Tavistock Swimming Club been busy during May, competing in its annual long-distance championships, covering all events from 200m to 1,500m.

An impressive 41 swimmers took part, aged eight to 70-plus, swimming 129 events between them.

Caroline Furze, of TSC, said: “Club championships are an excellent chance to push the boundaries. We were delighted 28 swimmers chose to do exactly that, swimming an event which they had never attempted in competition.

“All did extremely well, but special mention to Cora George, in the challenging 200m butterfly, and Beth and Megan Kelly and Eliza and Nell Balment for their first ever 1,500m race.”

There were numerous PBs, headed up by Nell Balment and Lottie Squire who both took over two minutes off their previous 800m PBs.

Other performances of note were Fearne Brogden, who improved her 200m individual medley time by more than a minute and her 200m backstroke by a massive 81 seconds.

Fearne’s older sister Mary’s 800m was so evenly paced that the coach described it as "the best he had ever seen".

Dom Shearman (10) produced a mature swim on his first ever 400m, while Ellie Garrett impressed by swimming the immensely tough 400m individual medley, the 200m breaststroke and the 200m freestyle, all within an hour’s competition.

Six swimmers swam in their first ever competition including Ada Spiller (8) who, despite having joined the club from swimming lessons less than a month before, completed three events (200m freestyle, 200m backstroke and 200m breaststroke) in excellent style.

Caroline said: “It’s always a joy to watch swimmers grow in confidence during training and competition. The club championships have a significant role in that. We’re immensely grateful to all the volunteers for staging the event.”

From Thursday, June 4, the club will be running six free training sessions for children to try club swimming, details at [email protected]