Farnham come third at opening gala of season

Farnham swimmers performed well at the recent Minor League swimming gala on Sat 16th April at Waterlooville, swimming fast and gaining a very creditable third place overall against tough opposition. There were some great individual performances, with David Pallant winning the U15 50m fly in 33.66s, Adenais Vachon winning the U13 freestyle in 29.84s and Sarah Taylor achieving double gold in the U15 50m breaststroke and 50m butterfly in a time of 33.71s. Aside from the Farnhams winners, there were also some very fast swims which gained some great second places. Amongst the silver medallists were Rhiannon Davies (Open 100 free), Catherine Taylor (U12 50 fly), Catherine Jefferies (U12 50m free), Kieran Pickford (U12 50 breaststroke), Adenais Vachon (U13 50m fly and breaststroke), Lucy Gibbons (U12 50m backstroke) and Anna Watson (U11 50m free and fly). An extra mention should go to Rhiannon Davies, who got under the magic 64 seconds for the 100 freestyle with a time of 63.64s . Farnhams relay teams also weighed in with valuable points. The best performance of the night coming from the U15 team of Daniel Traylen, Sarah Taylor, Emily Webster and David Pallant who won their freestyle relay event.

The evening was rounded off with the 'squadron relay' event, in which eight swimmers (one from each age group) competed in a freestyle relay. After a close and noisy finish, Farnham came a creditable third with their team of Anna Watson, William Miller, Catherine Jefferies, Marco Astin, Adenais Vachon, George Traylen, Sarah Taylor, David Pallant, Rhiannon Davies and James Fox.

Farnham coach Arthur McMahon was delighted with the result and the effort from all the Farnham swimmers.