Burnham Swimming Club held its annual presentation evening at Lakeside in Burnham.

BURNHAM Swimming Club members gathered at Lakeside in Burnham for their annual presentation evening.

They had come to claim their prizes from the glittering array of silverware to be awarded to triumphant swimmers and also club awards presented for outstanding efforts, both as swimmers and volunteers within the club.

Somerset ASA president Fiona Bowen presented all the awards and it was a great chance for swimmers of all ages to mix and enjoy the disco that followed the presentations.

The club championships took place the previous week at Brean Splash. There were races to cover all ages and abilities of swimmers, from those just beginning to develop their swimming in the learn to swim programme, through to open age squad swimmers.

The championships were well supported by swimmers and proud parents alike and supporters seated poolside cheered and encouraged from close up.

It was the club’s first championships since moving to Brean Splash at the start of September and swimmers enjoyed being able to swim in a modern facility with a six-lane pool.

This was evident when the 200m club record was broken with 15 best times in the event and 12 swimmers took part for the first time showing that there is plenty of new talent emerging.

On the main day of racing, 46 swimmers gained best times and there were seven race best times achieved.

The Burnham academy swim team entered its first open meet at Exeter. They had a fantastic result, coming third out of 15 clubs from across the South West.

The team won a total of 36 medals and Tracey, Andy, Nic and Emma have done an amazing job with the team that only formed officially two months ago.

Thirteen-year-old Callum Richards from Weston won a total of 10 medals (six gold and four silver) for the team. Out of 987 entries, Richards also managed to achieve second overall in the boy’s category.

The team is now is now setting its goals on the county championships held at Millfield in March.