Rapley's win double

SWIMMING

Alan Rapley completed a praiseworthy double at the Thistle Hotels Multi Nation meet in Leeds last night.

Rapley, 24, from Sheffield, beat his rivals in both the 50m freestyle and backstroke.

In the freestyle he defeated the Loughborough University student, Nick Williams, clocking 24.15sec to win by 0.63sec and then in the backstroke was even more convincing as he won with 1.03sec to spare over the Commonwealth 200m medley bronze medallist, Fraser Walker, winning in 27.47sec.

Kathy Osher, of Ealing, Britain's top backstroke swimmer for the last decade, came out on top in a clash with Portsmouth's Emma Tattam in the 100m backstroke.

Tattam beat Osher in December's National Winter Championships and broke the short-course British record at the distance, but 25-year-old Osher gained revenge in 1min 5.57sec, with 0.31sec to spare.