WYCOMBE District Swimming Club enhanced their growing reputation with more medals at the South East Regional Championships than they have managed in the last eight years put together.

The club sent 25 swimmers to the K2 pool in Crawley, with 17-year-old British Championship Junior finalist Luke Thomas spearheading the campaign with a gold in the open 1,500m freestyle and a silver in the 400 medley.

Thomas also swum a huge personal best in the 200m butterfly to earn a fourth national qualifying time.

Daniel Manners, 18, helped to make it a first and third in the open category, with a 16-second personal best earning a bronze in the 1,500m freestyle.

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Fiona Shaw led the way for the girls with gold and bronze in the open 800m and 400m freestyle respectively.

Coming up behind her in the age groups, 14-year-old Sophie Millen won gold and silver at her first regionals.

She won the 800m freestyle after finishing second in the 400m the previous day, earning national qualifying times in both while also qualifying for the open water event.

Elsewhere, Liam Jones won the 50m backstroke to book a place at the nationals Wycombe have also qualified for two relays with Jones, Thomas, Connor Lewis and Matt Penning-Lambert qualifying in the 4x100 and 4x200 medleys.

Other swimmers reaching the top eight in their age groups were Rachel Cox, James Baxter, Ethan Cater, Natasha, Garry, George Longhurst, Connor Lewis, Issy Baxter and Kate Lees.

Head Coach Kevin Brooks said: “It was a great Youth Regional Championships for Wycombe District Swimming Club with many personal bests, new national qualification times and more medals earned than the whole of the last eight years put together.

“The children deserved these wins, improvements and medals – they’ve worked so hard and have embraced the culture change at the club since I arrived in 2012.

“The future looks very bright as we build towards our new pool.”