FOUR students at West Somerset Community College have qualified to compete in the Bazuka National Swimming Championship finals for the second successive year.

Louise Johnson, Cheryl Phillips, Chloe Parnell and Sarah Lewis, pictured from left to right, all in year 11, are through to both the medley and freestyle finals.

They will be competing in the secondary schools' event at Crystal Palace on February 5.

Chloe, Louise and Sarah train under Colin Christmas with Minehead Tornadoes at Aquasplash while Cheryl, who lives in Lynton, trains in Barnstaple.

Last year, the girls were first reserve for the finals and swam in the freestyle event as a replacement for another team that dropped out.

They came fourth out of 16 teams, narrowly missing out on a medal.

In the qualifying heats at Millfield School in November. The team improved on its previous time by four seconds in the medley and one second in the freestyle.

Mr Christmas, West Somerset District Council's swimming development officer, said: "Swimmers rarely receive the recognition they deserve.

"Most people do not realise just what goes into producing swimming champions of this calibre and at this age.

"Dedicated training over six hours a week for the last four or five years is just one detail. A full competitive programme is another."

Sarah, Cheryl and Louise are all studying GCSE PE which includes a swimming option.

Another West Somerset Community College student, Joe Waterman, has gained a place with the South West Under 18 rugby squad, playing on the wing.

Joe, who is in year 12 at the college, plays in the school's 1st XV and Minehead Barbarians' Under 19 team.

He played for Somerset U16 schools last year and Somerset U18 clubs earlier this term - and he has scored a hat trick of tries against Devon.

Somerset U18 coach Jonathan Reed, who is also head of PE at the community college, said: "This is the highest level reached by any student from our college and we hope he will be setting standards for others to follow."