Kingsbridge Kingfishers Swimming Club once again held their annual Club Championships presentation evening at Stokenham Village Hall.

During 2007, 130 swimmers took part producing 400 personal best swims and 37 new club records.

Leading the way in setting new club age group records were 11-year-old Laker Wong and 14-year-olds Holly Gunner and Aaron Rickhuss, who set six new club records each, and 15-year-old Conor Morgan, who set four.

Also setting new records were Hester Stembridge, Freddie Richards, Fiona Wilson (all three), Richard Forman (two), Daniel Arscott, Robert Dorey, Roseanna Perry and George Grace (all one).

The Club Championships, run over seven sessions throughout November and covering all the Olympic events, were once again a resounding success and brought the best out of all the swimmers, from the top of the Gold squad through to the junior swimmers in the Bronze squad.

The less experienced swimmers performed particularly well, once they had got over the initial excitement of the big crowds and had stopped leaving the blocks early!!

For the more senior swimmers the extended format of the Club Championships enabled Devon County Championship qualification times to be registered.

Coaches Karen Dorey and Sharon Mulligan were pleased to see such a large number of participants with the swimmers hard work and application in training being rewarded by such a high number of personal best swims across the event.

The 50m freestyle skins sprint event on the final Saturday was as fiercely contested as ever with the crowd participating loudly and creating a cracking atmosphere. With the qualifying field comprising of the five fastest male and female sprinters in the club whittled down to two through a process of a brutal head to head elimination the final duels saw Fiona Wilson beat Holly Gunner and George Grace defeat Aaron Rickhuss. Cash prizes were awarded to the top four from race sponsors Café Asia and Aspidistra.

The age group champions for 2007 were:

8 Yr Girls: Bethany King
9 Yr Girls: Anna Waters
10 Yr Girls: Hester Stembridge
11 Yr Girls: Shannon Vaughan
12 Yr Girls: Simone Sullivan-Gilbury
13 Yr Girls: Freddie Richards
14 Yr Girls: Holly Gunner
Ladies Open: Fiona Wilson

8 Yr Boys: Joe Murton
9 Yr Boys: George Kelland
10 Yr Boys: Ben King
11 Yr Boys: Laker Wong
12 Yr Boys: Angus Lee
13 Yr Boys: Nick Dorey
14 Yr Boys: Aaron Rickhuss
15 Yr Boys: Conor Morgan
Mens Open: George Grace

Awards were also made on the evening by the coaches to their 'Swimmer of the Year' in each of the clubs three training squads. Winning the award for the entry level Bronze squad was Emma Noyce, for silver squad was Shannon Vaughan, and for gold squad was George Grace. There was also an award made to club’s water polo 'Player of the Year', and this went to William Rawlinson.

All swimmers were presented with a laminated certificate showing their achievements at the Club Championships, including finishing positions and times. A slideshow of over 200 photographs, taken by club photographer David Mulligan, was also on display which was very much enjoyed by the swimmers and parents.