Poole’s Dan Speers found there was gold in them there Welsh hills after making a lone foray across the border.
The 14-year-old was in a class of his own as he won the 14yrs 100m freestyle at the Exeter City Open Meet in Cardiff’s 50m pool.
His long course time of 55.24 put clear water between himself and all 32 of his rivals.
Nearest challenger Marcus Baker of Millfield was 2.24sec adrift.
Speers’s time would also have won the 15yrs age group at Cardiff and ranks him sixth among Britain’s 14-year-old freestylers.
It was, however, 0.78sec outside the time needed for him to swim the event at the Olympic Games trials.
Speers, who is ranked first among Britain’s 14-year-old 200m breaststrokers and has already qualified to swim that event in the Olympic pool in March, has two more chances to add the freestyle to his trials programme, starting in this weekend’s ASA Zonal Meet at Millfield.
His PB is 54.8 from last month’s Arena League West final, also at Millfield.
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