Hat-trick of gold medals for swimmer Polley

The meeting, which is open only to swimmers of Welsh descent, ran over four days and attracted the best of the country’s competitors. Polley (pictured), who also competes for Nottinghamshire’s Nova Centurion county squad, took part in eight events and reached seven finals.

The opening day didn’t start too well, but he made the finals of both the 200m backstroke and 100m butterfly, digging deep to smash the former event, winning with a personal-best time by four seconds, and coming second in the latter.

Two more finals were reached on the second day when Polley won the 100m backstroke and finished fourth in the 200m freestyle. And he completed a hat-trick of gold medals on the third day, despite struggling to shrug off an illness. He landed the 50m backstroke in another personal-best time before coming home fifth in the 200m individual medley.

A gruelling weekend was completed when Polley took silver in the 50m butterfly but failed to make the final of the 50m freestyle.