CANON Slade continue to make their mark on the national schools sporting scene.

They took teams down to London and Kent, respectively, to take part in the English Schools Swimming Championships and the national cross country cup final.

By again qualifying for the finals at the Acquatic Centre in Olympic Park, London, they put themselves in the top 30 schools in the country for swimming.

Canon Slade, sponsored by Atlantic Travel, had three age groups in the final with the junior boys competing in the medley and freestyle events, the inter boys taking part in the medley, and the senior girls racing in the medley and freestyle.

The junior boys produced the best performance with a seventh place in the medley relay final.

Having swum 2mins 21.09secs in the heats, where they qualified in 10th place (the first 12 make the final), they improved their time to 2:20.73 in the final.

The junior boys' freestyle and the inter and senior girls' freestyle and medley relays saw the teams perform well but were unable to make the top 12 for the final.

However, they all swam faster than they had in the regional round when they qualified for the final.

The junior boys' team consisted of Zac Walmsley, Harry Robinson, Giles Prest-Briggs and Daniel Gregory, the inter boys' team was Gabriel Glynn, Jake Reynolds, Samuel Murphy, Thomas Gillard, Rio Holdsbrook and Joshua Aubery, and the senior girls representing Canon Slade were Lindsay Jackson, Chelsea Crabtree, Abigail Harrop, Niamh Knowles, Aleisha Hogan and Mia Erzan-Essien.

There was mixed success for the Bradshaw school when they made the long trip to Sevenoaks for the cross country cup final.

Having done well at regional level with two first places and a second, hopes were high of producing good performances at the final.

The inter girls finished a fine seventh, and the junior boys and junior girls were 24th and 25th, respectively – good results considering it was their first finals.

The step up from the regionals to the finals is a big one, and the inter girls and junior boys can take a lot of heart from finishing more than 40 points in front of any other school from their region.