KENDAL swimmers have made history during the County Championships and Age Group Competitions at Workington.

The team enjoyed a fantastic result, seeing James Escolme claim an outstanding win in nine Championship Trophies, five of which were Open Categories and four Junior titles.

Added to these successes he collected five runners up medals at Open level and one at Junior and two individual bronze medals to his clutch.

His talent, stamina and dedication didn’t stop there as he followed all this up by demonstrating his value as a vital member of the Relay Teams at both Junior and Senior level in Freestyle and Medley.

His performance has to rank amongst the finest in the history of Kendal Swimming Club, He is now Kendal’s 32nd County Champion and set a new record by winning more County Individual Championships in one competition than any other swimmer in the history of the Club.

Most of his wins came from power house efforts where he had to draw on every reserve to achieve success.

Typical was the 50m Breaststroke sprint where off the block and out of transition he took it on and set a devastating pace and immediately became locked shoulder to shoulder with Ulverston’s Gyoktug Molla.

Putting the pressure on his challengers he went into his turn and out of transition he injected another burst of pace to which his rivals had no answer.

Into the pressure zone he hit the pads for a perfect finish and win in 30.99.

Owain Heathcote Jones also weighed in with a dazzling bronze medal for his contribution. The Relay Championships also had their greatest success since 2003, with the Junior Squad made up from Owain Heathcote Jones, Mathew Foster, Lennon Bell, and James Escolme which had brilliant wins at Medley and Freestyle. The Men's teams had Adam Stansfield substituting for Bell and they too got medals winning Freestyle and Bronze at Medley.

The girls, much to their delight also got themselves on the podium with the 13/14 years team of Alicia McClure, Kate Collin, Annie Bottomley, and Evelynn Kinnear storming into 2nd place. Mathew Foster gave a stunning performance for a win in the Age Groups competitions.

He got away to a great start and surged ahead and out of his turn he kept up a relentless pace and came through to win in 29.70.

These successes were supported by fine efforts in the 50 Breaststroke, with 10yr olds Alex Wood snatching a 2nd place, followed by brilliant results from Sasha Whitehead in 2nd, Ava Dixon in 3rd, Indie Brooks 4th and Maisy Wilson 6th.

11yr old Elliot Dart added to his earlier success with 2nd place badges for 50 Breaststroke and 200 Individual Medley, plus a 3rd place for 50 Freestyle. George Kinnear, 200 Backstroke and 50 Butterfly and Jake Smith, 50 Freestyle and 50 Breaststroke sprints collected a 3rd and 4th places.

Further 3rd place awards in their Age Groups at Breaststroke went to Chloe Westmorland and Mathew Gibson whilst speed merchant Alex Walton got one for his 50 Freestyle.

More outstanding swims came from Elissa Kinley, runner up in 200 Individual Medley, Lennon Bell 4th in 200 Backstroke, Molly Moran 4th in 100 Freestyle and a superb 6th place from Emma Duxbury in the gruelling 800m Freestyle which came as a real challenge.