Young gun Henley Flood has returned from the Catholic School State Swimming competition with another gold and a personal best time in the 50 metre nine-year- old boys’ sprint.

Competing at Homebush, the St Lawrence’s student handed in a classy performance, beating his nearest rival by a head and clocking up a time of 36.28.

It sets the youngster up for an interesting clash back in Sydney next Monday, when he will take on students from the NSW Primary School SportsAssociation (PSSA), which will see him up against the best in the state, from both Catholic and public schools.

Henley’s dad and swimming coach, Adam Flood, said he believes his son still has improvement left in him.

“I think there’s definitely an opportunity there where he can shave some more time off his personal best,” Adam said.

“He can improve his dive and streamline his underwater pull, while his underwater technique as a whole can be worked on.

“I’d be surprised if he can’t gain another half a second at the competition.”

Adam himself is well versed in what it takes to take on the best.

Adam took out the gold medal in the same event when he was Henley’s age.

He said Henley was driven to succeed and trains every day - sometimes twice a day.

“He has been training really hard and seems to have an endless supply of energy,” the proud dad said.

“He’s one of those kids that thrives and goes better when he’s under a bit of pressure.

“When he’s training and doing sprints you can tell if he’s not quite fully sprinting, but once someone gets up level with him, once he see’s them there with him, that’s when he kicks into another gear and really pushes the envelope.”

IMAGE: Henley Flood, with proud parents Adam and Jenna, added to his gold-medal tally at the Catholic Schools State Swimming titles at Homebush last week.