FRASER Minnican landed double bronze at the Winter National Championships in Sheffield.

The Barrow Amateur Swimming Club and Loughborough University Performance Swimming Squad ace dived in for two events in Sheffield.

He competed in the 200m and 400m individual medleys at the competition, which were used as selection trials for the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, in Australia, later this year.

Minnican produced displays that were up near his personal best times, beating anything he had produced at this time of the season in the past.

In the 400m event he posted a time of 4.20.25secs, narrowly behind Thomas Dean, of Maidenhead (4.19.55sec), and Joe Litchfield, of Sheffield (4.18.70sec), all narrowly outside the Commonwealth Games consideration time of 4.16.53sec.

It was a repeat line-up on the podium on the last day of the meet in the 200m IM.

Aagain Minnican was right close to his personal best (2.02.77sec), posting a time of 2.02.99, again behind Dean (2.01.39) and Litchfield, who took gold in 2.00.58. These times were once more just outside the consideration time of 1.59.76sec that Litchfield had achieved in the summer.

Litchfield was named among the Team England swimmers for the game, alongside elder brother Max.

Minnican's next target is selection for the Great Britain team for the European Championships, in Glasgow, in August.

He will start his preparations at the Swedish National Championships in early April.