OKEHAMPTON Otters travelled in Torrington to compete in the second round of the North Devon Mini League. This again proved to follow the pattern of the first gala where numbers were low due to absentees.

Those who did swim turned in some terrific individual performances, Holly Dennis knocked eight seconds from her 100m breaststroke. The ever improving Simon Medlyn erased four seconds from his 100m free and Aaron Diaz swam an inspired 100m breaststroke to improve his time by four seconds from a time set only one month before. These all turned out to be new club record swims.

Others to improve by large margins were: Stacey Endacott, 50m breast (- five seconds), Hayley Jones 4x25m im (- five seconds) and Catherine Souness 50m breast (- three seconds).

Two other club records were set by David Dennis in the senior 100m breaststroke and Cameron Huxtable in the 11 years 50m backstroke.

Three swimmers recorded a first place, Jenny Rice 100m free; Aaron Diaz 100m breast and Janek Jachnik 100m breast. Unfortunately, to show how hard the going was, no second places were swum.

In total, there were 22 personal best times recorded. Others not already mentioned above are. Tom Bradley, Laura Gomersall, Abigail Hill, Cameron Huxtable, Hayley Jones, Imogen Maccullock, Simon Medlyn, Victoria Medlyn x2, John Radnor, Matthew Westlake x2, Matthew Wise and Alex Wooldridge.

Coach Nigel West said: 'We are swimming younger swimmers up into older age groups to cover for all the absentees, they really try hard and I appreciate the effort they put in so we can swim all the events in a gala.

'With all the growth in the Okehampton area there must be more youngsters willing to give swimming a try. Fitness gained can help in any other sport they may participate in. We train four nights a week so there is plenty of scope to fit in to one or more or the sessions provided.'

Ring Nigel on 01837 53431 to find out more details.

The club would also like to send a get well message to member Johanna Cade, who recently underwent an operation on her hand following a bicycle accident.