MORE than 500 Amateur Swimming Association awards were achieved by 105 children in the Watchet Dolphins last year.
And eight of them gained the prestigious ASA Complete Swimmer award which is only given to outstanding swimmers who have passed tests in skill, speed, survival and endurance.
The eight super-swimmers were Shannon Magill, Katy Sawyer, Joanna Steele, Jackie Morgan, Luke Cooper, Emma Champion, Amy Prole and Alice O'Reilly.
Highlights of the year included the two-hour swims at Minehead's 25 metre Aquasplash pool where 40 Dolphins swam a total of 6,458 lengths - just over 100 miles - in two hours. All of them swam further than ever before, some by a considerable margin.
Catching up on the achievements of classmate Jacob Lintott, seven-year-old Sherilyn Perkins recorded just under three miles in two hours. Later, Sherilyn passed national level 11 and achieved a silver speed award.
Another swift Dolphin is Steven Minter, aged nine, who put in the fastest swim of the day for a gold speed award. He went on to gain another gold for backstroke and silver speed awards for breaststroke and butterfly.
One of the outstanding achievements of the year was by Samantha Minter who gained a one-mile badge less than a year after a major back operation. She then achieved a silver and two bronze speed awards.
Silver and gold challenge awards, which test a variety of skills to a very high standard, were gained by 26 Dolphins during the year. Jackie Morgan led a strong home field to gain the silver and Luke Cooper stormed home first to achieve his gold award.
Also during 2000, ten teams swam over 14 miles and raised over £450 for charity in the Swimathon, organised by Minehead Rotary Club and the first chance for some youngsters to swim in a big pool.
The first schools' record of 119 lengths in just 40 minutes was set by Edward Gould, Georgia Bell, Haydn Maclean, Karl Manley, Michael Hutchinson and Steven Minter.
As well as turning children into good swimmers, the Watchet Dolphins' aim is to enable them to survive in water and it teaches them basic survival skills such as the need to wear a lifejacket on any water, even a small boating lake.
The programme progresses from the excitement of falling fully clothed into water to the discipline of taking awards - last year, all the Dolphins worked towards the new 12-level National Swim Awards encompassing all the strokes and swimming skills.
More than half the Dolphins have achieved at least one Personal Survival Award and several younger children have passed a challenge that includes swimming 50 metres fully clothed.
This year, new water safety awards for beginners are to be introduced at the Wansbrough pool.
Teacher Jim Butterworth said many Dolphins were inspired not only by the awards for speed and skill but by the swimming style of 'veteran' members such as Emma and James Power, Adam Ridler and Portia Ross: "Portia's elegant front crawl and Adam's breaststroke have encourage many others to improve their strokes," he said.
And he added: "Few of these achievements would have been possible without magnificent parental support and this is a good time to say thank you to parents for turning up week after week and encouraging the children to attain even higher standards."