A NINE-Year-old North-East boy has spoken of his pride at becoming the British rock climbing champion for his age group.

Now, Tom Middlemas has his sights set on winning a place in the British team.

The youngster has been rock climbing for five years and trains with Rock Antics at Newton Aycliffe, near Darlington.

He won the title at Saturday's championships in Sunderland, which saw the winners from ten regional heats compete for the national titles.

Tom said yesterday: "I felt good about it, I felt like all the hard work had gone into this one big thing. It's fun, rock climbing is a good sport, you can do your own thing up there."

Tom gained the highest score possible from his eight climbs in the seven to nine-year-old age group.

"I'm training hard and hopefully one day I will be in the British team," he said.

The youngster from Merrybent, near Darlington, attends Cockerton Primary School in the town.

He said that although he does much of his climbing on walls in leisure centres, he has also done some training in France and he prefers climbing outside, at places such as Mallham Cove, in North Yorkshire.

Other success in the competition came from Adam Watson, 15, of Newcastle, who came third in his senior boys' group. He hopes this will stand him in good stead to be selected for the British Youth Climbing Team.