Aoife Marley came away with a new personal best and a silver medal as she joined Witham Dolphins Swimming Club team-mates at the first weekend of the ASA Essex County Long Course Championships in Basildon.

The highly-competitive event is run over three weekends, with some of the best swimmers in Essex attending and Marley had a great opening weekend.

Having qualified in second place in the girls’ 100 metre breaststroke, the Witham swimmer moved up through the field in an extremely hard-fought final and was catching the lead swimmer all the time.

It was very close at the end, with Marley securing a personal best (PB) and the silver medal.

Witham Dolphins’ Maia McPherson was also was in great form.

In the girls’ 200m breaststroke, she went into the event as the ninth quickest but managed to better her PB by more than six seconds as she came home in fourth place and only 0.11 seconds off a bronze medal.

Meanwhile, Rosie McCann beat her PB by more than four seconds in the 100m breaststroke, while Beth Bentley and Pierce Monaghan were both competing at their first county championships and Josh Bibby, Joe Bentley, Lauren Colton, Aidan Wood and Josh Fowles were also in action.