Kent swimmers have won the National County Team Championships for the first time.

They pipped Yorkshire by four points after a dramatic finish in Sheffield over the weekend.

It all came down to the final race of the championships, the mixed open 300m freestyle relay.

Eva Okaro, James Cleaver, Frederick Jones, Annie Sanders, Filip Grigoras and Madeleine Evans saw them home.

Evans swam the final leg, edging Harley James of Swim Wales East by 0.6sec.

Kent Swimming president Alan Davidson paid tribute to the new county champions.

He said: “It was a really proud moment to see the team swim out of their skins. Every swimmer performed better than expected.

“It’s taken almost 50 years of trying for Kent to finally become the top county in the country.

“Kent has so much potential and some fantastic clubs that feed into the team.

"We are national champions despite not having any full-size swimming pools (50m) in the county.”

Kent’s previous best finish was third in 2016 and 2019.

But they took the title on the back of four race wins on Sunday afternoon, along with four runners-up spots and a third place.

Okaro was among the star performers, winning the women’s 16-17 years 100m freestyle to go with two relay victories.

Her other relay success came in the 200m medley alongside Caitline Ebbage, Aaliyah Richards and Bella Cottrell.

Team manager Marie Atkinson-Brian echoed president Davidson’s sentiments.

“This has been an incredible achievement,” she told Swim England.

“I mean, the event is so early in the season, a lot of our guys have been in, like others, three or four weeks and we really weren’t expecting this today.

“Everyone in every race exceeded their expectations and our expectations of them, and literally from start to finish, we were obviously leading right the way through and we just never expected that.

“To hold that and then come through at the end in that final relay was absolutely incredible.

“This is a unique environment for swimmers and something they will remember for the rest of their lives, not just during their swimming career.”

Top five: 1st Kent 469pts; 2nd Yorkshire 465; Northumberland & Durham 420; 4th Devon 396; 5th Surrey 391.