Richmond swimmer Joanne Jackson won a superb four gold medals in the national age group championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

Her impressive performance made up for the disappointment of missing the European Championships through illness.

Joanne (pictured left) finished first in her heat of the 200m butterfly with a time of 2:19.21, which she improved to 2:18.38 to win the final.

Her longest event, the 800m freestyle, was a heat declared race and Joanne finished with the fastest time in her age group, 8:55.89, for her second gold medal.

The next day, she swam a personal best of 4:24.48 in her heat of the 400m freestyle, but was the only the second fastest qualifier for the final. Undaunted, she improved her personal best still further and broke the competition record to win the final in 4:18.57.

Joanne then finished seventh in the final of the 100m butterfly, before qualifying third in her heat of the 200m freestyle in a personal best 2:07.96. After a close final, she won her fourth gold in a new competition record of 2:03.73, improving her personal best by more than four seconds.

Richmond Dales ASC club-mate Janine Phillips, 12, swam a personal best of 3:01.77 in the 200m breaststroke, her first national championships appearance.

Calum Clarke did well to achieve times to swim in four events and produced two personal bests, in the 100m freestyle and 400m freestyle.

Anthony Burke, 13, was also swimming in the nationals for the first time and produced a personal best in the 100m breaststroke to finish 23rd in a field of 160