WITH the Devon County Swimming Championships over the halfway mark, Kingsbridge Kingfishers can celebrate their first county champion of the decade after Chloe Morris won the final of the 50m Breaststroke in only 36 seconds.

The success has come after plenty of near misses. Prior to her win, she had already won 3 silver medals and 3 bronze medals.

Not only has she beaten everyone her age in Devon, she has also beaten some swimmers who come from other parts of the country who attend and swim for some of Devon’s private schools. The achievement is a great milestone for her ahead of the South West Regional Championships, and her attempts to qualify for her first National Championships.

Kingfishers almost won a second gold just fifteen minutes later when George Tucker produced a thrilling comeback to go within 0.04 seconds of gold in the 200 Freestyle. It was George’s second silver medal of the competition so far.

Also achieving a medal for the first time was 9-year-old Toby Morris, in the bronze 50 Breaststroke, against swimmers older than him.

Ten different Kingfishers have managed to get out of the preliminary round and into finals. Layla Quiggin finished 4th once and 5th twice. Romy Stephenson finished 5th, 6th and 7th in her three finals. Emilia McKinlay has reached three finals too, finishing 4th, 5th and 6th.

Lucas Quiggin came 5th in the 200 Breaststroke. The winner of that event, a student of Mount Kelly, would later go on to set a British age group record. Lottie Taylor came 7th in the 200 Freestyle and improved this a day later by coming 5th in the 400 Freestyle. Also qualifying for finals were George Stone and Faye Morris.

All of this would not be possible without the volunteering from many parents and now one more weekend of racing remains at the Championships!