LEDBURY swimmers continue their improvement with two more Midland District qualifying times gained in Coventry last weekend.

The club is celebrating its biggest entry in its 29-year existence into these prestigious championships, to be held at Coventry over two weekends in June.

Six boys, Thomas Stokes, James Middleton, George Parsons, David Middleton, Charlie Green and Sam Parsons and six girls, Emma Fitzpatrick, Patty Holloway, Alice Parsons, Rose Parsons, Lucy Stokes and Caitlin Clark will be representing LADASC, swimming in 50 events between them.

Despite their best efforts, both Rhys Davey and George Bennion were disappointed to finish a very tough weekend of competition narrowly missing their entry times.

Whilst these swimmers were competing in Coventry, a team travelled to Abertillary to compete in the penultimate round of the PGL Junior League.

Winning their races were: Alison Pudge, Chris Harwood, Kate Docherty, Jonathan Lea, Amber Watson, Katie Batley, Alicia Green, Amelia Butler, Isabel Massey, Iain Docherty, Chris Tedds, Josie Rycroft, Claire Powell Tuck, Rory Green. Strong swims from Alice Quigley, Odge Davey and Emily Klimek pushed Ledbury to top position.

This is the only league where the youngest swimmers (9/u) have relays in each stroke and Ledbury swimmers, Michael Adair, Rory Green, Freddie van Vuren, Billy Wilce, Leah Heath, Sally Fitzpatrick, Katie Oliver and Holly Thomas displayed their adaptability, winning all eight of their races, giving the team an overall victory of 18 points.

This will now seed LADASC second to Cheltenham in the final held in June.

Continuing with their busy calendar, there was racing for the entire club at Ledbury on Sunday in the third club championship gala.

LADASC was pleased to once again have the support of Fusion Foods, which sponsored this event.

One of the toughest races of the year, the eight-lengths butterfly, gave the spectators plenty to admire with 24 swimmers performing some excellent racing, resulting in 21 personal best times.

Twelve-year-old Thomas Stokes emerged the fastest overall, swimming to a new best time of 2.41.32, some seven seconds within the district qualifying mark, to set a new record for his age group and win the championship trophy.

George Bennion swam a best time to win the junior championship trophy, also in a new record time. Ten-year-old Patty Holloway had an outstanding swim, winning both her age group and the junior championship trophy, taking six seconds off her own best time and over 27 seconds off the existing record.

Although just outside her best time, Hannah Bloxsome swam well in the 13/14 age group, recording an age group record and winning the senior championship trophy.

Other winners were: William Brown (9/u), Joe Bloxsome (10), Luke Rycroft (13/14), Mark Hinton (15/0), Katie Batley (11/12) and Amy Tyler (15/0). Silver medals were presented to Chris Leitch, Lucy Stokes and Arron Almond, and bronze medals were won by Jonathan Lea, Caitlin Clark, Emma Fitzpatrick and Richard Jones.

From the most experienced to the least, the 8/u swimmers competed in a 25m race. William Park and Laura Quigley were the winners of the gold medals in the seven years age group with Daniel Clark and Penny Green collecting the silver and Charlie Docherty and Sophie Green the bronze.

Michael Adair and Gemma Laing were the eight years winners with Ben Butler and Sally Fitzpatrick runners up and William Corscadden Hayward and Holly Thomas in third place. There were 22 new best times recorded, with notable swims from Calypso Harvey, George Wallis Smith and Jonathan Wilson, competing for their first time, also from Bethan Hiley, Daniel Nowosielski, Timothy Tedds, Issy Heath, Will Butler, Felix Jones and Joe Nowosielski for marked improvement. Gemma Laing won the challenge shield for the fastest swim with a new pb of 17.89.

The most popular event, attracting 63 entries, was the 100m individual medley.

Some very close races produced many best times and two new records, Patty Holloway in the 10 years age group and Thomas Stokes in the 12 years.

Luke Rycroft was the fastest overall, winning the 13/14 boys in 1.11.43, Amy Tyler was the fastest girl in 1.19.32, winning the 15/o category. Other winners were, Daniel Adair (9/u), Sally Fitzpatrick (9/u), Joe Bloxsome (10), Hannah Kirby(11/12), Alison Pudge (13/14) and Mark Hinton (15/0).

The gala finished with a light-hearted 50m handicap race. The winners were, Caitlin Oates and Charlie Docherty.