Sarnians are top six times out of nine

GUERNSEY swimmers surpassed themselves to top six of the nine British age group categories listings at the Channel Islands Championships. Computer software bugs delayed the results from the largest ever gala run in Guernsey, but the wait was worth it.

'After a couple of days of hard work sorting out the results, it became obvious that local swimmers had done brilliantly,' said Guernsey Amateur Swimming Association president Derek Laine.

'With four girls' age groups and five boys', it showed that local swimmers had won six out of nine age/gender group tables, with the boys winning every age group.'

Bagcats is a points system designed for younger swimmers to encourage them not to specialise too early. Each must swim a range of events and win points for each category. The result therefore comes out in a points table for each age group.

Jersey's junior girls fared better than their boys, but Beau Sejour Barracudas' Hannah Lamb won the girls' 13 years group, with the next best local performance being Guernsey Swimming Club's Sophie Lythgoe, who placed second overall in the girls' 10 years category and who set new records in the 50m breaststroke and 100m IM.

Among many notable junior boys' performances, Barracudas' Jeremy Osborne swam away with the 14 years competition by more than 1,000 points and set a new record in the 50m freestyle.

Other strong overall performances came from 11-year-old Joshua Lewis, who won his age group by more than 400 points, collecting two new records in the 200m IM and 400m free.

Matthew Butt, of GSC, won the 12 years group by 200 points, setting a clean sweep of new records in all butterfly events at 50m, 100m and 200m.

There were records also for 12-year-old Jacob Cherry in the 50m breaststroke and 10-year-old Luke Belton.

'As swimmers have to compete for a whole weekend across many events, awards are presented to the top 10 in each age group. There will be a belated, but richly deserved, presentation at Beau Sejour this weekend,' said Laine.