Clutch of new medals for Delting’s Okroj

A young swimmer has returned from a mainland competition with a record number of new medals.

Delting Dolphins swimmer Julian Okroj attended the Scottish National Age Groups (Snags) competition in Aberdeen, where the 14-year-old bagged seven medals from eight races.

Organisers say that is the highest number of medals ever won at a national age group competition by a Shetland swimmer.

Okroj came home as the Scottish national champion in his age-group for both the 100m and 200m backstroke, and broke the Shetland age-14 100m backstroke record in the process.

Okroj even set a new personal best time in the heats for the 100m event to be seeded first in the evening’s final.

On day two Okroj claimed silver in the 400m freestyle final.

And on the third day of the event, he took his second gold – this time in the 200m backstroke.

Okraj also swam in the straight-to-final 1,500m freestyle, where a nine second PB saw him take home bronze.

On the penultimate day of the competition he swam in the 200m freestyle heats to make it safely through to the evening’s final, where a new PB bagged him another bronze.

He found time to swim in another race, too – this time the 400m individual medley, earning another silver medal.

And on the last day of the competition he secured his third silver of the competition, this time in the 200m IM.

Okroj also swam in the 800m freestyle in the morning session to finish in fourth place.

Organiser Sandra Smith said: “This has been an incredible week of swimming from Julian who only recently turned 14.

“He has come home with two gold medals, three silver medals and two bronze medals from different stokes and distances ranging from 100m to 1,500m, showing what a versatile swimmer he is.”

• A full report of the Snags event will be included in Friday’s Shetland Times.