LAURA Wood reached a final of the national long-course swimming championships at Crystal Palace.

The 17-year-old, who is building up to next year's Commonwealth Games at Manchester, lost three months of preparation early this year through a knee injury.

The BCOT leaver was fifth fastest in last Thursday's 200 metres breaststroke heats, coming home in 2mins 42.51sec.

In the afternoon final, she swam 2:40.37 for a national fifth place.

That performance earned her a silver medal as the second fastest swimmer in the 17 to 18 age group.

"That was a good performance," said Laura's father Steve Wood. "Her coach Steve Paton was pleased because she came back very strongly. That shows she's improving."

In Friday's 50m breaststroke, Laura was 23rd fastest in the heats but her 36.25sec time was not good enough for a semi-final place.

The 100m breaststroke on Saturday saw Laura swim 12th fastest in the heats, coming home in 1:16.68 to qualify for a semi-final later the same day.

The Basingstoke swimming club member then dropped a place to finish 13th overall in 1:16.46.

The championships finished on Sunday with Laura claiming 14th place in the 400m individual medley with the best breaststroke leg of the event.

Next stop for the Chineham-based swimmer is the British short-course championships at Norwich in a fortnight.

Another Basingstoke swimmer in action at Crystal Palace was Jenny Clayton who tackled two butterfly events.

The 18-year-old Reading club member, who lives in Lychpit, was outside her best time when she clocked 1:7.87 in the 100m to finish 30th overall.