Anaconda Swimming Club have dipped a toe into the water of online fundraising to secure the costs of their Easter training camp in Spain.

The Islington club plan to take a group of 36 young swimmers, plus six coaches and chaperones, to Torremolinos for warm weather training next year.

To ensure each place on the seven-day trip could be financed, the club set up a page on the www.pledgesports.org website, which is dedicated to raising funds for sports projects, in recent weeks.

Their £3,000 target has been met and fractionally exceeded – and Anaconda chairman Steve Greer was delighted by the success of the online appeal.

He said: “This gives swimmers the chance to train in an open air 50m pool, which makes a big difference. Some of the competitions they go to are in 50m pools and you can see when they get halfway, their bodies just aren’t used to it.

“There are only three 50m pools in the London area and it’s extremely difficult to get training in those. To hire them out would probably cost us as much as the trip to Spain.

“For some kids, the cost isn’t a problem – but for others it’s a lot of money, so we wanted to give the opportunity to everybody and one of our committee members suggested this might be a good way to do it.

“Some funding has come from people we know but there’s probably a good 50 per cent on the site that we don’t. Obviously we’re extremely grateful to everyone.

“As well as time in the water – they have two hours in the morning and another two in the evening – this is about swimming education, things like nutrition and recovery that we wouldn’t be able to do if we stayed in London.

“The group has a wide range of abilities and you find by the end of the week the kids are sitting with the adults and drawing on their knowledge – at home they wouldn’t even see each other.”

The club, who are based at Caledonian Road pool, compete regularly in county and regional championships, as well as the National Arena League team event.