KENDAL Swimmers have been praised for their most recent performances at the Open Water Competitions inside and outside the County.

Sarah Harper, well known for her long-distance challenges, travelled to Switzerland to attempt an event that she has had on her bucket list for a long time.

This turned out to be a challenge with a twist, a 13km swim known as The Classic Lausanne to Evian Swim with the race starting on the Swiss side of Lake Geneva in Lausanne and finishing in Evian in France.

Settling into her stroke pattern Sarah placed herself in a comfortable position and found over the first 8km Conditions were a dream with sunshine, crystal clear blue warm water at 21 degrees making it one of her most favourite swims yet.

As the swim was 13km it had feed stops at a buoy every 2km.

This should have made the sighting easy but trying to spot a yellow buoy in a vast open lake proved hard work and at some points she was convinced she was going the wrong way.

At around 9km she started to feel nauseous so decided to switch her feeds from an energy drink to water and an energy bar, which proved a massive help.

Into the final strength and with Evian seemingly getting no closer she called on all her reserves to carry her to the finish, where to her surprise she had swum nearer 15km overall and had been in the water for 5hrs and 6mins, landing in France 2nd in her Age Group as well as 9th female and 34th overall from 188 entries.

Meantime Emma Duxbury and Charlotte Stainer turned their attention to the Swim England North West Open Water Championships being held in the Sale Water Park.

Conditions were breezy but the water was warm (19 degrees).

It was six laps of a 500m Course, so by far the furthest Emma has swum in a race.

Pacing was difficult as she wasn’t used to this distance, but it was all a great experience.

She was swimming in a small group of four swimmers so they had a good race between themselves and she finished in 2nd place out of the group.

Both Emma and Charlotte in the 13/14yrs Category in which Emma came 31st overall in a time of 47.07.

Charlotte also got a great start but took an elbow in the head on lap one but held her nerve and steadied herself and settled into a comfortable pace.

Working hard her lap times showed consistency and an injection of pace on her final lap kept Carlisle’s Evie Rose Sugden at bay and took her up into 35th place with a time of 50.50.

Having opened their Open Water season with excellent results in the Ullswater Epic Swim they learned of their standings in the Cumbria Open water League which is run over four rounds in conjunction with the Epic events.

After Round 1 the 11/13yrs Age group had Ruby Duxbury in 2nd place and Eleanor King in 4th.

Emma Duxbury led the 14/15yr olds and Charlotte Stainer was a close 3rd.

More was to come following superb efforts in the 16/Over category from Evie Sellers who took 2nd and Stuart McGurk gave a dazzling performance to finish in 4th place.

The Derwent Epic Swim attracted three Kendal swimmers to compete in the One Mile swim and Evie Sellers headed the results again with 9th place in a time of 23.34.

Her sister Jessica also took it on and gave a performance to be proud of finishing 30th in a time of 33.37.

Stuart McGurk was in his element as usual and he surged through into 4th place in his category with a time of 32.41.