York City Baths Club whizz-kid Robin Francis has returned from the Junior Six Nations Meet in Germany with a stack of medals.

Swimming for Great Britain in the under-18s, Francis clocked six personal long-course bests, including two in relays, when picking up an amazing haul of two golds, three silvers and one bronze.

His superb performances will almost certainly earn him a place in the Great Britain team for the European Junior Championships, to be held in Dunkirk in July.

The Six Nations tournament, held in Grunstadt, saw the British squad compete with teams from Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Sweden.

Britain headed the table at the end, thanks in no small terms to Francis's efforts.

The York youngster swam to 200m freestyle gold in a personal best time of 1.55.03, and took silver in both the 100m freestyle and 200m individual medley, in respective personal best times of 52.70 and 2:08.85.

As the lead-off man in the British 4x200m freestyle team, he set another personal best of 1:53.99 on Britain's way to silver, and anchored the 4x100m freestyle team to gold in a personal relay best of 51.35.

Finally he completed the freestyle leg of the 4x100m medley relay, securing a bronze and another outstanding personal time of 51.51.

Francis's training programme ahead of the European Junior Championships and Olympic trials looks set to suffer come the controversial departure of YCBC coach Paddy Garrett at the end of May.

Francis, along with Olympic veteran Caroline Foot and a number of other top swimmers at YCBC, is coached by Garratt, who is fighting the club's decision to terminate his contract.

As reported in yesterday's Evening Press, Foot has withdrawn from the British team competing in the European Championships in Helsinki, Finland, in July.

YCBC's Jenny Hoggard has won the club's annual coaches award, sponsored by Speedo Europe Ltd.

Despite being forced out of the water by a neck problem, which required hospitalisation and surgery, Hoggard missed as few water and weight training sessions as possible.

The 19 Tadcaster Swim Squad competitors who took part in the first of the year's Grand Prix meets at Harrogate Hydro pool won 43 medals and set 113 personal best times in 125 swims.

James Webster's time of 2min 57.58sec in the 11 year age group 200 metres freestyle earned him a speeding medal for exceeding the entry time.

In the same group, Chloe Pugh achieved best times in the 200m backstroke and freestyle and Clare Pugh set a personal best in the long distance freestyle.

There were speeding medals for Claire Passmore in the 13 year 200m breaststroke (3min 09.46sec), Stef Poynter in the 200m freestyle (2-21.77) and Amy Costello, who took 10 seconds off her previous best time in winning the 15 year 200m breaststroke in 3-00.36.

Andrew Withers gained two of the five gold medals won by Tadcaster swimmers. He won the 14 years and over 200m butterfly and 200m freestyle. In the latter he pipped his team colleague Peter Webster. Tom Davies of Tadcaster squad was sixth.

Webster won the 50m backstroke and finished the meet with six medals to his credit.

Natalie Saunders won six medals, including gold in the 50m freestyle and bronze in the 50m butterfly. Claire Passmore won the 100m breaststroke.

There were silver and bronze medals for Charlotte Black and Stef Poynter, and silver for Amy Costello and Stuart Prior, who collected seven awards from his 11 events. There were medals and personal best times for Anna Horwell and Tom Davies.

In addition to the medallists there were excellent personal best times for Rachel Poynter, Amy Davies, Luisa Horwell, Samantha Poulter and Carl Scott-Johnson.

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