Bicester Blue Fins’ Kieran Bird was crowned the 1,500m Freestyle junior champion as the British Gas ASA Oxfordshire & North Buckinghamshire championships got underway.

There are no age group winners in the event, but 15-year-old Bird swam a tactically brilliant race to become champion of all ages, 16 and under, in 16mins 15.10secs, to finish second overall.

Teammate Tom Thornley, also 15, finished fourth overall and third in the junior competition.

Ellie Falkner, 15, claimed a bronze medal in the 800m freestyle, touching home in 9.23.55 to finish runner-up in the junior competition.

Oliver Inness, William Whitley, Freddie Ashley-Sparks and Ben Inness struck gold in the 13 to14-year-old 4x50m medley relay race by 2.5 seconds from a strong City of Oxford team and also won silver in the freestyle relay.

The results put Blue Fins second place in the competition.

It takes place over four weekends at the Bletchley and Aylesbury pools.

The first set of relays and long-distance events at the weekend.

“This was a great start to our county championships campaign,” said head coach Struan McNeil.

“It’s a sign of how much the club is moving forward that we’ve had a 15 per cent increase in the number of accepted entries into this year’s events, and to end the first weekend lying in second place in the points overall is very positive.

“We’re definitely punching above our weight against the big city squad opposition. We’re targeting more medals than ever before over the next month”.

The championships resume next weekend at Aylesbury’s Aqua Vale pool with the middle distance individual events and girls relays.