Four swimmers from Kingsbridge Kingfishers have been called up for inclusion in Devon County training squads, the club has announced.

Sophie King, 11, who is joining the elite performance training squad, is a very talented swimmer whose natural ability is underlined by the fact that she produces times close to those of national standard swimmers whose training programmes are vastly more intensive than hers at Kingsbridge.

Joining the Devon County performance squad will be a big commitment for Sophie and may open further doors for her.

Grace Mulligan, Sam Jones and Conor Morgan have been invited to join the competitive training squad.

Grace, 12, the daughter of Kingfishers' coach Sharon Mulligan, is an accomplished breastsroke swimmer.

However, with selection to the squad being primarily based on individual medley times, her all round ability across all four strokes is not in question.

She joins up with the 06/07 competitive training squad following her initial call up to the Devon swim squad for the Crystal Palace camp last Easter.

Also on that Crystal Palace camp and called up again is Conor, 14, from Malborough. A strong butterfly and freestyle swimmer, Conor’s commitment to training complements his ability in the water.

Conor's place on the squad was cemented by a strong swim in the recent regional junior championships at Western Super Mare where he beat some accomplished national standard swimmers over the gruelling 400m IM.

Sam deservedly comes in to the county squad on merit. The 13-year-old has burst on to the local swimming scene over the last 18 months with some great performances over the shorter 50m sprints.

The Kingsbridge youngster has now developed reserves of stamina and a deeper understanding of race pacing that has enabled him to step up to the plate at the longer Olympic distances.

Performances at recent competitions have not gone unnoticed.