Sussex finished seventh in the inter-county swimming competition in Sheffield

The Sussex squad of 24 swimmers competed in the 12-13, 14-15 and 16-17 age groups against 38 other squads from all over the United Kingdom.

It was the county's best result since the competition started in 1996.

Team manager Pat Wadmore was delighted with the team's performance. She said: "It was a superb collective effort by the whole of the team. In other years we have had international stars in our line-up but we have never done this well.

"We had no star swimmers this year but everyone in the team can be proud of themselves."

The 12-13 girls medley relay team, including Brighton's Holly White and Laura West, won their race and the boys' captain David Bartlett (Littlehampton) finished second in the 100m breast stroke with a time of 1.05.93.

Elsewhere the Haywards Heath duo of Philip Durrant and Derrick Lee both excelled.

Durrant broke the one minute barrier with a personal best of 58.17sec in the 12-13 100m freestyle race.

Club colleague Lee swam the equivalent race in the higher age group in a time of 54.66sec, shaving two minutes off his previous best.

Girls: Lauren Hemsley (capt), Kirsty Hedge, Amy Kent, Claire Manton, Charlotte Potten, Holly White, Laura West, Jemma Lowe, Katie Bashford, Lorna Pelling, Nicky Abbott and Gemma Spofforth.

Boys: David Bartlett, Ross Bish, Chris Sutton, Philip Durrant, Derrick Lee, Kevin Pickard, Daniel Bland, Duncan Harvey, Ben Hutchison, Trevor Gaunt, Chris Varrell and Danny Sivers.