MEDWAY'S first underwater hockey international is seeking sponsorship to take him to the World Octopush Championships in Canada in July.

Joel Swindin, 15, is the youngest member of the Great Britain under-19 squad and has been playing this competitive and unusual non-contact sport since he was nine.

The Rochester Math School student plays for the Farnham and Guildford Octopush Club and trains weekly both with the team in the swimming pool and individually in the gym.

He said: "I used to be a competitive swimmer, but wanted to play a team sport so a friend introduced me to octopush. I have been undergoing training and trials since last September and was one of the top 50 players from around the country put forward for GB trials to win a place on the 12 man team."

Swindin assistant head teacher, Tony Hanman, has nothing praise for his young sports star who also plays rugby and hockey for the school. He said: "To get to GB level in any sport is a great achievement. To get to there three or four years early like Joel is fantastic. Most of his team are 18 or 19 so it's a credit to his talent and attitude that he was selected. The school is very proud of him and we will be giving him as much support as we can."

On the problems Swindin faces, he said: "This is a minority sport so funding is hard to come by although the British Octopush Association has paid the £900 entry fee into the championships.

Swindin added: "The school trustees have also been a great help and have given me £100 for a new kit, but we have to fund the flights, accommodation and living expenses ourselves, which is why each player is seeking outside sponsorship help."

Octopush is played with a plastic coated lead weight, called a puck or a squid, and two teams use short sticks called pushers to score gulls by pushing or flicking the puck into the opposing gully (goal). Players wear a facemask, snorkels, fins, protective water-polo hats and a glove to protect the stick hand. The stick colours distinguish the teams of 10 players of which only six are in the pool at any one time, with the others subbed on and off rapidly as the game progresses.

The sport, an English invention, was first played in 1954 by members of Southsea Sub Aqua Group. At the close of the summer with evening diving curtailed the prospect of six months confined to a swimming pool was daunting and the divers deemed it essential that a competitive game should be invented to soak up the winter interlude so octopush was born.

If you wish to help Swindin you can contact his school on 01634 844008.