THE longest race in the girls' programme provided the closest finish at the long distance block of the Dorset county championships.

Bournemouth Dolphins Lucy Kember, 16, and 13-year-old Claire Humphreys were the main protagonists in an exciting 800m freestyle in their home pool at Littledown.

The pair swam stroke for stroke for almost all of the 32 lengths before a late surge by Humphreys over the last five metres won her the senior and junior titles by just 0.01sec in 9:25.47. Kember took both silver medals as well as the 16-and-over age group gold.

A third Dolphin, Danielle Francis, 13, took senior and junior bronze in 9:29.58 while Kimberley Rowles won the 11-12yrs age group title, giving Bournemouth five of the six golds on offer for this distance.

The 800m also sparked celebrations in the Poole camp as 11-year-old Sophie Notley secured her first national qualifying time with a bronze-winning 11-12yrs time of 10:26.65.

Charlotte Roberts put Christchurch Seagulls on the podium with a bronze in the 16/o age group (10:32.28).

Kember faced another titanic tussle in the 400m freestyle, this time with Ferndown Otters' 13-year-old Emily Freeman.

This time the older girl was able to claim the senior and junior titles in 4:31.68, although Freeman's 4:32.89 set a new competition best time (CBT) for the 13yrs age group.

Francis again picked up the senior and junior bronze medals with Rowles again winning the 11-12yrs gold.

Dolphins' Amy Rees was the star of the 400m individual medley.

She recorded a 15-second PB to win the senior, junior and 14-15yrs titles in 5:07.95.

With Claire Humphreys taking the senior and junior silver and team mate Emma Simpson the junior bronze, it was only Wareham's Hannah Blakeley who broke the Bournemouth stranglehold on the championship medals. Blakeley also won the 16/o gold.

There was record-breaking galore in the male events especially in the 1500m freestyle in which five new marks were set.

West Dorset swimmer Philip Bale's 16:49.66 broke both the senior championship record and competition best time for the 17/o age group while Rory Smith (Ferndown) similarly demolished the junior record and 15-16yrs CBT with 17:09.32.

James Blake, 14, added three medals to the Ferndown tally as he took the 13-14yrs gold, junior silver and senior bronze (17:21.80).

The younger Carl O'Brien's silver-winning 17:37.64 broke the 13yrs CBT and qualified him for his third national age group championships with 26 seconds to spare.

Poole also had a share of the 1500 medals including the 11-12yrs gold for Kiall Wheatley and a 15-16yrs silver and junior bronze to Chris Wilson.

Age group bronze medals went to Seagulls' Glen Devereux-Bailey (15-16yrs) and Wareham's Jack Wiltshire (17/o).

Dolphins' 12-year-old Dominic Macdonald amended the record books in the 400m individual medley, slicing 0.1sec off Ben Gibbs' CBT with 5:19.81.

Ferndown's George Melling took the 13-14yrs title but in the 15-16 age group Poole had three of the first four in Alexander Crane (gold), Chris Wilson (silver) and Kyle Winzar (fourth). Michael Bailey (Ferndown) won the bronze.

Ferndown provided the junior gold and silver medallists in the 400m freestyle.

Leigh Jenkinson (15-16yrs) and James Blake (13-14) won their respective age groups and also the senior silver and bronze.

Chris Wilson grabbed the junior bronze.

Dominic Macdonald was again in charge of the 11-12yrs age group, winning by five seconds from Ferndown's Steven Simpson.

Joshua Eiles-Clarke put Wareham in the medals wit a 13-14yrs bronze and Devereux-Bailey again added another bronze to Seagulls' collection.