The girls of Kendal Swimming Club returned to action

A new generation of champions began to emerge and amongst the winners were a number of new faces on the block, including Isabelle Wall-Budden who set the standard with masterly displays in both Backstroke and Freestyle.

She opened her account with a swim at 100m Backstroke that brought her gold medals in both the girl's 16/U and open categories.

Right from the start she came out of transition and put herself on the front, setting a pace that her opponents just could not match.

She showed tremendous strength and power coupled with superb talent to pull well clear and maintain her position.

With immaculate turns she came into the final length and began to wind it up and drove to the line to win with a fair degree of ease.

Switching into sprinting mode Isabelle pulled out all the stops in the girls 50m Freestyle and again it is showing power, strength, and skill she had to settle for silver in a blanket finish.

Another fantastic display came from 13yr old Annie Bottomley who is rapidly growing into one of the Club’s top swimmers. Specializing in Butterfly she produced an outstanding swim to take the gold medal after holding off spirited challenges from Kate Collin and Elissa Kinley.

She followed this with performances that brought her silver in both the 16/U and the Open categories.

But it was the 50m Freestyle sprint that brought her the greatest reward.

Off the blocks four swimmers, Bottomley, Wall-Budden, Kate Collin, and Eve Murray got brilliant starts and shoulder to shoulder anyone was likely to win.

Down the last length they were all still together and in a storming finish all four clocked 31.00 secs, with Bottomley just touching out for the win.

Another brilliant performance came from Lucy Klijn who reigned supreme in both the 16/U and Open 100m Butterfly.

Working hard she found herself mixing it with both Bottomley sisters, Ellie, and Annie. Calling on all her reserves Klijn put in o final injection of pace that got her the slight lead she needed to lift the gold medal. She too went on to add a silver to her clutch following a fine all round swim in the 200 Individual Medley.

The 200 Individual Medley threw up another classic with Emma Duxbury, Lucy Klijn and Elise Tallon all challenging for the lead. With every stroke no one could get a clear lead and only a powerful burst over the last few metres gave Duxbury the win.

The 200 Breaststroke brought Chloe Westmorland a well-earned win as she dominated the race from start finish and never looked likely to lose. Three more golds came up for grabs, with one going to Kara Van Der Merve in the 11/U category who had an outstanding swim, followed by Elissa Kinley who also came up with a successful performance taking gold in the 13/U Category.

Future star Emma Anderson Bickley displaying her talents a winning gold in the 10/U 50m Freestyle sprint where she did just enough to come through and win. The final event the girls 25m Breaststroke resulted in a win for Sasha Whitehead who swam a brilliant race to take gold.