Nathalie Brown warmed up for Sunday's European Short Course championships in style at the national championships in Sheffield.

The teenage Borough of Southend swimmer, who represents Great Britain in Valencia this weekend, needed a good workout to sharpen up for her main event, the 400m individual medley.

And she got that by setting numerous personal bests - a pleasing result for both the swimmer and her coach, Mike Higgs.

Nathalie opened with races in the 200m butterfly and 100m IM before finishing sixth in the final of the 800m freestyle in 8m 45 secs.

The very next day she narrowly missed out on the 400m freestyle final, but a new pb of 4:17 made up for her disappointment.

Nathalie then broke her personal mark for the 400m IM twice - swimming a time of 4:50:5 in the heats before finishing fifth in the final in a new time of 4:47:6.

Among other Borough swimmers at the event, Philippa Davies continued to show off her improvement by placing ninth in the final of the senior 800m freestyle.

Her time of 8:53:5 was a further three seconds off her personal best, set last month at the British Grand Prix in Swansea.

Her reward was the British Junior championship silver medal - her first ever prize at a national championships. She also swam well in 400 free, 200 free and 400IM.

Elizabeth McKinnon, whose training is affected by full-time employment, swam as well as could be expected.

Southend claim swim title

Southend Swimming Club are celebrating after being crowned champions of the Essex Mini-League for the year 2000.

The club, based at Warriors Square, accumulated the most points when all the scores from the galas for 10-13 year-olds this season were added up.

Points are scored depending on the team's finish in a six-team gala.

It is the first time the club has won the award since 1996 - the year when they won it for the second season in a row.

Committee member Helen Lawton stressed that it was a team effort which had done the trick.

"We've got a lot of youngsters coming through now and they all played a part," she said.

Champions of Essex - the Southend Swimming Club members who were crowned as winners of the Essex Mini-League galas for the 2000 season.

Picture: STEVEO'CONNELL

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