Michael Cowburn, 21, competed in the Commonwealth Games' Water Polo Tournament at the Manchester Aquatics Centre between March 24 and 31, 2002 - and came away with a bronze medal.

The Great Britain team beat Malta 11-9 in the third place play-off to stand on the podium with winners Canada and silver medalists Australia.

And Michael, who is a member of Tyldesley Swimming and Water Polo club, thought that the GB team had exceeded expectations.

He said: "I am well chuffed. We weren't expecting to win a medal. We had never played against half the teams before".

"We hadn't played New Zealand or Canada before. We knew Australia had been good but, mostly, we didn't know what to expect. The first game was against New Zealand and we knew we had to beat them. We just had to play as well as we could."

Nine teams in two groups took part in the tournament with the first and second team in each going through to the semi-finals.

Great Britain were defeated in their semi with Australia 11-4 but more than made up for that in the play-off with Malta, who play water polo as their national sport.

Members of the Tyldesley Swimming and Water Polo Club attended the event to support Michael.

Michael had been playing water polo for nine years.

He said: "I was actually into swimming but a lot of people I knew played water polo so I thought I would give it a go. I went down and started from there and have always played for Tyldesley."

Mavis Bent, the water polo secretary for the Tyldesley club, said: "We are extremely proud of him."

She added: "He is probably the first member of our club to represent his country at the Commonwealth Games."