Barracudas stamp their authority on Postal Swim

THERE were more than 1,700 entries in this year's annual Postal Swim staged by the British Long Distance Swimming Association. The event attracts entries from throughout the UK as well as Australia, USA and Holland. Swimmers compete in their home pool, aiming to swim as far as possible in one hour.

Beau Sejour Barracudas excelled, winning four individual gold medals, two silver and three bronze, as well as four team gold, three silver and two bronze.

An individual gold went to eight-year-old Kristina Neves in the under-10 age group, in which she recorded 3,720m to place first out of a field of 200 - an amazing feat for such a young swimmer competing against some nearly two years older. This was also a Barracudas Postal Swim age-group record.

Another record went to Joshua Lewis in the 10-11 age group when he completed 4,338m to take the gold from a field of 176 entries.

In the 14-15 category, James Dickinson claimed a well-earned gold with a distance of 4,700m, while Jonathon Le Noury took first-place honours in the men's 20-24 age group with 4,890m.

The greatest distance covered by a Barracuda was 4,980m by Thomas Hollingsworth, who had to settle for a silver medal in the men's open age group behind Darren Heslop, of Trowbridge ASC, with 5,020m.

Hollingsworth, Le Noury and Ian Hubert combined to take the men's open team gold with an outstanding distance of 14,121m, well ahead of second placed NWA and more than 1,000m ahead of the Manchester Tri Club team.

Davey Le Marquand, David Chamberlain and Nick Moss took the men's 35+ team title, with Rachael Le Page, Zoe Elliott and Anna Le Poidevin taking the 14-15 years' team gold with a distance of 12,872.

The under-10 girls also shone with Lotte Parfit, Kristina Neves and Alicia Munro taking a further team gold with 9,730m.

Individual medals also went to Alexander Beaton (silver) in the 14-15 year age group, with Matthew Allen, Nick Moss and Richard Nash each taking bronze.

The boys' under-10 team (Oliver Nightingale, George Moss and Miles Munro), the 10-11 team (Joshua Lewis, Nicholas Rumens and David Hall) and the 12-13 team (Matthew Allen, Edward Dickinson and Jonathan Collas) all achieved silvers.

Team bronze went to the 10-11 girls' squad of Victoria Parfit, Lauren Hearse and Chloe Merrien and to the 12-13 team made up of Gemma Nicolle, Hannah Lamb and Kelsey Russell.