JAMES Casewell set four new records as Ledbury Swimming Club produced outstanding performances in the Worcester County Championships’first weekend.

Casewell marked his competition debut by winning the 100-metre individual medley, 200m freestyle, 200m breaststroke and 400m individual medley for nine-yearolds.

The breaststroke swim was the 11th fastestin British history in his age group, while the 400m individual medley effort was 30 seconds quicker than the previous record.

Poppy Park took the honours in the 12 years 50m backstroke for her first county success which she followed up with 50m and 100m butterfly medals.

Tom Stokes returned to the pool from his university studies in London to claim the overall 200m breaststroke.

Stokes also bagged age group gold in the 100m individual medley and bronze in the 100m backstroke.

He qualified for the 100m backstroke final alongside club-mate Tom Harris who secured his place with a regional qualifying time of one minute 3.45 seconds.

Also achieving regional qualifying were Lauren Freestone (200m freestyle and 100m backstroke), Lucy Stokes (200m breaststroke and 200m freestyle), Calypso Harvey (400m individual medley and 200m freestyle), Alex Middleton (200m freestyle and 50m butterfly) and Lily Wood (100m backstroke).

For Wood and Casewell, it will be their first outing at regional level.

Ledbury now have nine swimmers competing at the Midlands Championships, with another two months of the qualifying period to go, which has already matched last year’s numbers.

Among the 17 swimmers competing at county level for the first time, Daisy Wood, Eve Watson and Malachi Cashmore finished in the top six in several oftheir events.

Elliot Heath, Sam Hall, Lily Painter, Elizabeth Thomas and Eric Harris all improved on their times with fine performances.

Ledbury are now ranked sixth in the county, having dramatically closed the gap on teams above them with bigger resources, including city clubs Worcester and Hereford.

Head coach Chris Treanor said: “So far, so good. The swimmers have excelled themselves in many ways.”