IT was a gold medal and the title of Devon Sprint Champion in the 50m breastroke for 12 year old Okehampton Otters swimmer Matthew Westlake at last weekend?s Devon Sprint Championships at Plymouth. Following his successes over previous weekends at the Devon County Championships, Matthew flew home in his 50m breaststroke in a new personal best time of 39.82 to clinch top spot.

Not satisfied with one trophy, he also walked away with a silver medal in the 50m backcrawl (personal best and Otters club age group record) and a bronze in the 50m Butterfly (personal best). His overall performance gave him enough points to take the silver medal in the 12 years boys? BAG points.

Another talented Otters swimmer reaped the reward for his continued hard work by swimming to a medal position and new personal best time in the 11 years boys? 50m breaststroke.

Matthew Webber took the bronze medal, knocking seconds off his previous best time, plus giving the travelling support another medal success to cheer. Matthew also set personal best times in his 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke swims.

A further five swimmers made the trip westwards, breaking ten more personal bests between them. In the majority of cases this equated to full seconds being knocked off, highlighting the rapid improvement in the swimmers of this small club. The youngest team swimmer, ten year old Kieran Mitchell, set a personal best in his 50m freestyle as did 12 year old Rebecca Jarvis.

In the 50m backstroke personal bests went to Michael Alyen, Rebecca Ewen and Elona Wonnacott.

Rebecca Jarvis, Rebecca Ewen and Michael set new times in the 50m breaststroke.

In the 50m butterfly event new best times were set by Rebecca Jarvis and Michael.

Sunday saw the resumption of the Sprint Championships with the boys? 11/12 years squad competing in the freestyle and medley relays. The team of Matthew Westlake, Matthew Webber, Michael Aylen and Gabriel Aguilera finished a respectable seventh position in the 4x50m freestyle event.

The Otters swimmers now have a couple of weeks rest from competition before they travel to Tiverton Pool after Easter for a six-way friendly gala warming them up for the final North Devon Mini League gala at Barnstaple in early May.

l More swimming reports, page 54.