Students at Darlington's Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College have had an extraordinary run of sporting success in the last few weeks.

Two strong swimming teams were entered into the English Schools Division One regional championships and both did extremely well. The girls' team of Natasha Crawley, Rachel Piggett, Carol Mohan, Lynsey Carveth and Hannah Faye came first, taking the championship trophies in both the medley and freestyle relays. Their time for the medley was 2.12 and for the freestyle an excellent 1.58; they are now waiting to see if they qualify for the national finals as one of the top 12 teams with the fastest times. In the same competition the boys' team of Ryan Livingstone, James Carter, Andrew Richardson and Andrew Booth came second in the medley and freestyle relays.

Three of the College's swimmers also took part in the Northern heats of the Colleges' Biathlon Championships at Penrith. Running 1000m and swimming 100m is gruelling, but Ryan Livingstone finished 6th with times of 3.06 for the run and 0.57 for the swim, and has won a place in the National finals. Mark Richardson and Lynsey Carveth both finished in the top 10 with creditable times.

Other successes involve racquet sports. Sixteen-year-old Graham Johnson, from Woodham, represented the College at Huddersfield in the regional British Colleges' Squash Championships and came second. He was disappointed not to win the Championship as he decisively won four of his five games and was narrowly beaten in the final. As well as representing QE, Graham is a member of the Durham County U17 and U19 junior squash teams.

Prowess and skill in badminton have won first year students Mark Zissler and Andrew Caldwell a place in the National Colleges' Championship finals at Loughborough University. Last week, at Stockton, they won all three of their games to become the North East champions.

Ian Wates also represented QE at Stockton; he came third in the singles competition.