THE 35th annual Riverside Park duck race took place this afternoon and went swimmingly - despite a fallen tree shortening the course.

The race was organised jointly by Eastleigh and Swanwick Lions and saw two thousand plastic ducks released from Mansbridge Bridge at 2.30pm, making their way down the River Itchen towards Woodmill Lane.

The family friendly event allowed the hundreds of spectators in attendance to purchase ducks, raising money for charity to be distributed by the Lions, with attendees also having the chance of winning a selection of prizes in a raffle after the race.

Daily Echo: ‘It’s a wonderful event’: The annual Riverside Park duck race

Kate Scott is a member of Swanwick Lions and a volunteer who helped organise the event. She estimated that between 500 to 1,000 people turned out to watch the spectacle and told the Echo: “It’s a wonderful event for everybody involved.

“We’re raising money that will go to a charity within our local community.

“You can see that we’ve got so many people here today.

“We actually use the same ducks every year so it’s quite environmentally friendly and we have to go along collecting them all afterwards!”

READ MORE: Swanwick and Eastleigh Lions to host annual duck race

Ursula Nichols, volunteer at Eastleigh Lions, added: “We have to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us today.

Daily Echo: ‘It’s a wonderful event’: The annual Riverside Park duck race

“That includes the volunteers, as this event would simply not be possible without them.

“This event seems to grow year on year and it’s brilliant when you can see that people of all ages – largely families, a lot of whom bring their dogs – have so much fun.”

Kate said the event was not without some drama: “The weather has been kind to us today, but unfortunately one of the trees has blown over into the river and there’s nothing the city council could do about that today, so the course has been affected slightly.

“But as Ursula said, it’s great to see so many people join us and the work the volunteers have put in is fantastic.

“If anybody would like to join us that would be amazing, because we do a lot of charitable activities across the local area and without volunteers events like this would be really difficult to put on.”