Biggleswade celebrated their 2005 achievements at the annual presentation night. Achievements included the club recording a record medal haul at the Bedfordshire County Championships to put the club in second place. Thirteen qualifiers made the Midland Di

Biggleswade celebrated their 2005 achievements at the annual presentation night.

Achievements included the club recording a record medal haul at the Bedfordshire County Championships to put the club in second place.

Thirteen qualifiers made the Midland District Age Group Championships with Harriet Brettle finishing seventh in the 200m backstroke final; and six qualifiers for the Youth Championships with Nick Metcalf winning a bronze medal in the 50m freestyle.

At the National Championships, Harriet finished 14th in the 200m backstroke event and 34th in the 200m individual medley.

And at the first East Region Championships in Norwich, nine swimmers qualified, several reached finals and a bronze was won.

In their first season of Division One in the East Midlands Speedo League, the club finished in sixth having reached the top gala in the final round.

The seventh open meet hosted by the club attracted entries from a record number of swimmers from the highest number yet of visiting clubs.

Biggleswade finished second in the Top Club competition and club swimmers Adam Ingledew and George Lavallin were first and third in the Top Boy competition.

Overall, club swimmers recorded 214 personal bests and 77 qualifying times for East Region competitions for 29 swimmers!

The largest number of club swimmers ever had represented Bedfordshire in inter-county competition during 2005.

Hannah Raine set several county records in the 200m individual medley.

In the awards section of the evening, all swimmers who had participated in the club championship were presented with certificates and the top three in each age group won bronze, silver or gold medals.

The top three swimmers in the girls' junior and senior championships were Emily Aust, Nikki Newell and winner Hannah Raine.

For the boys, it was Chris Budd, Christian Stokes and winner Myles Gibson for the juniors and Gibson, Paul Titley and winner Nick Metcalf in the seniors.

The award for most improved swimmer in the club went to Harry Storton and clubperson of the year went to head coach Vix Metcalf.

n Harriet Brettle stormed into the record books at the first gala of the 2006 Bedfordshire County Championships.

Swimming the 1500m freestyle for only the second time in her swimming career, she claimed the Eastern Region 1500m freestyle record and the Bedfordshire county junior and senior records in the process.

Her time of 9:21.87 at the 800m mark gave her a national qualifying standard, and her total time of 17:43.76 ranks her in first place in the country in another national qualifying mark.

She said: "I can't wait to race both events at nationals, and I hopefully will have a few more to swim there too."

The 17 Biggleswade swimmers set 15 personal bests for the 1500m, and another 18 bests were recorded during the swims from split times.

There were eight Eastern Region qualifying times set by Nikki Newell, Josh Farrell, Emily Aust, Harriet Brettle, Hannah Raine, Louise King, Christian Stokes and Adam Ingledew.

Biggleswade won four golds (Harriet Brettle, Abbie Lavallin, Alex Raine and Adam Ingledew), three silvers (Danielle Lee, Hannah Raine and Christian Stokes) and six bronzes (Rachel Hollington, Emma Jones, Paul Titley, Emily Aust, Josh Farrell, Louise King).

They also set eight Biggleswade age group records and two Biggleswade junior records in the process.