Lowndes and Hume girls lead the GSC charge

THE Guernsey Swimming Club scored a runaway victory in the final round of the National Speedo League South-West Second Division. The RG Falla-sponsored team claimed an outstanding 24 first place finishes out of 50 events at the Quays Pool in Southampton, and registered another 13 second or third places to leave the other five clubs in the gala - Worthing, Farnham, Gosport, Fareham and Romsey & Tooting - trailing in their wake.

There were some excellent individual performances along the way.

In the youngest age group, the nine to 11-years-old, there was a storming final leg of the freestyle relay from Sophie Lythgoe, who dived in third by a considerable margin but touched first at the finish.

She also won the breaststroke event in her age group.

Christine Hume won all her events with an Island Games class performance of 1min. 16.74sec. in the 100m breaststroke.

Not to be outdone, Hume's older sister Sarah easily won the 100m butterfly in a creditable time of 1-10.38.

Comfortable victories also came the way of Sophie Castle, in the 100m freestyle and Jo Laine in the 15-and-under 100m backstroke.

For the boys, Ben Lowndes continued his outstanding form, winning all he was entered for in such style that one of his opponents commented: 'I hope your team is promoted so I won't have to swim against you next year'.

Tom Hamon secured two wins and there were good performances from the two Matthews - Butt and Girard - and Alex Ford, all three of who claimed a first.

Ford has only been in competitive swimming for little over a year and he has proved to be an excellent breaststroker, which he demonstrated by winning the 13-and-under event.

There were also wins for Fay Sheppard, Joshua Moore and Harriet Le Page.

The Guernsey Swimming Club finished seventh overall in the South-West Second Division.

The club may well have won promotion to the First Division but for an unfortunate admin error in the first-round swim in Guernsey.

However, coach Jo Winberg was positive about the experiences in the Speedo League and said that next year would be the club's year for promotion.

'Seven out of 16 relays won is a mark of a great team effort added to wins for many team members.

'We also have some very promising young swimmers coming through for the future,' she said.

The GSC's success came on the same day Beau Sejour Barracudas dominated their final Speedo League meeting of the season at Waterlooville.