The Jessie Younghusband School pupil has now set his sights on striking gold at the 2012 Olympics.

Zachary (nine), of Worcester Road, Chichester set himself the challenge in aid of Red Earth Education – a charity aiming to build a teaching resource centre in Uganda to train teachers and act as a materials library for schools – after first swimming 200m in Westgate pool.

"I wanted to help out the people in Uganda who don't get to do what I can," he said.

"Swimming is my favourite sport. It's the main thing I do. I watched the swimming at the Olympics on the TV and I thought 'I want to be like them one day'. I want to swim in the London Olympics and win gold."

Zachary's parents Diane and Dean could not be prouder of his achievement and thanked his swimming instructor David Rowe for encouraging him to achieve his potential.

"It is a big achievement and we are really proud of him," Diane (44) said.

"He wanted to swim a mile and we thought because it was such a big thing to achieve when you are so little, he could do it for charity.

"David took Zac under his wing and really encouraged him to work so hard."

Zachary raised £315 for Red Earth Education after watching Watoto Children's Choir perform at his school.

The charity is part of faith-based organisation The Watoto Leadership Foundation, which aims to provide funding for holistic and sustainable projects in Africa striving to develop future leaders.

The charity was also chosen as the benefactor of the school's Year 6 charity day last term, and the school as a whole has added it to the list of charities it supports.

Pat Robinson, school charities coordinator, said: "As a school we do an awful lot of charity work and decided Red Earth Education was a suitable charity to support because it supports teacher training.

"We heard about it after the Watoto visit and when we realised it was in Uganda where the charity works, we decided we wanted to support it."



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