Witney's Luke Wilmshurst and City of Oxford's Joe Canlan-Shaw produced the highlight of the competition as the 2002 Oxon & North Bucks ASA County Championships got underway at Stantonbury.

Wilmshurst and Canlan-Shaw were neck and neck in the boys 14 and under individual medley going into the final 25 metres of the race, but the Witney youngster proved the stronger to win by just half a second.

There were some good performances from some of the county's other youngsters in the medley with victories for Huw Morgan, Connor Higginson, Matthew Cornet, John Kim and Neil Crofts.

In the ladies 800m freestyle, defending champion Victoria Reading saw off a strong challenge from her Milton Keynes teammate Laura Beechey, while Maxwell's Sarah Turner claimed the junior championship, with City of Oxford's Laura Prior finishing runner-up.

In the men's 1500m freestyle, defending champion and Great Britain junior international Tom Willdridge had to give best to Maxwell teammate Craig Gibbons, whose time of 16.17.20 was just a fraction outside the county record held by City of Oxford's Dave Denny. The latter finished in fifth place.

RESULTS

Ladies 800m freestyle: 1 V Reading (MK) 9.08.18, 2 L Beeches (MK) 9.09.49, 3 S Turner (MX) 9.33.06.

Girls 800m freestyle: 1 S Turner (Max) 9.33.06, 2 L Prior (COX) 9.40.03, 3 G Butterfield (MK) 9.44.05.

Men's 1500m freestyle: 1 C Gibbons (Max) 16.17.20, 2 T Willdridge (Max) 16.25.14, 3 P Turner (Max) 16.54.78.

Boys 1500m freestyle: 1 P Turner (Max) 16.54.78, 2 A Hilliard (Max) 18.04.13, 3 D Bull (Cox) 18.29.61.

Boys 9-year 100m individual medley: 1 H Morgan (Max) 1.30.07, 2 L Fraser (Kid) 1.33.96, 3 S Fowler (Kid) 1.37.87.

Boys 10-year 100m individual medley: 1 C Higginson (Wit) 1.33.09, 2 R McKean (Wan) 1.33.58, 3 K Woods (NPG) 1.34.97.

Boys 11-year 100m individual medley: 1 M Corbett (Cox) 1.21.85, 2 G Joyce (MK) 1.22.55, 3 J Fields (Npg) 1.24.16.

Boys 12-year 100m individual medley: 1 J Kim (Cox) 1.15.94, 2 M Sanderson (Wan) 1.16.81, 3 D Joyce (MK) 1.19.71.

Boys 13-year 100m individual medley: 1 N Crofts (Cox) 1.10.87, 2 A Deardon (Npg) 1.11.28, 3 J Simms (Cox) 1.12.87.

Boys 14-year 100m individual medley: 1 L Wilmshurst (Wit) 1.06.82, 2 J Canlan-Shaw (Cox) 1.07.32, 3 J Cooper (Wit) 1.10.81.

Key: MK - Milton Keynes, KID - Kidlington, Max - Maxwell, NPG - Newport Pagnell, COX - City of Oxford, WAN - Wantage, WIT - Witney.