BRITISH efforts in the swimming pool may have attractedsevere criticism at this year's Olympics, but teenage star Sharon Read hopes to restore national pride in Athens.

The talented 15-year-old has already competed at the highest level regionally and nationally, but finding the right place to develop her skills is proving tricky.

Without any top-class facilities available in her home county of North Yorkshire, Sharon must make the daily trip, at a cost of £300-a-month, to Middlesbrough's Neptune Pool in a bid to realise her dream of competing in the 2004 Olympics in Greece. She echoes the sentiments of Newcastle swimmer Susan Rolph, who criticised the region's sporting facilities after failing to make the grade in Sydney.

Sharon, who lives in Northallerton, said: "I have seen where Susan Rolph trains in Newcastle and it is an awful pool. The training pools in Darlington are only 20 metres as well."

Sharon had a three-year break from swimming, resuming training after moving from Ripon Grammar School to Northallerton College.

But her Olympic ambitions cannot be fulfilled in her home town, which can only offer a 20 metre pool.

She said: "It would help for me to get used to Olympic- sized pools. Northallerton's pool isn't great for training at all it's not really a training pool, it's more of a leisure pool."

Sharon came to this country four years ago from her native South Africa where, aged ten, she came second in the national championships.

She would compete in British colours at the next Olympics, but says she must look to win a scholarship abroad to continue her training