Richards Is Top Piranha

FIFTEEN-year-old Tamara Richards has become county champion in seven swimming events after her Huntingdon Piranhas club enjoyed its best ever success at the Cambridgeshire County Championships.

Richards' titles came in the 200m and 400m freestyle, the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, the 50m breaststroke and the 200m and 400m individual medley events.

She was one of a number of Piranhas swimmers that brought back a total of 16 gold medals, 19 silver and 11 bronze medals from the event.

The squad, sponsored by The Centurian Club, Somersham, also competed in the Cambs Cup against the seven top teams in the county, finishing third, only beaten by the larger Cambridge and Peterborough squads.

To finish off a very successful couple of weekends, the squad also took two silver and six bronze medals in the county relay competition.

Twelve-year-old Charlotte Harrison is now county champion in three events - the 50m backstroke, 50m butterfly and 1500m freestyle.

Chelsea Prouten, 14, is now county champion in the 50m and 100m breaststroke, Zoe Griffiths, nine, is now county champion in the 50m butterfly and 100m individual medley, while Ryan Skeels, 14, took top honours in the 50m freestyle.

In addition to the gold medallists, who also carried off 14 silver and 5 bronze medals between them, silver and/or bronze medals also went to Kristen Chadband, Laura Vulysteke, Natasha Skeels, Chloe Gibson, Joshua Read, Matthew Davitt and Daniel Parekh-Hill.

Piranhas head coach John Richards said: "We followed up the County Championships with a third place in the Cambs Cup, which was a tremendous result.

"We only had three wins, so congratulations to Chloe Gibson who won the 11 and under 50m backstroke and butterfly and to Charlotte Harrison who won the 13 and under 50m freestyle.

"Success came from our consistency in finishing in second and third place throughout the 50 events.