WEYMOUTH Swimming Club triumphed in their first outing in the Dorset Novice League, claiming first overall with 15 wins from 24 events.

The team excelled in both the girls’ and boys’ under-14 and under-10 50m backstroke, with Kara Draper, Joshua Westlake, Lauren Knight and George Cartwright taking first place. Nathan Calton also won the under-11 race with Kate Norman claiming third in her race of the same age group.

Zoe Allan was denied a placing in her under-12 race because of ‘speeding’ – where organisers had set time limits for each event.

The girls proved invincible in the under-11, 12 and 14 50m butterfly with Alice Adams, Sophie Godbold and Bethany Carr each coming first.

Tyler Baker took second in the under-12 boys’ event, Lauren Knight came third in the girls’ under-10 race, Aidan Turner took third in the under-14 boys’ and Daniel Kingman claimed third in both the under-10 and 11 races.

There was more success in the 50m breaststroke with Sophie Moore and Nial Turner beating the competition to come first in the under-12 events and Chloe Calton finishing first in the under-14 race. Tyler Baker claimed second in the under-11 boys’ race, George Cartwright took third in the under-10 race and Holly Calton came fourth in the girls’ under-10 event.

Both Charlotte Harris and Joshua Westlake were denied placings for ‘speeding’. In the 50m freestyle Lauren Knight and Daniel Kingman came first in the under-10 individual events, Aidan Turner won the boys’ under-14 race and Kate Norman and Nathan Calton both came second in their under-11 races.

Tyler Baker and Chloe Calton took third in their races and Danielle Brunell was unplaced for ‘speeding’.

Head Coach Steve White was full of praise for his young charges after their first outing. He said: “Our swimmers did superbly well and they can all feel extremely proud of their performance – overall we had 22 first places, six second places, eight third places and two fourth places.

“The gala gave our squad a great opportunity to compete against swimmers from across Dorset and see the results of all their hard training.”

Weymouth’s swimmers also won eight out of the 12 relay events with victories in the mixed 9 years, under-11, 12 and 14 freestyle relays, the mixed under-14 and under-12 medley relays, the mixed 9 years breaststroke relay and the prestigious cannon relay.