A KENDAL swim squad took part in the Annual President’s Gala in Workington.

The meet proved to be highly for successful for two swimmers in particular with James Escolme and Kara Van Der Merve picking up nineteen medals between them. Escolme, in dazzling form at the moment had only a couple of wins in the Individual events but then went on to reign supreme in the Medleys taking all three titles and demonstrating his all-round talent, strength and experience.

He didn’t get off to an easy start as the 100 Individual Medley in his Age Group thirteen titans battled it out for the title with a real smash and grab finish. Barrow’s Gyoktug Molla joined the fray along with main challengers Allpress, Conery and Stansfield.

A great start got no one an advantage and through the four legs one was as good as the other and so into the final Freestyle swim it came down to who had anything left in reserve and hitting the wall together a blanket finish showed Escolme take Gold by hundredths of a second.

The 200 Individual Medley proved to be equally as exciting as Escolme's other wins, which saw him again produce a brilliant all-round effort.

This time Molla was in the mix but Cockermouth’s Roan Greening headed the list of challengers and into the pressure zone they all hung on to those medal places.

His 400m resulted in him getting another great start and setting a devastating pace for Ulverston’s Nathan Caine to work on.

Escolme got better and better and after the first 200m had extended his lead by metres. The Breaststroke leg followed and Escolme, full of confidence began to wind it up, and moving up a gear to push for home at Freestyle he timed his finish to perfection to win in 4:56.88.

A superb 50m Breaststroke in the sprints saw him storm through a host of challengers headed by Ethan Alpress who worked hard but was unable to prevent Escolme taking Gold in a storming finish in a time of 31:49. In another clash with Alpress in the 50m Butterfly he was to take another gold with a brilliant effort. Shoulder to shoulder they matched each other stroke for stroke and along with Adam Jones another Butterfly specialist they were one of the highlights of the day.

Kara Van Der Merwe showed why she is on the road to be a future Champion of the Club by winning four Golds and four Silvers. Outstanding at Freestyle she emerged as the winner in 50m, 100m and 400m then snatched the 50 Breaststroke as well.

Adam Stansfield much to everyone’s surprise, again made an attack on the 1500m Freestyle and quickly made it clear he was there with a plan to get in amongst the medals and so making sure he met his split times for each 100m he ploughed on and in the final surge for the finish and although only Bronze he finished behind Copeland’s Jackson Jardine and Preston’s Hayden Sole in 19:00.43.

He produced another monster effort to take Silver in the 200 Butterfly where Adam Jones showed his natural ability for this stroke and winning Gold. Kendal had more success throughout the day with minor place medals going to Ava Dixon, Esmay Dart, Annie Bottomley, Hannah Carradice, Elliot Dart, Chloe Westmorland, Evan Dart and Lara Collin and adding to their experiences of swimming away from home.