The NE Counties senior and junior long course championships which are staged at Sheffield this weekend, also include many of the top British internationals from outside the area. This is at the request of the GB ASA who wish to use the event as phase two of the World championship team selection for Japan in July, writes ERIC WILKINSON.

Swimmers from outside the NE counties will not be eligible to win any of the championship awards. Nicola Jackson, representing Durham University Aquatics, the new composite club, is favourite for the 100m butterfly and is second seed in the 100m butterfly and 200m freestyle.

Local club members with the third fastest entry times are: Philip Wright (Durham Univ Aquatics) 50m breaststroke; Jenn Cornes (Moors Squad) 50m breaststroke; Sarah Whewell (Newcastle) 100m breaststroke.

Newcastle, winners of the 21 titles, were again the most successful club at the Northumberland and Durham relay team championships at Felling, next best with four wins was Middlesbrough.

Hummersknott defend a remarkable record at the 84th Darlington senior inter-schools gala at the Dolphin Centre on Monday (6.30pm). It has won the boys points trophy for the past 19 years and the girls and combined trophies for 20 successive years.

Sedgefield's Matthew Bowden was a member of the British Youth waterpolo team which did extremely well to qualify by the narrowest of margins for this summer's European junior championships in Germany, the first time they have qualified for seven years.

GB beat Beloruss 7-6 scoring the winner with only seven tenths of a second left, lost 15-7 to hot favourites Holland, won 6-5 against Georgia with only four tenths of a second remaining when they went ahead, drew 4-4 with Bulgaria who equalised five seconds from the end, and defeated Portugal 10-4.

Matthew, who was the team's third highest scorer with four goals, has also been awarded the L F Gordon prize at the Darlington Sixth Form College for the Outstanding Sports Achievement of the Year.

His club mate Carol Mohan, although still a junior, was given a run out last week with the GB women's waterpolo team when they won an international tournament against four teams in the Czech Republic.

Sedgefield are away to Cheltenham tomorrow in the semi-final of the ASA's mixed Under-17 waterpolo championship.

Middlesbrough is the venue tomorrow for the 25th English Schools national waterpolo championships with eight teams, none from the North-East, taking part. It starts at 8.45am with the finals at 4.15pm.