THE South West Age Group Championships were held at Millfield School Street over two weekends.

Three members of Chard & District Swimming Club had achieved the required qualifying times - Abi Abrahams (11yrs), Beckie Rutherford (12yrs) and Daniel Walker (10yrs).

Beckie Rutherford was the first to swim. She won her heat of the 100m backstroke by some distance, improving her personal best by over a second to 1-16.55 mins.

Abi Abrahams took part in five events over the four days and reached three finals, finishing second in all of them. The events were 100m and 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m breaststroke and 200m individual medley. She was second in both breaststroke races and the individual medley. The 200m freestyle was a National Qualifying Time, as was the 100m breaststroke and the 200m individual medley time of 2-41.47 mins.

This was Abi's fourth National Qualifying Time and she is the first Chard swimmer to gain a National Time in an Individual Medley. These were remarkable performances.

On the final day Daniel Walker took part in the 200m breaststroke, and improved his entry time by two seconds in a new 10yrs club record time of 3-33.31 mins.