Hartlepool's European junior medallist Chris Alderton staked his claim for senior international selection with a silver-winning display at the Commonwealth Games trials in Sheffield last night.
Alderton, 18, who won a 1500m freestyle bronze in last month's European junior championships, finished second over the same distance at Ponds Forge behind world and Olympic medallist David Davies.
His time of 15min 22.05sec was a personal best by five seconds and brought him within five seconds of England's C qualifying time for Melbourne in March.
It also put him in contention for the European short course championships in Italy in December.
Chris Nesbit, who has been coaching Alderton at Britain's offshore training base in Australia, said: "Chris has had a good summer. He isn't a David Davies but he certainly has the tenacity and work ethic for this event.
"I think he can go considerably faster and, with Davies being Welsh, I am hopeful he can qualify for the Commonwealth Games as the fastest Englishman."
City of Newcastle's Chris Cook meanwhile eased into tonight's 50m breaststroke final in 28.11, just 0.02sec behind former world champion James Gibson, whom he beat comfortably in the 100m final 24 hours earlier.
Cook said: "I thought I had touched ahead of Gibbo but it was another spongy finish. But it's the final that counts and the plan is to win."
With qualification for the 100m already under his belt, Cook needs only to finish in the first two today in 28.06 or quicker to guarantee an appearance in the 50m in Melbourne.
He hopes to add the 200m breaststroke to his programme at the last chance meet in December.
In the youth championships, Newcastle's James Johnson, 16, went from slowest qualifier in the 200m individual medley last year to champion this year - and set a British age group record of 2:06.93.
Medley and butterfly swimmer Darren Wigg, 25, swam his last event for Newcastle after a career which included a European junior medal, British junior records and 10th in the 1999 world short course championships.
