PRUDHOE teenager Zac Allin is on course to retain his British junior title after another barnstorming performance at the British Open.

The 18-year-old was top performing U18 competitor in the K1 canoe slalom at Lee Valley Olympic White Water Centre, in London, finishing third overall which included the country’s top seniors.

He finished second last year but dropped down one place on the podium due to an incredibly high level of competition, behind World Cup silver medalist Bradley Forbes-Cryans and Huw Swetnam, who was reserve boat at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

The triumph puts Zac in a great position to keep hold of his British J18 title with just two events remaining, needing to finish higher than second placed Chris Bowers in at least one of them. The penultimate round takes place in Wales this weekend.

In addition to being ranked best performing British J18 paddler, he is second nationally at U23 level and third in the senior rankings.

Zac said: “It’s going really well and it can only get better now that I’ve moved down to East London for university, so I will have daily access to the best training facilities.

“I was third overall, and first junior, in the British Open so it went pretty well and largely to plan, even though it was one place down on last year due to a lot stiffer competition.

“In my last two races, I have been second in a nationally ranked race and then third last time out, so I am getting closer and closer to Olympic and World Cup champions.

“I’m fairly confident I can retain the junior title but, with two races left to go, you never know what can happen.

“I want to win it again and then, next year, move up to the U23 category and make the GB team at that level and then the senior team, although there is fierce competition for that squad.”

The winner of the young sportsman of the year and the recipient of the Red Hot Property Stan Calvert Scholarship at the 2015 Sport Tynedale Awards, Zac has long been regarded as a huge prospect emanating from the area.

And he has the potential to go far, especially as he will pick up tips from Britain’s K1 gold medalist at Rio, Joe Clarke, as he will be sharing a house with the star while studying sport coaching at university.

Zac, who is targeting selection at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, said: “I am sharing digs with Joe Clarke who just won gold in Rio, so it is an opportunity to see how he does things and to learn from the best.

“Every success like his brings the sport up in Britain, and there’s a lot of people coming to try it since his medal and it does a lot for our sport.”

After completing his A-levels at Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School, Zac has spent the summer training hard while living temporarily in Nottingham.

This gained him greater access to white water training and top level coaching, and he has already felt the benefit of the couple of months of hard work.