THE Kelly swim squad were back in action last Saturday at the English Schools Swimming Association Bazuka National Swimming Championships at Crawley in Sussex and achieved some tremendous results.

The school came away with one gold and four silvers from eight events entered and as predicted were involved in some close and exciting racing with school rivals Millfield.

The closest competition was in the junior boys' category (school year groups 7-9) where the team of Matthew Henry, Tom Howe, Ben Clarke and Philip Shannon broke the 4x50m freestyle relay championship record twice on their way to winning gold.

The record had stood since 1998 and the team were a second inside by the end of the heats and reduced it again to 1.47.76 in the final.

The tables were turned in the medley relay where the boys again beat the championship record but were edged out of gold medal position by Millfield by fewer than 0.4 seconds.

The girls' intermediate team (year groups 10 and 11) won silver in the 4x50m freestyle relay with swimmers Jakie Wellman, Beckie Smith, Brikita Batten and Amanda Sanderson all putting in excellent performances.

Sophie Stanford then took Beckie's place in the team for the medley relay and the girls claimed their second silver medal of the competition.

In the senior category (year groups 12 and 13), the boys' team of Matthew Hill, Matthew Slator, Tom Phillips and Jonathan Wills were second in the final of the 4x50 m freestyle relay and fifth in the medley.

Swimmers in the girls' junior age group, Whitney Bowrin, Laura Sprague, Holly Yeo and Amy Bayliss improved their 12th place seeding to finish fifth in the freestyle relay.

It shows great promise for the future as both Laura and Amy are still in the first year and will be eligible to compete again in the same age group for the next two years.

The intermediate boys' team finished just outside the finals for the 4x50m medley relay with David Hill swimming close to his world record time for the opening leg 50m backstroke.