MEMBERS of the Axa Equity & Law Wycombe District Swimming Club put up an excellent performance at the Southern Counties Championship at Crystal Palace last weekend.

In the girls 13 years 800m freestyle Francesca Wright improved her best time by eight seconds to take fourth place and earn her third national age group qualifying time, on this occasion by more than six seconds.

Emma O'Brien also shaved seven seconds off her personal best as she finished eighth in the 14 years age group 800m freestyle event.

Earlier in the day, the boys 15/16 years 4x50m medley relay squad of Simon Burnett, Daniel Bennett, Cormac McFarlane and Thomas Ankrom finished seventh in the final and, with James Palmer replacing Daniel in the 4x50m freestyle relay, they again swam well to place eleventh in their very competitive age group.

On Sunday, eight members gained county cup honours when representing Berks and South Bucks in the Southern Counties Inter-County Championships, which were also held at Crystal Palace.

Meanwhile, another Wycombe squad competed at the Magnet Leisure Centre Maidenhead in the first Windsor Open Meet.

There, Wycombe District swimmers gained 28 top-eight places and were placed fourth overall out of 20 clubs.

Silver awards were won by Alex Vine in the 13/14 years 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle events, Daniel Gomme in the 15/16 years 100m backstroke and Francesca Lee in the 13/14 years 100m breaststroke.

Bronze awards were won by Samantha Fordham in the 13/14 years 100m butterfly, she also finished third in the 100m backstroke event. Ashley Coleman gained bronze in the 11/12 years 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle events. Helen Chamberlain in the 15/16 years 100m freestyle and Jay Allnutt in the 15/16 years 100m breaststroke event also took bronze.

Fourth place medals were won by Lauren Harger in the 13/14 years 100m freestyle and 100m breaststroke events, Kyle Putnam in the 11/12 years 100m freestyle, Vicky Newell in the 15/16 years 100m butterfly and David Vine in the same event for boys.

Rupert Lee broke the club 11-years record for 100m breaststroke when placed seventh in the 11/12 years age group.

At the same Crystal Palace southern counties meeting, Amersham Swimming Club's boys relay squad surprised themselves by reaching the finals.

David Pearce, Will Vietti, James Lyle and Alex Shaw, swimming backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle respectively exceeded all expectations to reach the medley final and place fifth.

In the freestyle final, where only two of the four are natural freestylers, the quartet again pulled off a surprise battling performance through the heats to reach their second final where they placed seventh.

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