Northallerton ASC - Despite some encouraging individual performances, Northallerton finished a disappointing fourth behind Guisborough, Saltburn and Marske and Bedale in the opening Moors League Swimming Gala of the season at Bedale on Saturday.

The best performance of the day came from Adele Camichael who won three individual races in the 13-14 years girls age group and, with teammates Francesca Martin, Deborah Johnson and Jayne Truman, also won both the Freestyle and Medley Relay events.

Adele's new personal best time in the 60m Backstroke also enabled her to join teamrnates Gareth Waton, James Todd, Ewan Lister, Graham Caygill, Emily Shaw, Jessica Noone and Zara Doe Hannay in qualifying for the North Eastern Counties Championships to be held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield this summer.

Zara Doe Hannay won both the ten years girls 25m Freestyle and 25m Butterfly and, with team-mates Emily Brayshaw, Katie Thompson and Laura Caygill, also won the Medley relay.

That was as good as it got for Northallerton but Club Coach, Barbara Blades, remained upbeat: "The team achieved 118 personal best times at this gala and all the swimmers produced competitive performances which I am sure will develop into better overall results as the season unfolds."