ONLY the electronic timing device at Copeland pool could split the top five swimmers in the 50m freestyle sprint as George Lam took second place in a time of 29.59secs for Troutbeck Bridge in the latest round of the Cumbria Age Groups championship.

Windermere St Anne's schoolboy Lam was also impressive in the 100m individual medley. He worked hard to stay with the leaders in butterfly and backstroke, but produced an impressive breaststroke leg to claw his way back into contention. The final freestyle leg brought a blistering finish with five swimmers within a second of each other, Lam taking second in 1min15.11secs.

In the 100m freestyle Lam clocked 1:07.98.

Joshua Murphy and Tim Fay then put themselves among the county's top guns, Murphy adding another Age Group badge to his collection with an outstanding swim in the 50m freestyle, touching out second in a blanket finish in a personal best of 31.93.

Murphy then clocked 1:25.67 for the 100m individual medley and 2:58.93 for the 200m backstroke.

Fay was fourth in the individual medley, clocking 1:25.18.

Personal bests were also recorded by: Oliver Murphy, David Gee, Paul Langhorn and Sam Kaye.

Contesting the gruelling 200m butterfly, Hannah Fay was just outside the awards in fourth place, but her time of 2:54.54 was a personal best and set two club records.

Vicki Noble produced three powerful swims in the 200m backstroke to finish sixth in the final and she clocked 46.05 for 50m breaststroke and 1:25.01 for the 110m individual medley.

Anna Clough was sixth in another blanket finish in the 50m breaststroke. She then clocked 1:25.08 for the 100m individual medley.

Heather Clough, Hannah Birkett and Hannah Noble also produced impressive swims.

April 17, 2003 14:30