THE 200m butterfly heats opened the latest round of Kendal Swimming Club’s championships – with the ladies races producing high quality performances.

The deciding heat saw a great duel develop between Josie Johnson, Megan Jones and Rosemary Swallow, with all three shoulder-to-shoulder right up to the last length.

But it was Johnson who got the lead to win, leaving Jones to take silver and Swallow the bronze.

The men's event proved just as fascinating, with Elliot Woodburn setting the pace ahead of Klijn brothers Thomas and Jacob, but in the last length Woodburn had to call on all his reserves to win in a new championship record time of 2:28.46.

Then followed a series of 100m backstroke events, starting with the Under-12yrs girls, and again the result was decided by some marvellous swimming.

Evelyn Atkinson into an early lead and took full advantage to hit the pads for the win ahead of fast-finishing Grace Airey in silver and Kate Collin, bronze.

The under-12 boys races came down to a clash where Jake Gibson broke free of the pack to dominate the pace claim a comfortable win over Joseph Bulman in silver and Mathew Gibson in bronze.

The under-14 girls winner was Lucie Bulman, who was in superb form and never looked likely to lose, while a real battle developed between challengers Kiera Nelson and Natalie Pinder who finished with a split second parting the two. Nelson snatched the silver and Pinder the bronze, her first time on the podium.

The boys events brought forth one of the most remarkable set of results ever from 13-year-old Elliot Woodburn, who took three championships in a row and set two new records at the same time – claiming the under-14 title in record time with a fair degree of ease ahead of James Escolme (silver) and Adam Stansfield (bronze).

Woodburn had to work really hard to take the junior men's and open titles, as challengers Ben Cudby (silver) and Thomas Klijn (bronze) chased him to another record time.

The junior and open ladies championships produced a marvellous double For Megan Jones, who also broke the junior ladies championship record, with Rosemary Swallow providing the greatest challenge. But Jones took her trophy list to a treble.

A change in the programmes tone came with some 50m breaststroke sprints, which got off to a flying start with the under-11s where Kate Collin and Mathew Capstick emerged as worthy champions with Annie Bottomley and Austin Woodburn winning silver medals and Anna Roberts and Jake Smith the bronze medals.

The ladies' and gent's events were dominated by Megan Jones and Eliot Woodburn once more, with some outstanding sprinting. Woodburn touched out Gregor Fletcher and Ben Cudby while Jones got a brilliant start and was untouchable to storm to victory ahead of Alice Eastwood (silver) and Sophie Gibson and Susanna Corrie (tied for bronze).

The gala concluded with the boys and girls under-10 25m freestyle championships, where Leo Murray and Anna Roberts proved worthy gold winners, with Jake Smith and Sophie Robinson taking silver and Max Whitehead and Elissa Kinley snatching bronze.