AHEAD of the main county championship events this coming month the Ledbury & District county squad were given a great confidence boost by superb performances from four of their top swimmers.

In the long distance events held at Hereford over the past two weekends, they netted two new county records and six medals between them.

Swimming in the youngest age group were 12-year-olds, Thomas Stokes and Patrick Blake and in the 13-years group were Rhys Davey and Arron Almond.

The longest race (60 lengths) was swum first, Thomas Stokes showed great fitness with an extremely evenly-paced swim to finish with a 40-second improvement to his personal best time in 19.19.92 which secured him the silver medal in his age group. Rhys Davey recorded 19.30.33, a personal best which won his age group, Arron Almond swam 20.06.11 finishing fifth and Patrick Blake, with a dramatically improved best time, collected the bronze medal in 20.17.36.

Although taking the title Davey was disappointed with his performance and was eager to make amends in the shorter 800m event. Swimming in the same heat as Stokes and Almond plus his main rival from Bromsgrove he was well-placed to keep focused throughout the 32 lengths. A fast first 100m was tricky to contend with but he recovered well over the following 200m to enable him to finish strongly and win the gold in a new championship record time of 9.53.06.

Meanwhile in adjacent lanes Arron Almond and Thomas Stokes were battling against each other length for length. The fast start had taken its toll on Almond and he struggled to find an easy rhythm until half-way through the race, in the meantime Stokes was content to remain behind, gradually increasing his speed to finish with a powerful last 200m which gave him both the age group gold medal and a new county record. Almond was a worthy winner of the bronze medal. Swimming in a previous, slower heat Patrick Blake struggled to increase his pace sufficiently to make the medals but finished a very commendable fourth. All boys swam much improved personal best times.

The LADASC older swimmers competed in a Worcester Winter League fixture at Worcester on Saturday evening. Having swum well in the previous round they paid the penalty with an extremely tough draw, swimming against league champions Worcester, Stourbridge, Halesowen, Haden Hill and Wyre Forest.

Although often outclassed the team gave their best and showed some gritty performances. Amy Tyler was one of the most determined swimmers in the pool when she tackled her 100m butterfly race. Having been dissatisfied with her previous team swim she stayed focused on her stroke and was rewarded with an improvement of over five seconds to her pb. In the same event Rhys Davey set a new benchmark of 1.12.05 for team mate Luke Rycroft to aspire to, which he duly did recording 1.12.50 in his race, a big improvements for both boys. Also on fly, Hannah Bloxsome, Patty Holloway and George Bennion successfully reduced their best times.

George was an outstanding winner of his event in the 11-year age group as was team-mate James Middleton who reaped maximum points for the team with superb swims in both the 11-years 50m freestyle and breaststroke events, reducing his times and adding confidence to his preparations for the forthcoming county championships.

Richard Jones was under pressure to secure a pb and justify his selection for the 100m freestyle race. He knew he had to fight hard to stay with the race and this tactic worked, taking him into a close fifth position and almost four seconds improvement. Also gaining new best times on freestyle were, Lucy Bennion, Thomas James, Eloise van Vuren and Hannah Kirby.

Rachel Lea worked extremely hard during her four length breaststroke race and although disappointed to be pipped into third place on the touch was delighted to take a half second off her previous best time from last May. In the same event Lucy Bennion who had already swum a 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly race dug deep to put all her energy into her last swim of the gala and was elated to finish with almost a second improvement to her best time set last March.

As part of their county preparation 11-year-olds, Emma Fitz-patrick and James Middleton were given the opportunity of swimming with the 13-years age group to enable them some valuable competition practice at the longer (100m) race.

Both swimmers rose to the challenge admirably securing new best times and finishing a very respectable fourth and third place. The team eventually finished in fifth place.