ON SATURDAY, December 10, Cirencester Swimming Club secured third place in the final Arena League gala of the season.

The Arena League consists of 400 teams across the country participating in three rounds during October, November and December, with the National finals in April 2017.

Following the first two rounds in October and November, Cirencester sat 11th out of the 22 teams in Division One.

The coaching team had worked hard with the swimmers to fine tune their performances after each event.

Every split-second counts – a 0.2 second improvement in the Men’s Open 6 x 50m Freestyle Relay would have raised the team’s final position to second.

The team delivered eleven second-place finishes.

Henry Sheffield came first in the Boys 10/11yrs Freestyle with a personal best of 32.96.

Joseph Giles came first in the Boys U13 50m Freestyle with a personal best of 1.00.03. The Girls U13 Freestyle relay team, including Ella Kempster, Emily Wan, Tilly Boyle and Suki Wickens-Shaw, put on a spectacular performance to win with a time of 2.01.65.

A total of 35 Personal Bests were recorded for Cirencester, with Henry Sheffield, Joshua Maggs, Alex Cohoon and Marcus Grinnell recording three each.

The final results saw Cirencester finish two points adrift of runners-up Southwold Swimming Club in third with 207 points.