THOMAS Stokes has represented Ledbury & District Swimming Club in the top event of the year, the National Championships held at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

In 2004, Tom qualified in the 400m individual medley but following some intensive training with clear goals he was rewarded this year by qualifying in three events, the 400m IM, the 200m backstroke and the 200m IM.

His first swim of the championships was the 200m backstroke. Unfortunately not having gained the time in a long course pool meant he had to swim in an early, slower heat. Undaunted he went out strongly and was pleased to swim a new long course pb, which converts to a 1.5 second improvement on his short course time. Having being ranked 25th at entry it was a great improvement to finish 15th.

He was soon back in the water to challenge the best 12-year-olds in the country over one length butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke then freestyle, the 200m IM. Seeded 26th out of the 34 qualifiers he once again showed great form with a new pb of almost two seconds and a move up the rankings to 21st.

Two days later were the 400m IM heats, held at 7.30am. As expected this was a tough race and his concentration had to be 100 per cent on his strokes and turns to avoid disqualification.

With a qualifying time of 5.32.17 his aim was to clear the 5.30 mark. Realising he was well up after the first two lengths of butterfly he relaxed into the race and was both surprised and overjoyed to see the scoreboard displaying a new best time by over six seconds.

Better still was the announcement that he had reached the finals to be held at 6pm that evening. Quick off his block he was eager to keep with the leaders for as long as possible, on every stroke he squeezed out a little more energy and power to give him a fantastic finishing time of 5.23.62, a nine-second improvement from his entry time which placed him the 10th fastest in his age group in England.

Coach Viv Jones said: "The coaching team and the committee pass on their congratulations to Thomas. He deserves success as he has worked hard all year.

"Following a virus in February which resulted in a disastrous county championship in some of his best events, it took great determination to pick himself up again and prove his worth.

"He has set a standard which shows with the right commitment coming from a little club is not a handicap, he has represented us well and we are proud of him."