Philip and Stuart Walker took to the water at the weekend swimming in the inaugural Great North Swim, a mile open water swim in Lake Windermere. Over 2000 swimmers took to the lake ranging from Olympic medallists, club swimmers and those wanting to swim for fun. Philip was contacted by the organisers of the event to see if he would like the opportunity to swim with the elite men as he had entered with a fast entry time. Philip agreed as this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, swimming alongside Maarten Van Der Weijden, David Davies and Thomas Lurz who all won medals in the 10k Open Water event in Beijing last month.The race got off to a quick start and it wasn't long before the winners were on their way to the finishing line, with David Davies clinching Gold ahead of Marteen Van Der Weijden. Philip finished in a very respectable 14th position and Stuart, who was swimming with the first heat of club swimmers finished in 40th position overall. It was a great experience for both boys who had the opportunity to talk with the Olympic swimmers who mingled with the crowd all day.

Sedgefield 75 Swimming Club welcome competitors from other related sports. One of these is Tetrathlon which is a combination of swimming as far as possible in 3 minutes and then shooting, these are done on day one of the competition and then horse riding and running are done on the second day of the competition. The points for each event are added up to give a final winner.

This year the club has seen two of our swimmers making the National Finals which will be held in Hartpury in August this year. They are Jen Corner who in the regional qualifiers finished 2nd overall finishing 2nd in the swimming with a personal best distance of 206m. Next to qualify was Robbie Stephenson who also finished 2nd overall but won the swimming category, swimming 225m.

Other swimmers from the club competing in the area Tetrathlon were Lucy Corner, who finished 12th overall finishing 2nd in the swimming and 2nd in the shooting. Hamish Glover also finished 2nd overall finishing 2nd in his swim.

Tom Carr and his younger brother Will both finished 1st in their respective age groups with both of them finishing 1st in their swims. Gemma Stephenson finished 7th in her class, Helen Stephenson finished 6th for the class and 3rd in the swim.

Overall all the competitors did very in the competition and their swimming distances are improving with each competition.