SWIMMING: STEPHANIE Mahoney broke a 50m butterfly event record for the second time in as many weeks, only to be overtaken herself.

Swimming at Macclesfield, she produced a heat time of 29.9secs for a Cheshire County Championship best on Saturday.

This put her ahead of rivals Abby Tetley of Winsford and Yvonne Broster of Ellesmere Port in the open-age event.

Steph's Halton Swimming Club team-mates Lindsay Jude and Lucy Myler joined her in the final after also coming up with good heat swims.

If only for a short time, Halton (formerly Widnes SC) held county event records for 50m butterfly at 14 years, 15 years, 16 years, junior (16/u) and open.

However, a great start in the final by Abby Tetley gave her the edge.

Despite a strong finish by Stephanie, the Winsford star set another new record to win in 29.6.

Stephanie took the silver in 30.2 with Lindsay Jude in a good fourth spot and Lucy Myler fifth.

Another competition record fell to Katie Holmes in the 100m breaststroke heats with a great time of 1:21.6.

But once again, luck was against the Halton swimmer in the final and she was just touched out of a close finish by four girls, despite another good time of 1:22.8.

On a day when medals were hard to come by, Stephanie Mahoney fought hard for silver in the 100m IM in the 16-years age group while Charlotte Joseph took a good bronze in the corresponding 15-years' event.

For the boys, William Warburton just missed bronze at both 100m backstroke and 100m butterfly, finishing fourth in both.

The championships continued the following day at Birkenhead where Katie Holmes was in the shake-up for breaststroke medals.

But she once again found herself just out of the frame, finishing fifth in the 200m event with a great new personal-best time of 2:56.

Through their efforts, Sarah-Louise Banner, Lucy Myler, Stephanie Mahoney, Lindsay Jude and Katie Holmes achieved qualifying times for the Irish National Championships in July.