SWIMMERS from Taunton School won all six trophies in the Meade King Cup Swimming Gala last Friday.

It is the first time any school has won all six trophies at the annual event, which is contested by Taunton School, Queen’s College, King’s College and Wellington School.

The prestigious gala is understood to be the world’s oldest swimming competition between more than two schools.

The trophies included the Girls and Boys Meade King, Penny Cup, Walsh Cup, Cannon and 4 Schools Relay.

Captains Robyn Edwards and Louis Norman led the 30-strong team to victory.

Two records were broken – the Boys Open Freestyle Relay (by Louis Norman, William Perry, Harry Aziz and Ilija Kirilenko) and the Chris Walsh Cup (the combined time of the senior girls and boys medley relay times, by Louis Norman, harry Aziz, Luis Parades-Tarazona, James Coleman, Robyn Edwards, Lydia Lavallin, Millie Tyler and Emily Yap).

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TAUNTON School Year 10 student Georgia Williams completed an outstanding one-mile open water sea swim around the iconic Castles of Cornwall on June 4.

The “Castle 2 Castle” route runs from Pendennis Castle in Falmouth to St Mawes Castle on the Roseland Peninsula.

Somerset County Gazette:

SEA SWIM: Georgia Williams at the "Castle 2 Castle" event.

Georgia, who lives in Taunton, was not only the youngest swimmer at just 14 years old, but the fourth female to finish (second female in the under-18 age group), and 18th overall out of a field of 250.

She finished in just under 30 minutes, and raised £150 for the RNLI.

Georgia trains with Taunton School Long Distance Swimming Club, and Paul Shergold of the Triathlon Training Team and Somerset RC Tri.

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LUCY Turner, a teacher from Taunton School, has successfully taken on the “Sharkfest” challenge, swimming from the notorious Alcatraz prison after only recently recovering from major brain surgery.

In 2015 the 43-year-old, from Halse near Taunton, signed up for a charity swim to “escape” from Alcatraz, in a 1.5-mile treacherous swim around the bay of San Francisco.

Her son, Jamie, has severe epilepsy and she was inspired to raise money for the charity Young Epilepsy.

But in February 2016 Turner was forced to defer the swim after being diagnosed with a brain tumour, and last September she underwent a 13-hour operation to remove most of her tumour – only months after her son had also had major brain surgery because of his epilepsy.

Undeterred, Turner – head of Leisure Studies at the school – courageously decided to take the plunge on June 4 this year, and achieved the incredible by completing the open water swim.

Somerset County Gazette:

ESCAPE: Lucy Turner took on the “Sharkfest” challenge​.

Out of 900 competitors, Turner was one of the brave 138 in the non-wetsuit category, and she came second in her age group with a time of 54 minutes. 

As well as supporting Young Epilepsy, she also chose to raise money for Brain Tumour Support.

Turner, who was not experienced in open water swimming until very recently, said: “It was amazing to do this swim and raise money for charities so meaningful to me. 

“I have raised £1,700 so far and more is still coming in. 

“I’m very thankful to Hamish McCarthy from Taunton School Long Distance Swimming Club, who helped me prepare for the event. 

"I trained as much as I could at Lyme Bay in Dorset, Hope Cove Bay in Devon and Clevedon open pool.”

The event was celebrating its 25th year, and marks the infamous escape from the prison by the Anglin brothers in 1962.

Turner added: “I was told that a leopard shark was spotted in the bay the day before the race, but I felt safe doing the swim, and I’m very glad to say I have ‘Escaped from Alcatraz’!”