LEDBURY & District swimmers started their new term with an exciting club championship gala which produced 11 new records.

Although the first race was only one length of the pool, it was a tough challenge for the competing 8/under age group swimmers as it was the most demanding of all the strokes, butterfly.

Showing great determination, Sophie Green and Aidan Berry were the trophy winners in the 7/u category and Laura Quigley and William Park in the 8 years. Silver medals were won by Mollie-May Parsons, Joseph Cotton, Bethan Hiley and Daniel Clark and the bronze medals were awarded to Caitlin Adair, Alex Middleton and Penny Green.

The older age groups had to contend with a four-length race which all 35 competitors tackled well, producing many drastically improved personal best times and new records for Daniel Adair and Caitlin Clark (9/10), Lucy Stokes (11) and Rhys Davey (13/14).

Top contender for the senior trophy, Thomas Stokes, was unable to compete as he was representing Worcester County in Stockport, so it was down to Arron Almond and Rhys Davey to provide a superb final heat. They turned together on both the first and second lengths, Almond had the edge with a longer underwater kick but Davey had a more powerful pull and forged ahead during the third length managing to hang on to his lead to win the race and break one of the longer standing records set 11 years ago. Both boys recorded new best times.

Hannah Bloxsome was the senior girls' winner and the junior championship winners were George Bennion and Lucy Stokes.

Mark Hinton was the gold medallist in the 15/over boys.

Arron Almond turned the tables in the longest race, eight lengths of backstroke and although just shy of his best time, set a new club record for the 13/14 years age group, and won the senior trophy.

Also treating the spectators to record-breaking performances in close races were Caitlin Clark (10), in a time which also won the junior championship, and Lucy Stokes (11yrs).

The Junior Boys' cup went to David Middleton and the Senior Girls' to Emily Docherty. Other age group winners were Michael Adair and Gemma Laing (9/u), Daniel Adair (10), George Bennion (11/12) and Richard Jones (15/0).

The 50m freestyle was the most popular, attracting 82 entries. Winner of this event at the County Championships, nine-year- old Gemma Laing had to work hard to fend off Sally Fitzpatrick (second) and Alice Price (third) to take the gold medal and claim a new record.

With another great swim, Caitlin Clark won the 10 years age group making a hat-trick of new records whilst Patty Holloway swam almost a second improved personal best to set a new record for the 11-year girls. David Middleton was the 11-years boys' winner, also setting a new record time and reducing his pb to a fast 31.24 seconds.

Rhys Davey picked up his second record of the gala with a superb dive, setting him up for a new best time dipping under the 29 second mark to record 28.89.

Michael Adair collected his second gold medal in the 9/u age group with brother Daniel winning his third gold in the 10-year-olds. Emily Docherty (13/14) and Richard Jones (15/o) were gold medallists in their age groups.

The 25m novice sprint is always a popular event and in this gala there were 40 swimmers. Following some fast heats, the girls' medals were won by Alice Price first, Caitlin Oates second and Laura Quigley third with only a half second separating all three.

The boys' race was equally well contested with Alexander Middleton securing the gold with Sam Cotton second and Benedict Lavin third.

All the trophies and medals were presented by the Fusion Squad sponsor, Richard Stokes, who said: "It is a pleasure to support the swimmers of LADASC and recognise their commitment to this very demanding sport.

"I would like to congratulate all the competitors, not just the medallists and I hope that they will be inspired by the record-breaking performances we saw this afternoon."