MOUNT Kelly swimmers Hollie Widdows and Blythe Kinsman were over the moon after winning medals for Great Britain at the European Junior Swimming Championships in Lithuania.

Both claimed individual bronze medals – Widdows in the 100m butterfly and Kinsman in the 50m backstroke – and they were also part of Great Britain’s gold medal winning mixed 4x100m medley relay team.

The Mount Kelly pair joined Nick Finch and Max Morgan in the final quartet as they came home in 3:49.55, with Widdows swimming the final leg.

Kinsman said: “It’s so special, I’m so happy.

“We knew we had the chance of potentially coming away with a medal but to actually do it is just crazy.

“I can’t believe it and I’m so proud of us, we all pulled through together and Hollie with the final split it was just so good.”

Kinsman clocked a blistering time of 28.29 seconds to win bronze in the 50m backstroke where less than a second split the entire field.

And there was a bronze for Widdows in the 100m butterfly. She shed tears of delight as she climbed out of the water to claim her first individual European medal. She broke the one-minute-barrier with a 59.16 second swim.

“This is just such a shock to me,” said Widdows. “A year ago, I just missed out on making the team so to be here at my first final and to medal is just a dream come true, I didn’t think it was possible.

“The past year has been a lot of hard work and I think the effort I’ve put into training really reflects how I was able to perform and just to be able to turn it around from certain events that I couldn’t do last year. So to be able to perform on the stage when it matters now is just everything to me.

“In the semi-final, in the last kind of 15 metres, I sort of had a little bit of a drop off so this time I was really fighting through those last 15 metres, trying to keep my stroke-rate high. I knew going into the race it was going to be extremely close and if I wanted a chance I’d need to fight for my life.

“I honestly didn’t think I’d done it so when I looked at the scoreboard and I had that realisation it said it all.”

There were also two medals for fellow Mount Kelly swimmer Mantas Kauspedas, who was representing Lithuania.

He won the men’s 50m backstroke in 24.68 seconds and also claimed a bronze in the 4x100m mixed medley relay.