Thirteen youngsters from Boston Swimming Club travelled to Coventry to take part in the Midland Youth and Age Group Championships.

This is one of the largest and hardest regions to compete in with top swimmers from all of the major clubs across the breadth of the country competing for the top honours, writes Michael MacLeod.

In the Youth Championships, Boston had five swimmers competing.

Breaststroke specialist Sam Wright (16) reached the finals in both the 100m and 200m events.

Having qualified in second place from the heats of the 200m, Sam had to fight hard to beat off the challenge of two fellow competitors to snatch the runners-up place in the final.

In the 100m final, although producing a faster time than in the heats, Sam was edged out of a medal position when finishing in fourth place.

In a competitive 50m event, the heats saw Sam edged out of a place in the final by team-mate Patrick Ikhena (15) who set a new county and club record of 32.16 seconds.

Having qualified for the final in fifth place, Patrick could not quite reproduce his form of the heats and had to settle for fifth place overall.

Patrick continued his good form in the sprints by reaching the finals of both the 50m butterfly and freestyle where he finished in eighth place in the butterfly final.

Also competing in the 50m butterfly and setting a new club record was Ben Pogson (17) who finished in 14th place.

Having used the butterfly as a warm-up, Ben went on to qualify for all three finals of his favoured backstroke where he set new club records in all three events when finishing in second place in the 50m, third in the 100m and was just edged out in fourth place in the 200m.

Ben's time of 28.25 seconds in the 50m final was also a county record.

To finish the boys' competition, Sam finished in 22nd place in the 200m freestyle and Patrick was 26th in the 100m freestyle.

Sisters Jessica (15) and Amelia (14) Murfin had qualified for the Youth Championship and it was younger sister Amelia who fared the better when finishing in 32nd place in the 200m backstroke.

Unfortunately for Jessica, she was disqualified for her start in the 200m individual medley.

In the Midland Age group, 10-year-old George Hobbins continued his incredible run of good form this year.

Competing in nine events, he was by far the busiest of the Boston swimmers.

George reached the finals of the 200m freestyle, backstroke and individual medley.

Although finishing in a creditable fifth place in the 200m freestyle, George's disappointment was understandable as he missed out on a third place medal by just two 10ths of a second.

George then finished in sixth place in the 200m backstroke.

The freestyle became George's favoured event and produced his highest finishes of the competition when he came second in the 100m and third in the 400m.

Showing his all-round swimming ability in the 400m individual medley, George set a new county record of 6.18.27 when finishing in fourth place.

The last of George's top 10 finishes came in the 200m breaststroke where he came ninth. In his final two races, George finished 13th in the 100m breaststroke and 17th in the 100m backstroke.

Through his consistent run of top 10 finishes this enabled George to finish in fifth place overall in the Midland region 10-year-old BAGCAT awards.

Freestyle specialist Reuben Reed (13) qualified for the 200m, 400m, 800m and 1,500m events where his highest finish of ninth came in the 1,500m.

The breaststroke was the most popular stroke for the other Boston swimmers as Joseph Howe (14) just edged out team-mate Ose Ikhena when finishing in 10th place in the 100m.

This was followed by Luke Jones (12) who also claimed 10th place in the 200m.

For the girls, Rebecca Craven (12) just missed out on a personal best time when finishing in 16th place in the 200m breaststroke.

Kimberley Van-Haren finished in 11th and 12th places respectively in the 100m and 200m breaststroke and 16th in the 100m butterfly and Amber Nuttman (11) produced a solid performance when coming 31st in the 200m backstroke.