Winchester City Penguins Swimming Club has achieved the strongest start to a season in years under its head of performance swimming, Kim Hill.

Having become Rother League Division 4 champions in September, followed by a win in the first round of the National Arena Swimming League in October, the Penguins bagged a win double last month.

A rescheduled Junior Cup gala in Gosport saw the B team storm ahead of the opposition to win by a large margin against Fareham Nomads, Romsey and Totton and Gosport, while at the K2 pool in Crawley, the University-of-Winchester-sponsored A team were pulling off yet another hard fought victory in the second round of the National Arena Swimming League.

Dominating performances in the girls’ 11/U 4x50m medley and freestyle relays from Faye Francis, Anastasia Lawrence, Evie Johnson and Sophia Motala-Evans, along with wins for Francis in 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly, played a significant part in the accumulation of points for the Arena team.

Francis also swam up an age group to help Charlotte Prince-Rayner, Tania Peinado and Georgina Butler to victory in the 13/U 4x50m freestyle relay and Peinado and Butler had their own victories in 100m breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle between them.

The boys’ 13/U team of Martyn Humphrys, Tom Menlove, Pietro Forconi and James Baxter won their 4x50m freestyle relay, with Menlove also taking first-place in 100m butterfly and Forconi winning the boys’ 11/U 50m backstroke.

In the 15/U age group, Joe Briggs took the win in 100m backstroke for the boys and Natasha Bocchetta was first in 100m freestyle for the girls. The Penguins’ ladies’ open team of Abbie Pease, Rebecca Lin, Izzy Talbot and Freya Rhodes won the 4x50m medley relay and Lin, Talbot, Rhodes, Bocchetta were joined by Freya Crompton and Carys Ladd to win the 6x50m freestyle relay.

Kim Hill said: “The atmosphere was electric. I was impressed to see the swimmers raise their game and achieve a huge number of personal best times and strong finishes for the win.”

Final results: Winchester 229pts, Maidenhead Marlins 203, Mid Sussex Marlins 167, Fareham Nomads 164, Guildford City C 152, Alton and District 131.

Junior Cup winners included Thomas Munday, Lottie Hatherell, Jacob Corrie, Alicia Peinado, Oliver Nicolin, Jemima Kennett, Fergus Wolfenden, Kate Baxter, Oskar Priesemann, Naomi Briggs, Callum Bucknall and James Watts.

Final results: Winchester 244pts, Fareham Nomads 197, Romsey and Totton 196, Gosport 177.