THIRTEEN-year-old Tom Howe from Kelly College produced the swims of his life at the recent National Age Group Championships in Sheffield to win both silver medal and bronze medals in the 400m and 200m freestyle respectively.

Both his recorded times 4.22.01 and 2.04.52 respectively have placed him well within the consideration times for his age for the Great Britain squad, which will be announced in September.

Tom, who was involved in one of the closest races of the championships in his final event the 200m freestyle, swam from the front and went through his 100m split in a personal best time. He was still in the lead with 50 metres of the pool to go.

His closest challengers, Adrian OíNeil from Aberdeen and Mark Newell from Rochdale, had moved onto to his shoulder.

Tom was locked into battle and the race was decided on the final reach for the wall. The three were separated by 0.2 of a second. Tom had to settle for the bronze medal, but with his determination it will not be long before he is reaching gold.

The standard of swimming was the highest ever and Kelly swimmers performed with distinction, making eight national finals. Eleven-year-old Adam John was in great form as he smashed all his personal best performance times by some five seconds to make finals in the 200m and 400m individual medley, 400m freestyle and 200m backstroke, finishing fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.

His cumulative results placed him as just outside the top ten 11- year-old in the country overall in the national rankings, which gains him selection onto the world class start medley programme which is designed to fast track the country?s top 20 11 and 12-year-olds.

Kelly?s 12- year-old Holly Yeo swam in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and produced her best performances in both events. She went on to make the final of the 100m breaststroke, finishing seventh in a close and exciting race.

Fifteen-year-old Jack Cockerton had to wait patiently for five days to compete in his events, the 400m and 200m individual medley and the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

He was up against it as he was swimming at the bottom end of the 15/16 year old age group. Jack produced excellent swims and a new personal best performance time by two seconds in the 400m individual medley.

Meanwhile in Barcelona, Kelly College?s Jakie Wellman was competing for Zambia in the World Swimming Championships where she broke four Zambian Records in the 50,100,200m freestyle and 50m fly.

This marks the end of a busy season for the Kelly swimmers and they now get a three-week break before starting to prepare for the 2003/2004 Olympic season, starting in September.