The local BLDSA event at Wykeham lake on the weekend of 26/27 May proved to be another successful one for Kingfishers. The first event started at
10pm on Saturday night, the swimmers entered the water with two LED lights each and swam 5 x 1k laps of a very dark lake, each were accompanied by a kayaker huge thanks at this point go to Steve,Chloe and Caitlin Hodgson, Martin Plant, Oliver Brunt, Chloe Riley, Carl Knight and Claire Edwards for keeping them safe. Claire romped home in 1hr 28mins and snatched 1st place from Alex Lee who was 2nd in 2 hrs 2 mins with Alex Sedman coming home in 2hrs 25mins. Ellie Knight was the first breastroke Swimmer home in 1hr51min closely followed by 2nd breastroke Jane Sedman in 2hrs 8mins. Heather Riley succumbed to severe cramp in her leg in the 4th lap and retired better to be safe than sorry in open water.
Having got into bed at 1.30am the swimmers were expected back at the lake by 8.30am to register for the day swims, much earlier than previous years and as the times would reveal the lack of rest and sleep was to take its toll on the days 5k swims.
Claire, Alex, Jane, Ellie and Owen Mahoney entered the water at 9.30am for the 5k race accompanied by Alex Lee, Maddy Adams and Thomas Reynoldson in the 3k. Once again all had kayakers and much thanks is given to their continued support to keep our swimmers safe. The sun shone but the wind did also blow making it an incredibly tough swim. Maddy flew home in 1hr 3mins to win her second junior first this season, closely followed by Thomas the first junior boy in 1hr 11mins. Alex Lee came home in 1hr 18m two very credible swims from this young lady fresh out of retirement. The 5k swimmers were tiring in the choppy water but Claire still took 2nd place in 1hr 32mins, Ellie continuing her 1st place run in Breastroke in 2hrs 4mins with Jane in 2nd place in 2hrs 18mins. Owen fresh as a daisy Mahoney came home in 2hrs 28secs. Alex Sedman put up a brave fight but in the end on the back of all the end of year exams having finished uni she came out after 3k exhausted but in the knowledge she gave 100%
The 1k proved an enticement to newbie Dave Eblet who swam the course accompanied by a tired Alex Sedman and Claire Bamford in a cracking 20mins 14secs well done Dave and everyone for a great weekend of swimming.