Richard Salt has begun training with Sydney Olympic hopefuls.

The 16-year-old Shiverer from Hove, who next week competes in the World Cup at Sheffield, was invited to join the Swim Portsmouth squad, which includes Common-wealth Games gold medallist Katie Sexton.

The British youth international will get individual attention from top Great Britain coaches Chris Nesbit and Nick Robinson.

Salt said: "They're strict, and know how to make you work hard, but that's what you want."

The Swim Portsmouth squad is one of a number of Regional Performance Centres set up by the government, with the aim of producing British sporting stars of the future.

Salt has two weekly sessions in Portsmouth, plus eight at Hove-based Shiverers where Ian Newell has been his long-time coach.

The youngster is excited by the extra training opportunity.

He said: "I get to do a longer session of two hours in a larger pool space, and there is more varied training and more stroke work."

Regular round trips of 100 miles to Portsmouth from Richard's Hove home are a big commitment.

"I often sleep in the car on the journey, it gets quite a lot after a day at college" he said.

His weekly 14 hours of pool training have had to be juggled with studying at Lancing College, where PE is one of his three A-Levels.

The college actively encourage his interest in swimming.

He also has the support of Dragons Health Club in Hove, who sponsor him.

"It's tough and you have your lows but the highs, like being selected for Britain, make it all worthwhile,."

In March, he will travel with the Swim Portsmouth squad to America.

As well as intensive training in California's Olympic-size Santa Clara pool, he will compete in the US National Championships in Seattle.

He said: "It will be a massive test to see whether I enjoy 10 solid days of swimming training.

"It will also be the first time I have been to America."

Salt, who specialises in front-crawl sprints, said: "My short-term goal is to progress from the British youth team to the juniors and my long term goal is the Olympics in Athens in 2004."

He represented Great Britain in last year's Youth Olympics in Denmark, where he won a B-final in his class.

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