Hereford Swimming Club enjoyed success the first of the Gloucester County Championships to be held at the new Gloucester Leisure Centre.

Swimmers from all over the county competed in the 50m sprints and, after a full day's racing, a further eight championships titles went to Hereford.

The star of the sprints was Lee O'Neil (13) who struck gold in three out of four events by winning the backstroke (32.69), breaststroke (37.16) and butterfly (31.37) in his age group. He set a new age group best time in the 50m backstroke. Lee was beaten to a clean sweep by team-mate Jon Pugh (13) who won the 13-year-old boys 50m freestyle (27.93), with Lee coming to a close second.

Another Hereford swimmer to strike gold in his 50m freestyle race was Matt Ashcroft (15). He took the title convincingly (26.39) and also gained bronze in the 50m backstroke.

Emma Rogers (15) retained her title in the 15-year-old girls 50m backstroke in 32.52. Emma was also fourth in the breaststroke and fifth in both the butterfly and freestyle events.

Charlotte Tully (12) took the county title in the 12-year-old girls 50m butterfly in a new age group best time of 33.00.

Nick Tully (16) also struck gold in the 50m butterfly for his age group in 28.96, winning his title by just two hundredths of a second. He also took bronze in the 50m breaststroke.

Amy Ballantyne (12) gained three silver medals in the 50m breaststroke, 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle. Her freestyle time of 29.99 was a highlight of her day.

Mikaela Carey (14) achieved an excellent bronze in her age group 50mbackstroke race. She was also fifth in the backstroke and seventh in the freestyle.

Pat Meggitt (14) raced an exciting 50m-butterfly race to earn the silver medal and was fourth in the freestyle.

Alex Macdougall (13) was just beaten into second place by Lee in the 13-year-old boys 50m backstroke.

Also swimming in this age group was Charlie Loughman (13) who was fourth in both the 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle.

Joshua Haines (14) earned four county finalist medals and was fourth in both his breaststroke and backstroke events, and seventh in the butterfly and freestyle.

Adam Preece (17) was fourth in his butterfly event and fifth in the backstroke event.

l A new event for Hereford swimmers at Gloucester was the 800m freestyle for the 10/11-year-olds.

This was recently held at the pool in Gloucester and Hereford claimed two silver medals and just missed a bronze. All three swimmers achieved personal best times.

For the girls Jessica Rogers was second in 11.12.89 and Zoe Whitlock (11) fourth in 11.31.65. For the boys Oliver Bufton was second in 11.55.53.