SOUTH Lakes swimmers turned their talents to a variety of events both in open water and in the pool.

Five Kendal Swimming Club members, Max Ainsworth, Charlotte Stainer, sisters Emma and Ruby Duxbury, and Eleanor King, took part in the Derwent Epic swim at Keswick, with the lake enjoying near-perfect conditions.

Ainsworth, in the one mile category, got a good, solid start and was able to battle his way into a comfortable position. On the outward leg, he kept his composure and, riding a steady tempo, he held off a number of challenges.

Taking it on and heading for the finish, he made a supreme effort and, through the pressure zone, he was able to move up a number of places and finish with a well-earned 23rd place in his age group.

The girls, all competing in the 500m category, all gave remarkable performances. Emma Duxbury showed all her skill and experience to head the Kendal contingent to get herself in the mix and battle her way forward. She quickly found her rhythm and went on to hold her nerve, keeping up the pressure all the way to the finish.

Charlotte Stainer has grown in stature this year and she too produced a solid swim. Full of confidence, she looked very impressive and throughout her swim held off challenges and then, into the final stages, she drew on her reserves to finish well up the field.

Ruby Duxbury and Eleanor King were drawn very close to each other and so they were able to give each other support. Both gave performances to be proud of and added greatly to their outdoor experience. They set themselves a steady pace and held off the challenges in the first half, saving their exertions for the run through the pressure zone and a storming finish. Both lived up to their expectations, with Ruby finishing just ahead of Eleanor and both happy with their performances.

Then it was indoors to the leisure centre for some more distance swims as well as the girls' and boys' 400m freestyle Laser X races. Both events had a sizeable entry and the girls got the evening under way and brought out the best of the club’s big guns. After fine displays from the likes of Eve Murray, Chloe Westmorland, Kate Collin and Isabelle Wall-Budden, Molly Moran, Rosemary Swallow and Emma Duxbury battled it out for the lead. Moran took them out and set an impressive pace. Swallow and Duxbury then worked hard to stay in touch and make their own challenges. Moran, though, stuck to her stroke pattern and gradually moved ahead. Keeping her rhythm throughout, she came through ahead of Swallow and Duxbury for an outstanding win. The boys' event also saw some fine efforts, but eventually it came down to a clash between two swimmers, James Escolme and Jacob Klijn, who were to be the only two to record times under five minutes. Length after length they kept challenging each other, but then Escolme injected more pace to just get ahead in the pressure zone and time his winning finish to perfection.

Kendal masters swimmer, Sarah Harper, took on the Ullswater 7.5 mile end-to-end swim. Following some poor training swims, she needed a good confidence boost in advance of the London Thames Marathon in August. Sticking to her tactical plan and holding her nerve, she kept up a steady pace and was able to push herself to her limits in the final stages, completing the swim in 3-40 and emerging 16th female overall and 3rd in her age group.