Wear Valley ASC: Top eight results from the recent Northumberland and Durham Championships.

Nine years: Josh Leary - 6th 200 Breaststroke

Girls - Emma Hodgeson - 1st 50 back (Championship record) & 200 Butterfly, 2nd 100 IM, 50 Fly & 200 IM, 5th 200 Freestyle & 200 Breaststroke ,6th 50 Freestyle; Sophie Colling - 6th 200 IM & 200 Breaststroke, 7th 200 Free & 50 Free; Bronwyn Trueman - 7th 50 backstroke

10 years: Boys - Patrick Callan - 1st 50 backstroke; 2nd 50 Freestyle; 3rd 200 back & 100 IM; 5th 200 IM & 50 Breaststroke; Kyle Boyek - 1st 200 breaststroke; 8th 200 Free & 50 Fly.

Girls: Faye Callan - 1st 200 breast, 50 Breast, 50 Free; 2nd 100 IM & 200 Free; 5th 50 back; 6th 200 IM; Rachel Howard - 1st 200 & 50 Fly, 2nd 200 Back, 3rd 200 IM, 5th 100 IM.

11 years: Boys - Philip Hodgeson - 4th 400 Free & 200 IM, 5th 200 back 6th 100 Breaststroke; Sean Kelly - 4th 100 free & 100 Fly, 6th 200 Fly.

Girls: Ashleigh Forster - 1st 800 Free, 200 Fly, 100 Breast (Championship record) & 200 Breast (Championship record), 2nd 200 Free, 400 Free, 100 IM, 100 Fly & 200 IM, 3rd 200 Back & 100 Free Ashleigh second place in Age Group category championship

12 years: Boys - Richard Suddes - 4th 800 Free, 6th 400 Free, 200 Back & 100 back, 7th 200 Free, 8th 200 IM.

13 years: Boys: Andrew Sixsmith Ist places - 100 &200 Breaststroke, 400 &1500 Freestyle, 200 &400 IM, also 100m & 200m breaststroke breaking 2 championship records, 2nd - 100 &200 Freestyle. Andrew Top Boy in Age group category championship.

Girls: Sam Cook - 1st 200 Free, 800 Free, 200 Breast & 400 Free, 2nd 200 Im, 3rd 100 Breast, 6th 100 Free & 100 IM, Sam runner-up in Age group category championship.

14 year: Boys: Matthew Curry 2nd 400 IM, 5th 100 Im,100 Back & 200 Back, 6th 200 Fly, 7th 100 Fly, 400 Free, 200 Free & 200 IM, 8th 100 free, Ben Gibson 7th 200 Fly & 200 Breast; Matthew Grime - 8th 200 Fly.

The cream of the crop was 13-year-old Andrew Sixsmith who was never off the medal podium in any of his events bringing home eight medals in total. Whilst swimming his 100 & 200 Breast he broke the championships records for his age group and consequently went on to take the prize for Top boy in the age group as well. The girls were not close behind him with both Ashleigh Forster and Sam Cook being runners up in the age groups, both winning 4 gold medals. Ashleigh went on to win a further 5 silver medals no doubt spurred on by the Championship records she broke in the 100 & 200 breaststroke. I n her first Northumberland& Durham Championships performed extremely well winning 2 gold medals breaking the 50 fly championship record on the way.

All the swimmers from Wear Valley produced brilliant performances and their coaches Gary Hollywood and Andrew Powell are thrilled with the personal bests produced. All this on the back of the threat of possible loss of pool time and the probable loss of qualified coaching staff due to withdrawal of funding from the Wear Valley District Council.