SEVERNSIDE Tritons returned to Gloucester Leisure Centre on the weekend of February 11 and 12 for sessions seven to ten of the Gloucestershire County Championships.

Zac Cooper's successful campaign continued with gold in the 200m backstroke on the Saturday and he completed a hat trick of backstroke golds by winning the 50m event on Sunday.

Inbetween these, he set a new county championship record for ten year olds in winning bronze in the 100m butterfly.

Also joining him on the top of the podium were Alice Hayward and Jake Garett who won their first county gold medals in the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle respectively.

Lauren Shaw also picked up her first county medal with silver in the 50m breaststroke.

Natalie Walsh picked up a 16 and over age group Silver in the 200m butterfly in a club record time, earning her a place in the final where she added the championship bronze.

Caitlin Lynam also reached the final, and both were joined by Jess Part - a notable achievement given that she swims in the 14 year old category. Matt Liddle earned himself a place in the championship final in the boys 200m butterfly, with a great swim in the heats.

In some closely fought racing over the weekend Delphi Evans, Caitlin Lynam, Jess Part, Rachel Shutt, Zoe Walsh, Ethan Courts and Ben Platt won a further 15 medals between them.

The weekend also gave a first taste of county swimming to Bethany Clarke, Otis Palmer and Noah De N’Yeurt, with each recording personal best times.

A special mention is also reserved for Jess Telford who is back to form after a long layoff from swimming, with a number of personal bests, and attributed to the great effort she has been putting in at training.

Away from county action, a large team of younger and less experienced swimmers took a trip to Cardiff over the last weekend to compete in a long course gala in the 50 metre international pool.

For many this will have been the first time that they have swum over the longer distance.

With some fantastic swimming by the whole team, personal best records tumbled and number of medals were won. Several swimmers were awarded 'speeding tickets' when they had finished in a time faster than a set cut off time - testament to many achieving considerable personal bests.

Tritons swimmers have another busy couple of weeks ahead of them. This Saturday sees the culmination of the individual events at the counties and on the Sunday there are two sessions of relay swimming in the Gloucester County team championships, in which Tritons have A and B teams for most age groups in both the male and female categories.

On March 3, two teams of six swimmers will also be taking part in the annual Thornbury Rotary Swimarathon in support of the St Peters Hospice and Incredible Kids charities.