Swimarathon boosted by schools in the pool

Independent chairman of the organising committee, Nick Guillemette, said the event, put on by Lions Club of Guernsey and the Guernsey Round Table, had seen one of the best levels of participation for years with 2,196 people taking to the water.

‘A lot of that is due to the support we’ve had from the schools, which has been terrific,’ he said.

The total number of swimmers included pupils from St Sampson’s High School and Le Murier, Les Beaucamps High School, and Elizabeth College, who had swum in their school pools.

Some 200 students from St Sampson’s alone had taken part, which was almost double that of last year.

A total of £50,520 had been collected by the time the event finished.

‘That figure always rises as we’ve had money pledged that we still have to collect,’ said Mr Guillemette.

A final total of £54,000 was raised last year which was the second-highest figure in the event’s history.

One of the biggest groups taking part was La Mare de Carteret High School which occupied the whole pool for one session on Saturday. The group of about 60 included pupils aged 11 to 16, plus staff.

‘We have been taking part for a number of years now and the drive is to get as many people involved as possible and we’re grateful for the support of students and parents,’ said La Mare head of PE Seoirse Lee.

‘It’s a very popular event among students and some couldn’t take part today only because of other sport or arts commitments.

‘The nice thing about it is that our student prefects have organised our involvement in the event and sorted out the lane order.’

Youngsters from La Mare swum for 35 minutes then had races in the pool with inflatables.

‘We do it each year then we finish up with our belly-flop contest, which is very popular and always seems to get cheers or grimaces from the balcony,’ said Mr Lee.

The main beneficiary from this year’s funding will be the Le Murier Village Project, which will help promote independent living skills for youngsters.

n The winner of the Skipton Swimarathon colouring competition was Samantha Jones, and not Samantha Little as we reported on Saturday. Samantha, 8, goes to St Martin’s School. We apologise for the error.