SWIMMING: NATIONAL swimming champion Peter Hall nearly missed out on his gold medal glory - as he had to win his final race twice.

The 14-year-old from Chester was comfortably ahead in the under 14s 1500 race at Sheffield during the Age Group Championships when he stopped with four of the 30 lengths still to go.

Peter, who swims for the City of Chester club, thought he had heard a whistle which marked two lengths left when in fact there were six to go, and was then left with a neck-and-neck race to the real finish, taking the top spot by a touch in a new British record of 16mins 3.99secs.

He said: "It was a close race in the end, but I was well in control until I thought I had heard the whistle signal to mark two lengths left.

"I started sprinting to what I thought was the finish and was about five seconds clear when I stopped.

"By the time I realised what was going on, the next lad was level with me and we had to sprint the last four lengths."

He added: "It was like a nightmare really, because I thought I had finished and was tired, but I managed to hold on for the gold and the record by three-tenths of a second."

Peter, who attends Queen's Park high school in Chester, has been swimming competitively for five years and specialises in the endurance events.

To prepare for the immense strain of the long-distance trials in the pool, he trains eight times a week under the guidance of coach Stuart Clamp.

"You have to totally commit to it really because of the distances involved," Peter said, "so there is really just school and swimming for me.

"I am quite good at the longer races compared to sprinting where some of the guys are a bit bigger than me.

"In the 1500 metres, it is more about stamina and holding your technique together so when I train I may do sets like 30 100metres in a certain time, or swimming eight lengths as fast as I can to improve my endurance speed."

As well as honing his physical abilities, Peter needs to stay mentally focused, phantom whistle-blowers or not.

"It is a hard race, but you tend not to notice the pain because you're thinking about the pace you are trying to hit and beating the other guys," he explained.

"It is about swimming at the fastest speed you can hold on to for as long as you can, so your mind doesn't wander away from what you are doing."

Peter's dedication paid off with a bronze medal in the 400m crawl, while he also competed in the 100m crawl, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley and 200m crawl.

With his performance in Sheffield, he is now hoping to gain a place on the World Class potential programme having beaten the qualifying time by more than 15 seconds.

Peter, whose swimming icons are Australians Ian Thorpe and Grant Hackett, said: "I will be back in the pool tomorrow training for the national youth championships and the British long course meeting.

"My long term plan is to break the British junior record and get onto the British youth team.

"That stands at 15mins 53secs which is quite a way away from where I am now.

"However my PB has come down by 30 seconds this season and I have about two years to achieve my aim."