European powerboat champion Ben Jelf picked up a silver medal at the UIM World G15 Championships in Sweden last weekend.

The 12-year-old, from Maidstone, travelled to Osthammer as the reigning world champion but saw his crown taken by Sweden’s Morgan Jernfast, who won three of the four heats.

Jelf (pictured with his trophy) qualified 13th in difficult conditions but quickly found his form in heat one, starting from ninth and driving through the field to come home third.

When a boat flipped in heat two, the race had to be restarted and Jelf was caught in the wash of other boats. However, he recovered well and recorded a fourth-placed finish to keep himself in medal contention.

Second place in heat three was Jelf’s best result of the day but it wasn’t enough to prevent Jernfast claiming his third straight win and securing gold in the process.

The only Brit competing in a field of 20 teams, Jelf led the final heat from start to finish. With the best three results being carried forward, he added world silver to the European title he won a week earlier.

He said: “Of course I’d have liked to have won the world title again.

“We all go out there to race to win but Morgan deserved it. He raced well and was great to race against.

“The fleet was strong and my qualifying time wasn’t great because of the rough conditions, so I had lots to do to rank in the top-six, let alone take a podium place. I’m happy to have taken the silver medal.

“It’s been a long couple of weeks and we’ve travelled hundreds of miles, so to be able to take European gold and world silver home is great.”