon Grammar School sports tie.

    As well as being a member of the RGS swim team, Darcy plays hockey, rounders and is a member of the athletics club. Before lockdown, she did swimming training on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and on Friday and Sunday mornings.

    She, added:

    “I love the feeling of when you've built up so much adrenaline and you can let it all out in a race. I also just love being in water and for me swimming is a way to get rid of stress you may have gathered over the week and it’s a great community too. Even if I stop competing, I will never give up swimming.”