Last weekend saw the final weekend of the Somerset ASA County Swimming Championships at Millfield in Street. Cheddar Kingfishers had amazing success over the 4 weekends held in January and February. On the first day of swimming on the 19th January, Charlie Halford claimed 7th place in the finals of the boys 100m IM age 12 category, gaining a PB, alongside his brother Finley who also swam a PB. Grace Hurst, Olivia Iles, Naomi Pollard and Jemima Seagrove all competed for the girls 100m IM, with Hurst and Seagrove swimming PBs.

The second weekend of swimming, C Halford swam the 200m Breast, again achieving a PB, with Seagrove swimming in the girls 50m Back on the 25th January. Sunday, 26th January saw strong swimming, Hurst reaching the girls 50m Breast finals, finishing 4th in the 13 years age category, with Pollard also swimming for the Open Girls against tough competition.

Saturday, 1st February saw a debut County swim from Zoe Alvey, swimming the 100m Free in the girls age 10 category, Iles, Pollard and Seagrove all competing, with a PB from Seagrove. Hurst and Iles also swam a strong race in the girls 200m IM. Next up were C Halford and F Halford, both gaining PBs in the boys 100m Breast, with Harry Read also competing for the 17 year old boys. The Kingfishers team did brilliantly with their 50m Fly races, with 8 girls racing, with Tilly Hullah swimming a PB, plus more PB’s from Seagrove, Lois Brimm and Pollard. Hurst, Iles and Lucy Todd all swam their best race.

Swimming on the 1st and 2nd February saw lots of great achievements from Cheddar Kingfishers. Hurst swam the 400m IM, finishing 9th, Alvey, Seagrove, Hurst and L Brimm all swimming PBs in the girls 50m Free event. Phoebe Hillman, Iles, Megan McClumpha and Pollard all also competed and swam strong races. Simon Toogood swam the 200m Free on the Saturday, along with Iles swimming the 100m Fly for the girls. Finishing off the day, C Halford, F Halford, Read and Patrick Forrester all swimming great PBs in the boys 50m Breast race.

The final weekend of swimming saw many more PBs from the boys in the 50m Free with C Halford, Hardman, Henry Reid, F Halford, Read, Toogood and Easton swimming their fastest race. Again, the boys swimming in the 100m Free race, Reid, Read and Toogood, C Halford, J Brimm and Easton all swimming a PB. For the girls, Hurst reached the finals in the 100m Breast, finishing 7th and also beating her personal best, and again swimming in the 200m Breast finishing 10th with a massive 2.68 PB. Finishing the County Championship swimming were the boys in the 50m Fly, C Halford, J Brimm, Hardman, Reid, Toogood and Read all achieving a PB.

The 2020 County Championships were a great success for Cheddar Kingfishers, with 19 swimmers all achieving qualifying times and a massive 39 PBs swam. All the swimmers did their coach Jeff Hill proud. Cheddar Kingfishers train at Kings Fitness and Leisure, Cheddar; for more information contact [email protected] or telephone 01934 744939.