THREE Kelly College junior disability swimmers, David Hill, Louise Watkin and Sarah Timms, each broke a senior British record at this weekend's DSE National Junior Championships at Ponds Forge pool in Sheffield. The swimmers enjoyed a fantastic two day competition, where teams from all over Europe took part in the Open National Championships. The trio between them managed to win a staggering 19 gold medals and five silver during the intensive two days of racing. It was David Hill's last junior championships, which is open to swimmers under 18. His aim was to set British junior championship records and he was not disappointed, setting five new junior records, and a senior short course British record in the 50m fly. It was a busy time for David who never seemed to be out of the pool as he entered all 11 events open to him on the programme. David gained seven personal best times and won eight gold and three silver medals. Louise Watkin also enjoyed a super weekend by winning eight golds, five of which were in new personal best times. Louise swam a spectacular race in the 400m freestyle and set a new British senior short course record by an amazing 19 seconds. Louise swam away from the field right from the start and even managed to make the second 200m of the race faster than the first. Louise, 14, has been classified as an arm amputee, gained a silver medal in the 4x100 medley relay at the IPC World Swimming Championships in Durban, South Africa, during November. Since returning from those championships Louise has been showing great improvement in all her events. Sarah Timms, who has been coached by Martyn Stacey since joining Kelly College, also had a tremendous competition breaking the British Senior Short course in the 200m IM. She also won three golds and two silver medals and recorded personal best times in nearly all of her events. Director of swimming Robin Brew said that this had been a great weekend for the Kelly swimmers and a good measure against the best British and European juniors. However, Robin's sights for the swimmers are set 18 months hence when they pitch themselves against the best in the world at the Paralympic Games in Beijing.
