AN unprecedented summer of success has seen the Warriors of Warrington Swimming Club being given a prestigious accolade.

The team, who train at several sites across Warrington, were named the most improved club at the British Swimming Championships earlier in the summer.

The Warriors were given the award due to the number of swimmers who achieved personal-best times at the championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.

A cash prize of £5,000 was part of the award and this will be used to send club members to a specialist training camp in Majorca.

Head coach Darren Ashley says everyone at the club is “overjoyed” to have received the award.

“The team did fantastically well at this year’s championships,” he said.

“The hard work and dedication that they committed throughout the year really paid off.

“We were overjoyed to have been given this prestigious award and the prize money to take members of the team to the training camp will help them develop further.”

Coral Farrell, Gabrielle Melbourne-Smith, Matthew Domville, Shannon Campbell, Caitlin Shingler, Hugh Takemoto and Alex Watkinson all achieved their best time in a variety of disciplines – with some swimmers recording personal bests in more than one discipline.

Several club swimmers made the finals at the Sheffield meet, with 18-year-old Domville coming second in the men’s 19 years and over 200m butterfly.

Melbourne-Smith, 14, and Takemoto, 18, also came second in the women’s 13 and 14 years butterfly and men’s 17 and 18 years 50m breaststroke respectively.

Takemoto also came third in the men’s 17 and 18 years 100m breaststroke race.

After a summer break, the club are working towards the North West Winter Championships, which takes place at Manchester Aquatics Centre in November.