FOURTEEN-year-old Jack Cockerton from Kelly College again proved himself to be one of the fastest rising stars in the South West as he powered his way to victory in four events at last weekend?s Western Counties Youth Swimming Championships at Millfield School.
Jack, who stands at 6ft 3inches, had one of the busiest weekends of his swimming career to date. He was competing at the younger end of his age group in seven events, winning no fewer than four gold medals for the 100m and 200m breaststroke and the 200m and 400m individual medley.
He also picked up a bronze in the 200m backstroke and made the top six in 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle. His focus of attention will now be firmly placed on the National Youth Championships to be held in Sheffield in 12 weeks? time.
Rachel Banfield the Kelly girls? team captain who was a little under the weather at the weekend pulled out the stops to produce one her best swims of the year and retain her 200m backstroke title. Rachel also went on to finish second in the 100m backstroke.
Sarah Reader, 15, who had never made a Western County final before, qualified for finals in the 100m and 200m Fly and the 200m individual medley. In a close race, she attacked on the last 50m of her 200m fly to narrowly miss gold by a mere 0.4 of a second to Collette Dando of Soundwell Swimming Club. Sarah finished a respectable fourth and seventh in her other two events.
In the freestyle sprint events both Vera Krutzenbeck and Jon Wills from Kelly College made the finals. Vera finished in second place in a tussle for the line with Emma Kate Tapsel from the University of Bath. Vera went on to finish fourth in the 200m freestyle.
The Kelly girls 14/17-years relay finished in bronze medal position in the 4x100m freestyle relay event. Leading off was Jakie Wellman who has recently qualified for the World Swimming Championships representing her home country Zambia later in August. Following on was Elaine Reyes, Lauren Foster and Vera Kreutzenbeck.
Other finalists included Jenny Onyon in the 100m and 200m breaststrokes who finished sixth and seventh respectively and also Elaine Reyes who finished 7th in the 200m freestyle.
Sarah Thomas, 16, picked up five championship medals for Kelly, one gold and four silvers in the 200m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 100m and 200m fly and 200m individual medley respectively.