James gives a positive verdict at awards evening

Swimming

Olympic swimmer Antony James presented the prizes at Ashford Town SC’s annual awards night at Homelands stadium.

During the afternoon, the club’s swimmers had been treated to a training session with the butterfly specialist.

James also gave a short inspirational talk before presenting the awards, which had been attained by taking part in the club’s championships in which 97 swimmers took part.

James said there was a good sense of community within the club and was excited for the future. The club welcome new swimmers who are interested in competitive swimming – contact ashford.town@ swimclubmanager.co.uk or visit the club desk at the Stour Centre on a Tuesday night between 7-8pm.

Ashford Town started the 2017-2018 season with round two of the Kent Junior League – young swimmers from the early and late squads, aged nine to 13, travelled to Lewisham to compete at the Glass Mill Leisure Centre. The Kent Junior League provides an excellent opportunity for young swimmers to gain racing experience in a noisy and fastmoving gala atmosphere, competing for team points. Ashford performed well, finishing in fourth place, achieving five first places, 13 seconds and sixteen thirds.

The highlight of the evening was the 8x25m freestyle squadron relay final.

Leading from the front, Ashford Town took first place by 0.42 seconds.

1 Dulwich Dolphins 260 points, 2 Saxon Crown 213, 3 Tonbridge SC 209, 4 Ashford Town 197, 5 Edenbridge Piranhas 117.

Picture: Alan Langley FM4934536 The Ashford RunTogether group at the Folkestone Half Marathon

Ashford Town members at the Kent Junior League meeting