Abingdon Vale members shone in the British Gas Swim Britain Open Water Challenge at Blenheim Palace.

Vale fielded four teams of four in the unique competition, which involved swimming a 4km open water relay (1,000 metres each) in the Great Lake.

The Abingdon swimmers, ranging in age from 12 to 17 came in third, 11th, 14th and 16th, out of 127 teams from around Britain.

The race was kicked off by a husband-wife combination of Olympic silver medallist Keri-Anne Payne and Dave Carry, a 2006 Commonwealth Games gold medallist. The winning team were Boldmere Babes with a time of 56mins 17secs.

Abingdon results: 3 (S Costello, D Mowlem, C Mowlem A Lowe) 57.35, 11 (M Bolcato, W Devetta, O Hodgson, L Wilby) 1.04.18, 14 (girls – C Halfhead, E Besen, K Ford, A Jackson) 1.05.44, 16 (I Boyce-Parr, N Perks, T Ross, L Watson) 1.07.24.

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