Cumbria A.S.A. staged its opening round of age group competitions at Carlisle over two days and attracted a huge entry from the county's best.

Kendal Swimming Club made the trip with a squad of almost 60 swimmers and coaches.

This was their finest performance in these events for many years with almost 150 personal best times, 21 firsts, 16 seconds, and 20 thirds.

One swimmer, Elliot Woodburn, was outstanding with nine victories to his name alone. He demonstrated his sprinting ability with a trio of wins in the 50m backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, where his talent and strength proved too much for his rivals. He continued to dominate when taking on the 100m butterfly and breaststroke, setting the pace and using his tactical skills and power to overcome any challenges and timed his victorious finishes to perfection.

Still not finished, he moved up another level to the 200m events, where he won at butterfly and backstroke.

With awesome efforts, he finished off with fine wins at 100m and 400m individual medley to complete one of his finest performances to date.

Then there was another brilliant performance from 12-year-old James Escolme who finished in the final three in every event he entered.

Throughout, he kept up the pressure and proved successful with outstanding victories in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, 200m backstroke, and then put all his skills together for an all-round victory in the 100m individual medley.

He then went on to complete his score being runner up in 50, 200 and 400m freestyle and taking a 3rd place in 50m backstroke.

Breaststroke specialist Mathew Gibson was in great form and in both 50m and 100m quickly took control and placed himself in a position for success. The finish of the 50m breaststroke produced a brilliant result for Kendal as Mathew Foster was runner up, with Joseph Bulman 3rd making it unique 1,2,3, for the club.

Gibson turned to backstroke for his hat trick and put on a powerful display and drove his way to another victory in the 200m.

11-year-old Jake Gibson rose to the occasion to take a double with impressive wins at 200 freestyle and 100 individual medley.

Sophie Richardson, 16, gave her usual display of highly competent swims in a number of events then came up with a tremendous swim the 100m butterfly. Taking the race by storm, she got a window of advantage which the opposition were unable to match and took her to the finish for an amazing win. More magnificent efforts came from Keira Nelson, Sophie Roberts, Alex Tallon, Jacob Klijn, Isobel Kelly, Bethan Rowley, Megan Jones and Josie Johnson who were rewarded with a host of minor place badges making the Meet another huge success for Kendal.