Kenilworth girl, eight, '˜overwhelms' mother after swimming 4km without stopping for charity

An eight-year-old Kenilworth girl has '˜overwhelmed' her mother by swimming 4,000m in just under two hours without stopping in a charity swim last week.
Lola Knightley, eight, who swam 4,000m without stopping for charityLola Knightley, eight, who swam 4,000m without stopping for charity
Lola Knightley, eight, who swam 4,000m without stopping for charity

Lola Knightley, who attends St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School, swam the distance in aid of Acorn’s Children’s Hospice at the event held at the Warwickshire Country Club on Monday December 19.

Many other swimmers took part in the event, which required all entrants to pay a small amount of money to enter and challenge themselves to swim as far as they could.

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Her mother Lisa, 39, said Lola was a good all-rounder when it came to athletic ability, as she also enjoys gymnastics, but she was still very impressed with her daughter’s swim.

She said: “I was amazed and overwhelmed really, I was so proud of her.

“She does enjoy it, but she just takes it all in her stride. If anything, she was maybe getting a bit bored during the swim.

“She wasn’t even that tired when she finished.”

Lola started learning to swim when she was three, and Lisa said she was scared to get in the water initially.

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Lisa added: “She was absolutely petrified of swimming - she’d cry because she didn’t want to do it.”

But Lola stopped fearing swimming at around the age of four, and started to get a lot better at it quite quickly.

Now Lola has swimming lessons twice a week - a private lesson in Stoneleigh on a Monday and group lessons at the Warwickshire on a Friday.

At the last swimming gala held at the Warwickshire in June, Lola took all golds in every event she entered.