Congratulations to all the swimmers who won medals in Poland at the European short course last weekend, particularly those who have trained with us at the BEST Centre. Span’s Mireia Belmonte was the star of the show with 4 golds, following the 3 gold she won at the world short course last year. Belmonte took the titles in the the 200 and 400 IM, 20 fly and 400 free.

Mallorca’s own Melanie Costa brought home the hardware, striking silver in the 200 free and bronzes in the 400 adn 800 free. Germany’s Silke Lippok, another friend of the BEST Centre won the 200 free.

Behind Belmonte in the medleys was another who has spent multiple camps with us, Scotland’s Hannah Miley. Others who are on our wall of fame and who medalled at the meet include Markus Deibler, Erika Villaecija and Aschwin Wildeboer.

Congratulations to all in Poland and we look forward to watching the athletes perform at their Olympic trials early in the new year and then the European long course on the road to London 2012.

The big news of the weeked was Sweden’s Sara Sjostrom’s 53.05 100m free lc from the international meeting in Eindhoven. It is the fastest swim in a textile suit and puts her among the contenders for the Olympic title in London. Sarah and her British coach Carl Jenner were with us at the BEST centre in the summer.

Other BEST Centre regulars, Hannah Miley (Garioch) and David Davies (Cardiff) finished first and third respectively at the meet, and Spain’s Mireia Belmonte, who has swam with us a number of times along with the Spanish national team, won the 800m free to put her third fastest in the world.

2012 here we come…!

The BEST Centre was voted the No.1 Private Sports Factility in November, by the Balearic Association of Sport Facilities, Sport Providers and Sports Professionals. It is a prestigious award on the island given the wealth of sports there like tennis, golf, cycling and sailing.

The award follows Swimming World magazine voting the BEST Centre as one of its top 6 global sites for a training camp earlier this summer.

The BEST Centre is proud to have two European champions training with us this week: Hannah Miley and David Davies.

Hannah, who won the European title in the 400IM in 2010 and silver in the world championships in 2011, is here with her club team Garioch and will stay on after the team leaves to continue her training at the excellent facilities here at the BEST Centre.

Davies, Olympic silver and bronze medallist (10k and 1500m) is also a European champion from 2003 and is here with the powerful City of Cardiff team making a return to the BEST Centre.

We look forward to watching them train in preparation for the Olympic trials in March.

The Uplace Pro Tri Team enjoyed terrific success at one of the key events for the team, the 70.3 Ironman Antwerp where Bart Aernouts won the men’s race for the second year in a row, finishing 3 minutes ahead of Uplace team mate Axel Zeebroek.

Sofie Goos ensured it would be celebrations for Belgium and the Uplace team, winning the women’s event for the 3rd year in a row.

Tine Deckers finished 2nd in Ironman Lake Placid and is now sure of her ticket for IM Hawaii as well.

Bert Jammaer finished 8th in Ironman Frankfurt. For Bert it was his first Ironman of the year after mononucleosis was diagnosed the end of March. Bert is still working his way to full fitness and we look forward to an Ironman win later in the season.

The BEST Centre are proud of their best in class partnership with the Uplace pro tri team.

Keri-Anne Payne retained her world 10km marathon title with victory in Shanghai and becomes the first British athlete to qualify for the London Olympics in 2012.

Payne is on the Wall of Fame at the BEST Centre after her visits here and we wish her and the rest of the team success in the pool next week.

Following their best ever camp at the BEST Centre, Norwegain team Lamberseter took 12 golds and 2 national records from their national championships last week. The team finished as top club from the championships.

We were all very impressed once again with Lamberseter and the other Norwegian teams that trained with us in June and July. Congratulations to all the swimmers and coaches for thier performances at nationals.

Congratulations too to the Spanish Junior Synchro team who finish second behind Russia in the team and combined at the European Juniors. The team had us mesmerised when they were here for a week in May. Congratulations to all.

Britain finished on top of the medals table at the end of the European Juniors over the weekend. BEST friends Siobhan-Marie O’Connor won her third gold of the week in the 200 IM and Jess Fullalove won silver in the 100 back. Well done to them and the rest of the team for their 6 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze.

Friend of the BEST Centre, Germany’s Andreas Raelert made his Challenge Roth debut by breaking the world record for fastest iron-distance race. His time of 7:41:33 came thanks to a 46:18 swim, a 4:11:43 bike and a 2:40:52 run.

“Without the support from the crowds on the courses it wouldn’t have been possible,” Raelert said immediately after the race. “Everybody always says how important the crowds are, but they really carried me on this last 15 K. I’m so happy to have set up a new world record for all of you.”

The previous record of 7:45:58 was established just last weekend by Belgium’s Marino Vanhoenacker at Ironman Austria but the fast course in Roth sees the record back at the course that held the world record since 1997.