FOUR young Salfordians helped Lancashire to cement their status as the strongest swimming county in the country.

Luke Wood, aged 17, Anthony Moss, aged 17, Katrina Alder, aged 16, and Jaeger Turner, aged 12, all performed well at Sheffield’s Pond’s Forge Pool as Lancashire won the Inter County Championships for the sixth successive year.

And the quartet’s City of Salford Swimming Club head coach John Stout said: "Salford has a proud history of providing kids for the county team.

"Luke and Katrina are established names in the county set-up and it was great to have two newcomers in the team in Anthony and Jaeger.

"Salford’s swimmers have played a big part in Lancashire’s success in recent years and that was the case again this year. The city’s contributions have been remarkable really.

"I am very proud of, and pleased for, all four of our swimmers. And we would have had Amanda Nugent in the team too had she not had to join clubmates Jessica Twigg and Danielle Naylor on a training camp in Majorca as part of their Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence programme. She was picked in the original Lancashire squad."

Every county in England took part in the competition as well as various Welsh regions.

Lancashire finished just four points ahead of Northumberland and Durham with Anthony helping Lancashire’s mixed relay team to secure a crucial third place in what was the final event of the day.

Luke had earlier smashed his personal best times, clocking 56.71 seconds to win the 100 metres backstroke race and 52.7secs to come sixth in the 100m freestyle.

Katrina, who had the honour of being named Lancashire’s female captain, was third in the 100m backstroke in 1min 4.1secs and seventh in the 100m freestyle in 59.43secs,

Backstroke ace Jaeger gave Lancashire a lead that they never surrendered after leading off their 12 to 13-year medley relay team.

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