LEE Dart became the toast of West Craven Swimming Club on Sunday when he became the first member to achieve a National Age-Group Championships qualifying time while training and competing exclusively at the Barnoldswick-based club,(writes Tony Simpson).

The Kelbrook youngster celebrates his 16th birthday on Tuesday and it was in that age-group that he set a new personal best time in the 50 metres backstroke while taking part in the 19th Age Group gala organised by the Radford Swimming Club.

The majority of the 1100 swimmers from 123 clubs competing at Sheffield's Olympic-standard Pond's Forge facility came from city-based organisations, which traditionally have smaller clubs like West Craven at the beginning of the conveyor belt of young talent.

Lee, however, on a rare appearance in a 50 metres pool, posted an excellent time to fly the flag for the West Craven minnows and underline what can be achieved in relatively modest surroundings with thoughtful attention to coaching and training regimes and dedicated application.

"Obviously I was delighted for Lee having been involved with his coaching since he was eight, but I was also thrilled for the club and the other members," said his father, Carl. "This proves that swimmers can progress into the national elite without the need to move to a major club and will give all our swimmers a valuable boost."

Simply competing in a 50 metres pool introduces an extra dimension to the challenge. Young Dart has posted a personal best of 29.85 secs in the 25 metre West Craven pool, but that roughly equates to a 30.4sec time in a long-course -50m pool.

At Sheffield he finished in 29.96 seconds to beat the 30.2 seconds qualifying time for the nationals at Pond's Forge at the end of July - a time which is set to restrict the qualifying entry to the top 32 based on last season's times.

Last weekend's race was for open age swimmers and Lee finished sixth overall, but all the swimmers finishing ahead of him were older.

He started competing at the age of eight, while still a pupil at Kelbrook Primary School, and has been a regular in the North Lancashire team since the age of 10. Now in his final year at West Craven High Technology college, he hopes to go on to Nelson and Colne College to follow a sports studies course.

Before then, he has an engagement in Sheffield and plenty of lengths to grind out to maintain the steady progress he has been making in recent weeks.

"He's doing a fair bit of land-work in the gym at the moment and we only have 31/2 hours pool time each week to work with," says Carl: "That means that for Lee and all our swimmers - we have around 100 altogether and 15 in the 14/16 group - we have to design training schedules that are tailored to individual needs."

The message from Sheffield confirms that Carl and fellow coach Peter Wiseman are definitely on the right lines.