Olympian's alert

OLYMPIC and world medallist Jo Jackson has given Guernsey swimming starlet Kristina Neves (pictured) a ringing endorsement.

The 13-year-old Guernsey Swimming Club member underlined her potential by helping herself to an amazing seven gold medals at the National Championships in Sheffield earlier this year.

She also claimed eight golds, three silvers and a bronze at the weekend's Leeds Junior Open Meeting.

And Great Britain's Jackson, who won double silvers and a bronze at the World Championships in Rome in August, admits she is looking over her shoulder with the likes of Neves around.

'There are a lot of great young swimmers coming through at the minute and it is good that there are youngsters like Kristina coming through and wanting to take my place,' said Jackson.

'When you looked at the team in Rome I felt a bit old compared to the rest of the team, and that is really great for the sport. I saw that the team at the European Juniors did well again this year and they seem to be doing better and better each year, which is great for the sport.'

Neves was handpicked as a potential star of the future earlier this year when she was given £1,000 of funding as part of the Lloyds TSB Local Heroes initiative.

Lloyds TSB is providing £1,000 to over 270 emerging young sportspeople identified each year across Britain, in the run up to London 2012 and beyond.