YOUNG Kent swimming star Lewis Owens leaves home this weekend with two junior national titles to his name.

Owens, 16, from Broadstairs, who heads for a two-year sports scholarship in Australia on Saturday, won gold medals at the national short course championships in Stockport, in the junior 200m freestyle, in 1min 51.98sec, and 50m butterfly, in 25.89sec.

Both times were personal bests, and the butterfly broke the Kent senior record. He added silver medals in the 100m freestyle, in 51.43, and the 50m freestyle.

Lewis will be attending a boarding school at Southport, Queensland, on Australia’s Gold Coast, and because the Australian academic year does not start until January he will be able to concentrate on specialist swimming camps for several weeks until beginning school revision in preparation for next year’s work.

The chance to train in Australia could help to fulfil Lewis’s ambitions of competing in the next Commonwealth Games and the Olympics in 2008.

Owens, who was national age group champion in the 100m freestyle at the age of 14, previously attended St George’s School, Broadstairs, and was a member of Thanet Vikings, where his parents, Malcolm and Lynette, were team managers, before joining City of Canterbury Swimming Club.

Lewis said: "I don't really know much about where I will be going, and I am a bit nervous, but it is the place that the British team have chosen as a base and the senior squad will be there with us for few weeks."