Excellent results for Otters

THE county championships were held at Thetford recently and although the competition was tough Dereham Otters achieved excellent results. Thirty-two swimmers took part and out of the 277 swims, 187 of these were personal best times.

THE county championships were held at Thetford recently and although the competition was tough Dereham Otters achieved excellent results.

Thirty-two swimmers took part and out of the 277 swims, 187 of these were personal best times.

Dereham Otters won 103 top-six places.

Included in these were nine county winners: Lauren Burton in the 50m butterfly, 50m backstroke, 50m freestyle, 100m individual medley and 200m individual medley; Laura Jones in the 50m and 100m breaststroke and Hannah Lennox in the 50m and 200m butterfly.

Lauren Burton broke the county championship record in the 100m individual medley as well as seven club records. Club records were also broken by Ben Whitbourn, Laura Jones, Chris Searle, Jed Snell and Sean Watson.

By the end of the championships six swimmers had achieved east region qualifying times, Ben Whitbourn in the 100m and 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke, Chris Searle in the 50m and 100m freestyle and 50m backstroke, Laura Jones in the 50m breaststroke, Hannah Lennox in the 100m butterfly, Isabel Holmes in the 200m breaststroke and Lauren Burton in the 100m backstroke.

Jed Snell was also presented with his county colours; this is awarded when a swimmer has achieved four appearances for the county.