THE star potential of City of Canterbury swimmer Lewis Owens has earned special training with the national squad.

Owens, 14, was chosen to represent Britain's World Class Potential Squad at the Leeds Speedo Grand Prix. The squad's programme represents the cream of national age group swimmers, sharing training techniques and competition standards.

At Leeds he competed against some of the best swimmers in the country, including James Hickman, Jamie Slater and Adam Faulkner. In four individual races he achieved national qualifying times and personal bests in two and equalled his personal best times in the other two races.

The squad collected 32 personal bests between them. They then returned to Ponds Forge in Sheffield for a gruelling two-day training camp, starting at 5.30am. They received intensive training both in and out of the water and media training with TV presenter David Vine. The session was attended by John Atkinson, the World Class Potential director.

Canterbury chief coach Tony Smith has been working closely with Owens and some of the world class techniques and methods are being adopted throughout the club which will benefit all of the swimmers.