GOLD medal winner James Wilby has made a hero’s return home this evening to the York swimming pool where it all began.

Scores of young members of York City Baths Club cheered as he visited Yearsley Pool, where he started preparing for competitive swimming 14 years ago.

James, of Strensall, brought with him the gold medal he recently won in the 200 metres breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games in Australia - along with the silver he won in the 100 metres race and the bronze he achieved in the 50 metres.

The former Ralph Buttefield Primary School and Huntington School pupil told the youngsters how he used to train just like them for nine years, from when he joined at ten to when he left York to go to university when he was 19.

He told The Press: “It’s great to come back - I mean I have a lot of good memories here.

“I started my real competitive swimming when I was in my teens here. There’s a lot of friends that I made here and it was a really good springboard going on into my senior competitive career when I moved on to Loughborough (University).

“It definitely makes me smile coming back here. I don’t actually know many of the kids here but I know what it’s like to be in their position - they are in a similar position to what I was in ten years ago.

“It’s nice for them to see that working hard and training, even in this pool, can pay off and move you on to where I am now.”

He praised his friends and family, particularly his mother Fiona, for standing by him and believing in him through some difficult times.

He also had praise for two coaches at Yearsley who helped him on his way to becoming a competitive swimmer, Dawn Martland and James Richards.

Fiona told how she used to watch James from the Yearsley poolside as a youngster and revealed how he had had to recover from setbacks, including glandular fever in 2016, to reach his goals.

Anna Nicholson, regional squad coach for the club, said his achievements and visit to the pool had been ‘inspirational’ for its young members. “It’s an absolutely massive boost for them,” she said.