Hey Gang,
Just had a great email from a former colleague, country man and Yorkshire man David Lyles. I worked at the University of Bath with him and he has had great successes with swimmers making Olympic games, such as Darren Mew (who qualified for the 2004 olympic final in fastest place on the 100m Breaststroke.) I learned a tonne of stuff from Dave. Dave's wife, Jenny is Chinese and they both moved to Shanghai about 5 years ago.

From and email sent Nov 19th 2009

"Hi All,

This is just a short mail to let you all know how we got on at the China National Games last month, and also to thank all of you who have helped us along the way with kit, camps, nutrition, encouragement or support.
Firstly, let me tell you this was a 'Nationals' like no other I have seen anywhere - it really is 'The Chinese Olympics' in size and spectacle. From torch relays and opening ceremonies to athlete village accommodation and bussing in/out of venues it is as close as you can get to the real thing. I am sure many of you saw some of the results or times from the event including the staggering world record in the Women's 200 Fly. I am very proud - and more than a little relieved - to tell you that our small group of 7 swimmers brought home a haul of 10 medals, including 4 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze. 4 swimmers won relay gold and three of them also won the remaining 6 individual medals. We would like to share these results with you here:
The Shanghai men's team has not won gold for 8 years, but not only won the 4x200 Fr Relay but also broke the National Record - which was held by the Chinese National Team!! Our 2 boys - both 17 yrs - split 1.49.0 and 1.47.2 on the first 2 legs to give us a 10m lead!
We also had the first 2 legs of the women's 4x100 Med Relay and split 59.5/66.0 to hand over another lead.
Individually, silver was won in the 1500 Fr - 14.59 and in the women's 200 Br - 2.23.8 whilst bronzes came in the 400 Fr - 3.48 100 Br 66.3, 100/200 Bk 59.5/2.09.0
In additional, we had 2 finalists in the men's 200 Fr and 1 in the Women's 800 Fr so you can immagine we were delighted with the consistency over the spread of events.
The three of us have just returned from a wonderful holiday in New Zealand and started back at work yesterday - Tuesday. It is now time to re-evaluate, re-negotiate and re-plan for our next move. We will keep you informed.

Best wishes to everyone and all the best for Christmas and the New Year - hope to be in touch soon

David, jenny and Jasmine "


Pretty interesting huh?