Three of the area's top young long distance swimmers, Tara Johnson and David Proud of the Chester-le-Street club and Christopher Philpott (Peterlee) were members of a 20-strong England open water development squad which competed in Brittany, France, recently, writes ERIC WILKINSON.

Tara, 14, finished second in the girls' 14-15yrs 5.4k races and David achieved the same result in the equivalent boys event with Christopher taking fourth place.

Darlington Masters club's Mary Slater won a remarkable 11 gold medals in the women's 75 and over age group at the North-Eastern Counties Open Masters championships swum over two days at Scarborough last weekend. They were in the 50m, 100m and 200m backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle plus the 50m butterfly and 100m individual medley.

Other local winners included Robert Whittle (Newcastle Univ) who took six titles in the men's 19-24 events finishing first in the 50m and 100m backstroke, butterfly and freestyle. Martin McNulty (Middlesbrough) scored five successes in the 75 and over 50m butterfly, 50m and 100m freestyle, 100m and 200m backstroke. Four wins were recorded by Mel Blackwell (Newcastle Univ), women's 100m individual medley, 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke. Greta Foulds (Wear Valley) 60-64 100m individual medley and breaststroke, 50m and 100m freestyle, Kevin Smith (Newcastle) 35-39 100m backstroke and breastroke, 100m and 200m butterfly and Ian Young (Gateshead) 65-69 100m individual medley, 200m backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

Hat-trick winners were Colin Ovington (Gateshead) 30-34 200m freestyle, 100m and 200m backstroke and Edward Sawyer (Newcastle) 55-59 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke, while doubles were scored by Louise Roberts (Newcastle Univ) 19-24 100m and 200m freestyle, Helen Douthwaite (Thirsk) 25-29 50m and 100m breaststroke, Melinda Lutton (Gateshead) 30-34 100m and 200m butterfly, Pauline Percy (Ryedale) 35-39 100m and 200m breaststroke, Graham Smith (Newcastle) 30-34 50m and 100m butterfly, David Hills (Sunderland) 45-49) 100m individual medley and 200m freestyle, Norman Stephenson (Gateshead) 55-59 50m and 200m butterfly, Dorothy Bolton (Darlington) 65-69 100m and 200m backstroke, Brian Fleming (Sunderland) 65-69 50m and 100m backstroke and Frank Ryan (Newburn) 65-69 50m and 100m freestyle.

The Northumberland and Durham junior men's waterpolo team consisting of 13 boys under 18 years, 11 from Sedgefield and one each from Durham and Newcastle, meet Yorkshire in the preliminary round of the ASA's junior men's championship at Rotherham on Sunday.

It is over 15 years since the Twin Counties competed in this event and it is putting a very young team in the water to gain experience for the future.

The team manager is George Carpenter and the coach is Lee Cooke