A FINE effort by the Cumbria Amateur Swimming Association team saw them narrowly miss promotion in the Swim England national team championships at Sheffield’s Pond Forge.

With more than 900 competitors from the English counties and the Scottish and Welsh regions battling it out in front of a packed house at Sheffield’s Pond Forge, the stakes were high.

But the Cumbrian team did well in the Division Two competition with a quintet of Kendal Swimming Club members, Jacob Klijn, Elliot Woodburn, James Escolme, Mathew Foster and Sophie Roberts, in particularly fine form.

Escolme had a brilliant swim in the 12/13 years 100 breaststroke, showing great skill coupled with an immaculate stroke pattern that put him well up amongst the opposition and clocking a time of 1:15.94, taking three seconds off his pb in the process.

Woodburn also had a great swim in 14/15 yrs 100 breaststroke, where with outstanding stroke work he took a superb fourth place and emerged as the fastest 14-year-old in the category with a pb of 1:06.66 which set a new Cumbria age group record and was inside his club’s current record

He was one of just three 14-year-olds selected for the 100 freestyle and again he put in an outstanding performance, his time of 57.31 just outside his pb.

For Roberts, this was her first experience at this level and she responded with a brilliant effort in the 12/13 years 100 butterfly event as she helped put valuable points on the board.

The 12/13 year boy's 200 medley team was led out at backstroke by Ulverston’s Ethan Alpress followed by Escolme with another impressive breaststroke swim.

He then handed over to speed merchant Foster whose performance at butterfly was awesome and set up Cockermouth’s Rhys Jackson at freestyle to bring the team home with a storming finish in a time of 2:07.16.

The 14/15 year medley team also combined well, Cockermouth’s Jack Smith setting the pace at backstroke, followed by Woodburn whose breaststroke effort kept them well in the mix.

Then Klijn saw them through the butterfly leg with a stunning performance and Penrith’s freestyle anchor man Nathan Ellwood at freestyle completed the performance which saw them clock an impressive time of 1:55.54 in another exciting finish.