A TALENTED squad of swimmers represented Ledbury and District in the first round of the Worcester Championships in Wolverhampton.

To gain entry to this prestigious event the swimmers had to be fast enough to achieve the stringent entry times over the past nine months.

This has been the main focus for the coaching team and their diligence was rewarded with some excellent swims yielding a multitude of personal best times, regional qualifying times and medals.

Club captains Ellie Ainsworth and Elliot Heath could not have set a finer example with Heath winning the gold medal in the 200-metre freestyle, silver in both the 100m and 200m backstroke and bronze in the 400m Individual Medley.

Ainsworth swam a personal best in the 50m freestyle race to win the bronze medal in a regional qualifying time.

Also gaining a regional time was 13-year-old Matt Thomas who was in great form to take the gold medal in the 100m backstroke and silver medals in the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke.

Ten-year-old Tom Birley had a 100 per cent success rate in swimming new personal best times in all six of his events, frustratingly missing out on a medal when pipped into fourth place in the 100m breaststroke.

Sharing the same frustration of a fourth place was Molly Schofield who swam a feisty two lengths freestyle to reduce her best time by more than a second.

Other swimmers finishing in the top eight in their age group races were Emily Russell, Eve Watson, Daisy Wood, William Kennedy, Seb Roffey and Eric Harris, who all recorded new personal best times.

New to the squad for this year were Robert Wilson, William Hughes, Charlotte Ainsworth and Jess Schofield who, with significant support from their team-mates, overcame their nerves to turn in some much improved performances.

Also showing huge improvement with noteworthy performances and new best times were Talesha Hunt, Lily Wood, Lydia Freeman-Girvin and Brynmor Batten.

Head coach Duncan Loraine said: “Under pressure, it takes great focus to perform the skills constantly practised in training so I was especially pleased to see some outstanding backstroke starts and some fine streamlined dives.

“It is always gratifying to see that the swimmers who are conscientious in their training come away with personal best times.

“The swimmers coped well with two long days of competition and with a week to concentrate on their skills I am sure they can equal this performance in the second round this weekend.”