Open water swimming is proving to be more and more popular as a summer alternative to indoor meets and a number of Kendal Swimming Club members have taken up the challenge and tested their skills this summer.

The Great North Swim attracted three swimmers from the Club with Molly Towers, Max Ainsworth and Natalie Pinder all taking part.

They found it a new experience having to deal with the varied conditions over the weekend, but Towers produced a brilliant effort to take first place in her category in a time of 11.56.

Both Ainsworth and Pinder had to work hard in their events as conditions worsened, but they both learned a lot from the experience and it didn’t dampen their enthusiasm.

Moving on to the next event, Towers was joined by Isabelle Wall-Budden and Fin Scott in tackling the Ullswater Epic swim organised by the Cumbria A.S.A. Winter League.

Here they found conditions more suitable despite the water temperature being a chilly 11 degrees and were able to put in highly satisfactory performances and come away with reasonable times.

Towers took on the ladies’ one mile swim and soon adapted to the conditions, going on to take fifth place in a satisfactory time of 26.12.

Wall-Budden competed in the 500m category and powered her way into sixth place with a time of 9.33, while Scott tackled the junior men’s one mile swim and he too produced a superb result, clocking 32.20 in a hugely strong field.

Towers then took on to her next challenge, the Swim England Open Water Championships, held at Salford Docks, Manchester.

Off to a great start, she quickly settled into her stroke pattern and despite losing her hat around the 1k mark, she kept going, finishing the 3k in 49.27 and being placed ninth 15-year-old girl in the North West.

Towers really enjoyed the experience and came away pleased with her performance, and then tackled the next Winter League epic swim held in Derwentwater where the conditions were perfect with sunny warm weather and the water temperature comfortable.

As the swimmers got away to a great start ,Towers settled into her superb stroke pattern and stuck to her game plan in a very fast competitive race.

Forging through into the finish, she completed the mile in 23.48 which was a pb for her and placed her 11th junior girl overall and fourth in the 14/15 age group. She really enjoyed this one and felt her swim was better than at regionals.