Round One of the Speedo League showed Reading Swimming Club’s sprinters in good early season form, and the latest stage of the Evening Post-sponsored club’s annual championships saw boys from both A and B teams also excelling in the sport’s longest event.

Head coach Graeme Thomas is bringing on two of the south’s top young distance swimmers in Garry Dixon (14) and Russel Korting (15). Dixon was fourth British swimmer (and fastest with a 1990 birth date) at the summer’s national championships, and won the 2004 Southern Counties 1500 gold with Korting third. Korting, meanwhile, placed third over 400 metres at Southern Counties to Dixon’s fourth.

The pair, in different age groups at this point of the season, swam a great final heat in the evening session at Central Pool. Korting was quickest overall this time and Dixon broke an excellent meet record set by Craig Woodward, the club’s top male distance swimmer of recent years.

Korting set out as usual to lead from the start, but has sometimes lost ground around the 1200-metre point. Dixon tracked him as always, but a beautifully paced swim this time saw Korting hold a comfortable lead in the later stages and he stopped the clock in 16:41.47 – missing Woodward’s year 2000 record by just a second.

Dixon’s 16:44.97 not only won his year and beat Woodward’s 1999 record by over 11 seconds, but was also well inside the national qualifying time for his year published this week. Repeating it at a "licensed meet" well before next summer looks a formality.

With the season only a few weeks old, Korting’s time is already within striking distance of the even tougher 16s "NQT" he needs, and Holly Tanner and Louisa Downs were well inside their 800 freestyle mark the previous week.

Craig Frankum, runner-up in the 14s, and 13s winner Alex Macarthur swam a similar heat to Korting and Dixon, pushing each other to fast times and with the older boy in charge towards the end. Frankum cut a 21-minute previous best to 17:56.69 and Macarthur’s 18:16.38 was well over four minutes inside his PB.

Sam Flory placed second in the 13s group and Mark Chevassut third, with Harry Marsh fourth, Ewan Wise fifth and Markus Orgill sixth. Breaststroke specialist York Kloeppel won the 14s bronze behind Dixon and Frankum, with Peter Kirwan, Ollie Burgoyne and Matt Zadrozny fourth to sixth.

The minor medals in the 15s age group went to Kristian Statham – eight hundredths inside the 19-minute barrier – and Lewis Ross, with the biggest PB of the night among older swimmers as he took almost five minutes off his entry time in recording 20:05.86 in a well-paced swim in an outside lane. Daniel Jackson placed fourth.

Daniel John, better known as a butterfly swimmer, took the 16 and above category from Bruno Bamberger, Masters swimmer Dave Stannard and club captain David Thomas, but with Darren Noakes in fifth the only one beating his entry time – his 20:08.87 some two minutes 40 seconds inside his previous 1500 best.

At the youngest end of the programme, David Mills was the sole 10-and-under entrant – just beating his target of 30 minutes - and Chris Boyce (21:32.51), Callum Willcox and James Tichband took the 11 years medals, with Matteo Spanu fourth and Jason Passmore fifth.

Adam Barrett in 20:09.62 was the faster of two 12-year-olds, the silver going to Charles Davey also in a substantial PB.

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