Barracudas make 30 county finals

TOM HOLLINGSWORTH dominated the Hampshire County Swimming Champ-ionships with four men's open titles, age-group gala records and an island record. Competing at the bottom of the 17-18 age group, Hollingsworth claimed his titles in the 50m (26.73 seconds) and 100m butterfly (57.35) and 50m and 200m backstroke, in which he recorded 27.64 and 2-06.68.

The 17-year-old Elizabeth College student set gala record in those events and an island one in the 100m butterfly.

He also took gold in the 400m individual medley age group race and came second in the open category.

Hollingsworth struggled towards the end of the event, with insufficient time to recover between races. He had to be content with second places in the back-to-back finals of the 100m backstroke and 200m butterfly.

He was also controversially disqualified in the 200m individual medley.

Jonathon Le Noury looked impressive in the men's 200m freestyle when, ranked second going into the final, he pulled out all the stops to finish two seconds ahead of Peter Hall of Portsmouth Northsea to claim the title and set a new island record of 1-54.12.

His success in freestyle continued when he claimed silver in both the 400m and 1,500m distance events and bronze in the 100m.

His times in the 400m of 4-03.67 and 53.61 in the 100m were both lifetime bests.

Producing a further personal best in the 50m backstroke, his time of 25.26 earned him a further bronze.

Following his success at the British age-group category events the previous week, 14-year-old Jeremy Osborne claimed three junior championship titles with his performances in the 100m freestyle, 100m individual medley and 50m butterfly.

Reaching finals in the open section he placed fourth in the men's 100m freestyle, eighth in the 200m breaststroke and seventh in the 100m individual medley.

His appointment with the Great Britain Talent Identification team prevented him from completing his programme the following day, but he will still be eligible to compete as a junior next year.

Breaststroke specialist Matthew Robert reached two finals, placing second over 50m in a time of 32.47 and third in the 100m with a time of 1-12.31 in the open section.

His time in both gave him gold medal position in the 17-18 years age-group.

In the gruelling 1,500m freestyle, an event away from which most swimmers shy, Peter Druckes produced a personal best time of 17-41.02 to claim a silver medal in the 17-18 years age group.

He also won silver in the 400m individual medley and bronze in the 200m.

Also competing in the 1,500m event, 14-year-old James Dickinson improved on his time from the Bagcats weekend to place sixth junior and 12th in the open.

Other boys to reach finals included Ian Hubert, 100m and 200m freestyle, and 100m butterfly, placing sixth, seventh and eighth overall.

Paul Adkins was fourth in the 50m, sixth in the 100m breaststroke and eighth respectively in the 50m butterfly.

Chris Adkins was sixth in the 50m breaststroke.

The final leg of the championships saw 21 Beau Sejour Barracuda members aged 14 and over reach no fewer than 30 finals in Southampton.