JOE Evans, a member of Stratford Sharks, has attended the first of two weekend courses being held by Greater Warwickshire Sport desig-ned to help develop the next generation of competitive swimmers.

The weekend, under the leadership of Mark Rose, head coach of Derby-shire's high performance squad Derventio Excel, and coach to Britain's World Class Age Group Programme, was hard work consisting of three hours in the pool and two hours land work each day.

The 12-year-old from Bretforton was selected following his performances at the Coventry and District Champion-ships in which he returned home with two gold and one silver medal.

The Blackminster Middle School pupil has recently added to his ever increasing trophy tally by picking up a gold, silver, two bronze and a fourth place medal at Rugby's Peri Sprints.

He also made the long journey to the International Swimming Centre at Ponds Forge to compete in the prestigious Gateshead and Whickham Open. The meeting in Sheffield attracted a number of Britain's elite swimmers preparing for the Com-monwealth Games.

Against quality opposition from all over the country, Evans swam strongly to get a clean sweep of personal bests in six events and was delighted to bring home two bronze medals and one club record, with the added bonus of all his swims being ranked in the West Midlands top ten.