TALENTED swimmer Reuben Quayle is going backwards fast!

The 10-year-old from Darwen clocked the second fastest time in the country in his age group last year in the 50m backstroke and now he is targetting top spot.

The St Paul’s Hoddlesden pupil competes in the Regional Championships in Leeds over the coming two weekends and podiums, PBs and record-breaking swims will be the order of the day.

The 10-year-old briefly held the record for the quickest 50m backstroke in 2017 after clocking a rapid 34.78 seconds.

But that time was bettered by rival Jacob Mills who beat him by less than one tenth of a second.

Dad Stewart says he is determined to get it back.

“Reuben is very competitive, he doesn’t even like it if I beat him in monopoly,” said Quayle Senior. “He was quickest in the country for a short space of time last year until his time was beaten but he is determined to get it back.

“Reuben is one of the youngest in his age group and the lad who beat him will soon move up to the next age category so he will have a great chance to clock the fastest time again.”

Despite being younger than most of his rivals in his age group, Stewart believes his son can challenge for the top spots.

While the Darwen youngster is ranked number one in the North West in his favoured 50m backstroke, he will be showing off his full repertoire of swimming disciplines at the Leeds International Pool where he could compete in up to nine events.

Reuben, who trains five days a week for a total of 10 hours, is expecting to compete in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, the same distances in the backstroke, the 50m and 400m butterfly and also the 200m individual medley.

“The backstroke and individual medley are his strongest events so I think he could win or finish on the podium in a couple of those events,” added Quayle Senior. “Whatever happens, this will be another great experience for him.”

Reuben, who is also known as ‘Qualey’ has been in the pool from a young age, first at Johnson’s Swimming School in Darwen where he learnt to swim then Waterwings with Karen Boulding at Westholme before joining Blackburn Centurions.

He is now a member of Bolton Metros where he is trained by Ric Howard.

“Everyone has been superb in each and every step of his development,” said Quayle. “From Ged Johnson where we sent Reuben to learn to swim to headteacher, Christopher Dugdale at St Paul’s who is forward thinking and clearly sees the impact of sport on education.

“He allows time away from school to attend training camps and acknowledges the pupils’ outside curriculum sports through assembly each Friday

“He made radical changes to the school curriculum, brought in a lot more sport and coaching before and after school and we are proud to be associated with it, he is the key to it all as he promotes and values the additional skills it brings things that can’t be taught in the classroom.”

Reuben proved to be a standout swimmer at the Centurions and was undefeated in the Micro League which prompted a switch to Bolton Metros.

“Darren Newsham, who was his coach at Centurions always invited Reuben down to train with the squad which was a real benefit for him

“He did brilliantly in the Micro League where he was basically winning everything,” added his dad. “We got asked to join Bolton Metros to take him to the next step and he hasn’t looked back.

“Ric Howard is his current coach at Bolton Metro whose training sessions are well thought out, extremely hard and demanding and are getting great results.”

Reuben - whose twin sister Rae also swims for Bolton Metros - comes from something of a sporting pedigree as Stewart played professional Rugby League for Workington and Barrow as well as brief spells at Warrington and Hull. He then twice won Mr Britain when he took up body building when he retired.

And he believes his son has the right attributes to go to the top in a highly-competitive sport.

He said: “Reuben loves the competitive nature of sport and he is in his element when there is a bit of pressure on. We are hoping he can get on the Sport England talent programme some time in the future.

He added: “Reuben and Rae also play rugby for Bolton and both of them are very good, Rae is probably one of the best girls at the club so they both enjoy swimming and playing rugby.”

Despite his own rugby background - which included a spell at Blackburn RUFC - Stewart and his wife Rustine are happy just to be taxi drivers for the twins.

“It’s a very tough sport to be involved in with a lot of travelling and early morning training,” he said. “You have to be dedicated and determined but we are happy to be taxi drivers to help them both.”