Swimathon success

SWIMMERS in Warrington raised nearly £5000 for charity in the national Swimathon 2008.

Sixty four people dived in at Woolston Leisure Centre on 20 April, swimming a total of 164.5 kilometres for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Two swimmers went to extra lengths, achieving first place in their age groups.  Nine year old Oliver Houghton swam 200 lengths (5km) in one hour, 20 minutes and Mark Jones, 47, swam 100 lengths (2.5km) in 31 minutes, four seconds.

Cllr Roy Smith, Executive Board member for community services, said: “The event has been a huge success again this year, it’s great to see so many people having fun and raising money whilst getting fit at the same time.”

The leisure centre has supported the Swimathon for more than 10 years and has been recognised as one of the top pools for its fundraising, participating numbers and overall organisation.  Their success continued this year as the centre came third out of 88 pools for swimmer recruitment in the north and 22nd out of over 500 pools across the country.

For more information and to request images, contact Scott Palfrey 01925 813989 spalfre@warrington.gov.uk, www.selectleisure.co.uk.  National website: www.swimathon.org.

Ends

Issued by:  Siân Evans, Communications Officer
Date:   Tuesday 6 May 2008
Release: