It was a busy Easter for Haslemere swimmers, with squad members representing the club in meets at Manchester, Portsmouth and Waterlooville.

Owen Morgan and Chloe Winter competed in the National Long Course Championships in the new Commonwealth Pool in Manchester. Both put in excellent performances against household names from the Sydney Olympics.

Morgan once again broke the Welsh 50m backstroke record with a time of 27.40secs, finishing sixth overall and enhancing his chances of selection for the next Commonwealth Games.

For Chloe Winter, still only a 13-year-old, it was a huge success in the 50m butterfly which brightened up her week. She made the final of the ladies' event with a 1.2sec personal best, an immense margin at this level. It was also the first of hopefully many television appearances for her and she performed admirably under the pressure with a sixth place and a time of 28.72.

Many of the national squad were at the Portsmouth Easter Festival, a traditionally strong event attended by clubs from all over the country.

The high level of competition spurred Helen Meckiffe, Steve Wheller, Jennie Clarke and Tomas White on to some great times. Helen achieved a meet record in the 200m breaststroke, her specialist stroke, while Wheller, again in the breaststroke, took chunks off his PBs – 4secs in the 100m and 6secs in the 200m.

The outstanding swim of the weekend came from Thomas White in the 200m backstroke. Having achieved a national qualifying time earlier this year, only to have the disappointment of the ASA altering the NQTs and refusing his entry, he increased his training programme and pulled out a superb time to once again qualify for the summer championships at Sheffield.

Haslemere's younger swimmers travelled to Havant & Waterlooville. There were numerous personal bests at this event, but the morning accolades were taken by Emily Bottle, winning silver and bronze in the 50m 'fly and backstroke respectively, and Alex Mulvin, who qualified for the final from the lower heats of the 50m breaststroke and then powered through the field to win the bronze from lane 1.