Mark Harrington won two junior bronze medals at the British Short Course Championships.

The Sussex squad ace, who was up against several of Britain's Athens Olympians, was third in the 50m and 200m backstroke at Manchester.

His time over the longer distance was 2min.07.61sec, a personal best.

Harrington, 16, from Crawley was also fifth in the 200m freestyle and seventh in the 100m backstroke.

He swam against David Davies, who won 1,500m freestyle bronze in Athens, when the senior and junior events combined.

Harrington said: "Coming up against against Olympic swimmers gave me an extra edge and made me go that bit faster.

"Just being there was motivation for me. But collecting two national medals made it unforgettable.

"The Athens swimmers were paraded to the crowd which made it a great occasion."

It has been a wonderful few weeks for Harrington, who is a pupil at St Wilfred's School in Crawley.

He helped Crawley win the 4x100m freestyle National Youth Championship relay gold and returned from the World Catholic Schools Games in Malta with four gold medals.

Twins Ben and Chris Hutchinson, who combined with Harrington and Derrick Lee to win Youth Championship relay gold, competed in the senior events at Manchester.

Ben, 17, reached the semi-finals of the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke, clocking a personal best 27.2sec in the second event.

Chris made the semi-finals of the 50m backstroke.

Ben said: "It was very hard, especially with all the Olympians there. I was also up against former world record holder Mark Foster in the 50m butterfly and 50m backstroke.

"It gave me a good idea of the standard if I am going to achieve my dream of swimming at the Olympics."

Crawley club coach Tim Hutchings said: "Mark has done extremely well. Those two bronzes are a significant step for him.

"Ben and Chris performed well at senior level. Overall, Crawley swimmers have made it the best year for the club in years.

"We've had 18 national finalists in age group, youth and short course events.

"It is because the swimmers worked harder than they've ever done."