LEDBURY and District swimmers enjoyed a successful third championship gala on Saturday resulting in 13 new records.

The longest race was the 200m butterfly, a very difficult event which nevertheless attracted an entry of 35 with 18 competitors aged only 10 or under. The boys showed great improvement with new records set in the 9/u, 10 years, 11 years and 12 years age group, all from swimmers who won gold medals in the county championships last weekend.

Joe Bloxsome, the youngest winner, led his heat throughout the eight lengths, and was rewarded by finishing two tenths of a second faster than his winning county swim. Christopher Leitch swam a superb race, to take the silver medal and George Parsons was the bronze medallist with a three second pb. David Middleton and Sam Parsons fought hard to stay in the medals but had to settle for new pbs and the fourth and fifth place respectively.

George Bennion was a worthy winner of the 10 years age group, setting the record at six seconds faster than the county record he set at Wolverhampton.

Bradley Smith showed great improvement to win the silver medal and Oliver Brown won the bronze. Eleven-year-old Thomas Stokes was the winner of the 11/12 age group with a very fast 2.59.32, a new record some seven seconds faster than his county championship record with Rhys Davey winning the silver medal in a new 12 years age group record time. Arron Almond was the bronze winner.

Luke Rycroft won the 13/14 years race with Mark Hinton the runner-up and Hywel Pothecary was the 15/o champion. Having competed against each other in this race last weekend and finishing with just the touch to separate them nine-year- olds, Lucy Stokes and Patty Holloway knew they would have to push their pace right from the start. Both girls excelled themselves with Patty reducing her pb by four seconds but Lucy took almost eight seconds off her time to take the gold medal in a new record time whilst a much improved Alice Parsons, nudged her sister Rose into fourth place to take home the bronze medal.

Emma Fitzpatrick tackled her race with fortitude, much preferring to swim breaststroke, and her determination paid off as she became the 10-year-old winner with Amy Jones the runner-up. 12-year-old Hannah Bloxsome couldn't quite find her form from the previous weekend but nevertheless set a new championship record and won 11/12 age group with Charlie Scott Wilson 2nd and Annabelle Wilce 3rd. Lucy Bennion was the winner of the 13/14 girls with Amy Tyler the runner-up.

As ever there was enthusiastic support from parents and older swimmers when 31 of the younger club members, aged eight and under, competed in a one length sprint. With many swimmers only six years old and the youngest, Bethan Hiley only five, everyone was impressed with their discipline as they clambered on the blocks for the start.

For many it was their first gala and proved nerve-wracking to swim before a large audience. Hal Bartlett, Edward Lowe, Penny Green, Felix Jones, William Park, Daniel Clark, Catherine Thomas and Alexander Dereham were the youngest in their age group and all show great promise for the future. The more experienced swimmers showed well with Sally Fitzpatrick and Billy Wilce emerging the 7/u champions, Leah Heath and Fred van Vuren won the silver medals and Laura Quigley and Michael Adair took home the bronze medals. The eight years category produced fine wins by Caitlin Clark and William Brown with Amelia Butler and Daniel Adair receiving silver medals and Alice Quigley and Rory Green the bronze.

Mr David Rushton, representing the gala sponsors, Orme, Dykes and Yates presented the Challenge shield to the fastest swimmer overall, Caitlin Clark.

The main race of the gala was the 100m individual medley. The nine-year-olds were impressive, Patty Holloway was determined to take the top spot and showed superior speed on the final length to win the gold in a new record time, with Lucy Stokes second and Alice Parsons third. George Parsons was hard pushed by David Middleton throughout but won the race in a new record time with David second and Joe Bloxsome third.

Capitalising on their winning form, George Bennion, 10, Thomas Stokes, 11, and Rhys Davey, 12, all collected their second new records of the gala and winners medals. Everyone was delighted to see Hywel Pothecary break his own record in the 15/over category, with exam work commitments, training becomes difficult for the older swimmers. More celebrations followed when Charlie Scott Wilson (11/12 girls) broke one of the few long standing records set 14 years ago. Rhys Davey was the boys winner in the same age group. Josie Rycroft and Thomas Stokes won the trophies for the 11/u championship. Lucy Bennion and Luke Rycroft were the 13/14 winners, strong competition from Lucinda Houghton (2nd), Mark Hinton (2nd), Amy Tyler (3rd) and Richard Jones (3rd) provided exciting races.

The final event was the annual handicap race over 50m. Much to the delight of the older swimmers it was a senior boy, Richard Jones, 13, who successfully chased the juniors and managed to overtake in the final five metres to win the boys final. Narrowly forced into second place was 10-year-old, George Oliver with Fred van Vuren, seven, third.

In the girls' event 14-year-old Amy Tyler had a hard task entering the water 24 seconds after the first swimmer, eight-year-old Katherine Berry. Katherine was determined to hang onto her lead and managed to secure the touch and win the gold medal. Amy was second and 10-year-old Lily Lowe finished third.

Following the trophy presentations by Mr David Rushton there was a vote of thanks and support made by Marie-Claire Parsons to the LADASC committee in recognition of their endeavours to secure the future of the swimming club and for the valuable free time they are devoting to this cause.