Barry born swimmer David Davies is competing in two events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He will be aiming to improve on his current 1500 meters freestyle bronze medal (Athens 2004) by challenging for his first Olympic Gold medal. He has also entered the first ever Olympic 10 kilometers Open Water event, a challenging endurance race that will take place in the rowing lake.

You can follow his progress by watching the BBC Olympic coverage:
Highlights from the heats of the men 1500 meters freestyle will be shown on
Friday 15 August at 20.00 (BBC Satellite, Cable, online and Freeview)

David is swimming in heat 3 which is scheduled to start at 19.35 (Beijing Time) 12.35 UK time

If he qualifies by posting a suitably fast time in the heats stage then the final of the mens 1500 meters freestyle will be shown live on Sunday 17 August at 10.09 (Beijing Time) 03.09 UK time.

Highlights will be shown at 07.00 (BBC Satellite, BBC3, online , Cable and Freeview)

The current world record for the 1500 meters freestyle is 14mins 34.56 seconds set by Australian Grant Hackett in Japan 2001. Davids personal best at this distance is 14 minutes 45.95 seconds and at this moment stands ninth in the world rankings. As well as Hackett who is looking for his third consecutive mens 1500 meters Olympic gold medal, Davids main competitors will be USA’s Peter Vanderkaay (who earlier this year swam 10 seconds faster than David), Russian Yuriy Prilukov, Korean PARK Taehwan and from Poland Mateus Sawrymowicz. The local swimmer will be Zhang who has also posted a sub 15 minutes qualifying time this year.

If he wins a medal there will be extensive news coverage on TV and radio throughout Wales.

More details about Olympic swimming can be found on the BBC website

The 10k open water marathon

is a new Olympic event for 2008. 25 swimmers will compete over 10,000 meters in a grueling, competitive event being held in the SY Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing. As conditions where this event takes place vary throughout the world, swimmers compete in rivers, lakes and man-mad dams, there is no official world record.

David has competed twice in this event this year. In South Africa in January he came first and for the Olympic qualifiers held in Seville in may David came second posting a time of 1 hour, 53 minutes 21.3 seconds - that’s faster than many people can run the same distance.

The mens 10k Open Water (marathon) is scheduled to take place on Thursday August 21 at 09.00(Beijing Time) 02.00 UK time

It will be shown on the BBC at 02.00 (live on BBC Satellite, Cable, online and Freeview) Highlights at 08.15 and 14.00 with a further showing on Freeview at 19.00.

Check out David’s BBC diary entry.

GOOD LUCK Dave

Last week Friday 25 July Radio 1 came to Barry Island.

What a great event and a good news story for Barry Island and the town itself. The host DJ Scott Mills seemed to have a great time and so did the visiting celebrities like Ruth Jones, creator of Gavin and Stacy.

See for yourself on the Radio 1 website

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I have written about this issue before: Barry Island needs a hotel now.

With the ‘credit crunch’ being talked-up all the time and the general air of gloom and doom, people are seriously looking to holiday at home this year and many UK resorts have seen a boom in bookings. Why not Barry Island? Because there’s nowhere to stay!

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This month ideas on the new Cardiff airport access road were published in a series of exhibitions and by leaflet drops to residents of the Vale of Glamorgan. The access road is long overdue and attempts to expand the airport have faltered because of the limitations of the existing road to the airport from the motorway network.

Three ‘corridors’ are among the proposals:

Corridor A - runs along existing roads from junction 33 of the M4, by-passes ‘Culverhouse Cross’ and continues down through Wenvoe along Port Road. Improvements to the existing roads are proposed in places with further by-passes at Wenvoe and north of Barry but this option still relies upon the existing roundabout at the top of the Docks Link Road.

Corridor B - again runs from junction 33 of the M4, uses the existing Culverhouse Cross roundabout, follows the A48 with options to by-pass St.Nicholas then approaches the airport along the five mile lane with further options to re-route traffic away from Weycock Cross.

Corridor C - Is virtually a new road from junction 34, running through the Pendoylan area but by-passing the village, crossing over the A48 along a stretch of the five mile lane with options to link either to Weycock Cross roundabout or the roundabout at Penmark.

More detailed information can be found on the National Assembly website

As with all new road schemes there will be controversial decisions and land will be compulsorily acquired. Where there is no doubt is the need for this new access. The existing road network is struggling to cope with local traffic especially at Culverhouse Cross. There are too many roundabouts through Wenvoe and Barry, four schools are currently sited along Port Road and Tesco in Barry has a major impact on traffic.

Coupled with increasing commuter traffic between the Vale and Cardiff and the new development at St.Athan projected levels of traffic are set to increase. The airport needs its own dedicated link to the the Motorway network if it is to compete against Bristol, Birmingham and attract more international flights away from London and the South east.

People complain that flight supplements from Cardiff force up the cost of holidays. With increased traffic at the airport, operational costs decrease relatively per aircraft which means lower airport charges per aircraft.

An expanding Cardiff International Airport will be a further boost for the South Wales economy. It will create jobs and opportunities for local businesses and will bring in much needed revenue from abroad by improving linkages with other European capital cities. It will be for business as well as for holidays and will offer greater choice and flexibility for travelers.

I feel that the best option from the proposals presented so far would be Corridor C.

Yes I know it runs through some expensive agricultural land and some wealthy land owners will be affected. But junction 34 is not as busy as junction 33, it offers a direct link with only the village of Pendoylan marginally affected and Barry will benefit from a diverting traffic away from Port Road.

There is still the issue of improved public transport to consider. There are no real direct road links from Cardiff City Centre to the airport along which frequent and express bus services can run. The existing railway offers the most direct route, however a more convenient link is required between the terminal building and the existing Rhoose Station.

This is a debate that will run on for quite a while and I have only touched on the tip of the iceberg. I am in favour of the airport expanding, even though I live along the flight path. Others I fear may not be so enthusiastic. I encourage anyone in receipt of the National Assembly’s questionnaire to fill it in and make their views known.

What do you think?

Current talk of the proposed Severn Barrage project is focusing on the benefits of ‘clean’ electricity generation but ignores the cost. There are two specific costs that come to mind, the obvious building cost and the environmental cost.

As a member of the team that built the Cardiff Bay Barrage I know a bit about barrages. That barrage was built for cosmetic purposes only: to improve the visual and economic value of the land surrounding the lake. The cost estimated to be £50 million was more like £200 million with an annual running cost of £9 million. However, the results speak for themselves, 3000 new homes all paying council tax, new businesses established, private sector investment of at least 10:1, land values increased, tourism and the revenues it generates an world recognised waterfront. In fact it took just one inward investment project to offset the cost of the barrage when NEG/Schott built a glass factory on Ocean Way the private sector investment for that project alone was £200 million.

In my opinion the Severn Barrage is a huge folly. Why undertake such a massive and expensive engineering project when the only perceived benefits are clean electricity and a new road.There are more intuitive, cheaper and less environmentally damaging ways to generate electricity from the huge potential of tidal power that the Severn Estuary provides.

Morgan Parry from WWF Cymru said “We strongly recommend that more suitable technologies are deployed to capture the energy of the Severn estuary, such as stand-alone tidal generators, tidal fences and further research into tidal lagoons.“

My ideal solution would be offshore wind turbines which have another turbine under the water driven by the movement of the tides, two for the price of one.

From an environmental point of view this solution doesn’t flood important wetlands and bird feeding grounds, doesn’t require tons of concrete, the production of which generates 1 ton of CO2 per ton of cement used as a raw material and doesn’t involve huge construction facilities and the disruption to local communities such as Lavernock.

Whats your opinion?