TALENTED Droitwich swimmer Matt Richards came away with seven gold medals and a handful of records from the British Summer Championships in Sheffield.
Following a qualifying window between March and May, the 15-year-old qualified for all nine events but his coach decided he was only going to swim five of those as well as two relays.
At the British Summer Championships, Richards had to compete in the 16 years category due to his birthday being in December.
Richards won gold in the 50m freestyle, clocking 23.38 seconds which was just 0.11s outside the British Age Record and it was the second fastest time ever recorded by a 15-year-old.
He also took gold in the 100m freestyle with a time of 50.57s, just 0.04s off the British Age Group record and once again it was the second fastest time recorded by a 15-year-old.
His time was also quicker than the 16-year-old group age record held by Duncan Scott who recently won three golds and a silver for Team GB at the European Championships in Glasgow.
Richards then narrowly missed out on a British Age Group record by just 0.13s in the 50m butterfly after clocking 24.93s.
However, he did claim British Age Group records in the 200m freestyle (1:50.84) and the 100m butterfly (54.51s) respectively.
He then followed that up with gold medals in the 4x100m and 2x100m freestyle relays to end the event with seven gold medals and two British Age Group records.
“I was so pleased with the results in British Summer Championships,” said Richards.
“Competing against the very best swimmers in the country you can never take anything for granted.
“To take gold in everything was great and to set some new British records in the process was really exciting.”
