FERNDOWN Otters are celebrating the most successful senior national championships in their history after four of their swimmers found their way to the medal rostrum.

As well as Karen Legg's two bronze medals, the British short course championships in Cambridge also produced senior gold and silver medals for 16-year-old Alex Savage in the 100m and 200m individual medley, a British junior title for Hayley Morris in the 200m freestyle and bronze for Seth Chappels in the men's 50m butterfly

Otters and England coach Tony Watson said: "In one way we are happy with four qualifiers for the senior nationals because we are predominantly a junior-based club.

"To get five qualifiers and four of the five coming home with medals is a huge improvement.

"It's got to be a result of the really positive attitude that all the swimmers demonstrated in their approach to the sport.

"Their training mentality and efforts are consistently outstanding and they are people who can transfer these efforts into the competition environment. They are special people."

Watson added that three of the five had also achieved "awesome" results in their GCSEs this year.

"They have been able to manage their school life with their sporting commitments and get high levels of success in both areas," he said.

The most impressive event for Ferndown was the women's 200m freestyle which saw Karen Legg - the Commonwealth silver medallist - finish third in 2:00.17, Alex Savage ninth in 2:03.58 and Hayley Morris 12th in 2:04.48.

Morris's time won her the British junior championship and a huge trophy bearing the names of such illustrious past winners as Sharron Davies, Sarah Hardcastle, Lesley Allardyce and Diana Wilkinson.

The 16-year-old Morris was also 14th in the 50m butterfly (heat 29.77, semi-final 30.20) and 21st in the 100m freestyle in 58.85 - 0.77sec outside Karen Legg's Dorset junior record, set in 1994.

Alex Savage, also 16, hit new heights, converting the two British junior titles she won in the individual medleys at Norwich last year into a senior gold and silver in Cambridge.

The gold came in the 200m medley as she knocked 0.81sec off her Dorset senior and junior records with a time of 2:16.03.

The time was just 0.15sec outside the standard which would have qualified her automatically for the European short course championships in December.

She was also second in the 100m medley (1:04.12) behind the world short course bronze medallist Alison Sheppard and fifth in the 100m butterfly in 1:02.53, 0.26sec outside Sam Greenep's Dorset junior record from 1994.

Seth Chappels, 20, collected his third national medal in 18 months, finishing third in a 50m butterfly final won James Hickman, the world short course champion for 200m fly. His time was 23.57.

He also broke his own Dorset records with times of 23.39 in the 50m freestyle heats and 51.18 in the 100m freestyle final. He was placed sixth and seventh respectively.

Hannah-May Hawkins, 16, came 16th in the 200m breaststroke (2:44.45) and 21st in the 100m breast (1:17.20).

Chris Tidey, formerly with Bath University, made his first appearance as a Ferndown swimmer, recording times of 30.27, 29.15 and 29.01 to finish fifth in the men's 50m breaststroke.

Karen Legg, swimming against several of her fellow Commonwealth Games medallists, collected her other bronze in the 100m freestyle (55.06) before leaving for a long-overdue break from training and competition.

Watson said: "Karen will be disappointed with the results but it was the last meet of a very demanding season. For her, it was one meet too many.

"But she will be looking forward to getting back in the water and preparing for the world championships in July."

Poole started their season with a creditable second place behind Speedo Premier Division squad City of Exeter.

The results at Street included nine wins and 17 second places.

Claire Rafferty contributed two of the wins, producing a commanding swim in the 11/u 50m backstroke in 41.08, then keeping her head under pressure to win the 50m freestyle in 34.86 just 0.1sec ahead of the West Dorset swimmer.

Sarah Meaker took her first win of the season in the 13/u 50m breaststroke in a comfortable 39.16, while Lara Maskell opened her account with a win in the 13/u 50m freestyle 32.32.

Darren Haskell showed good form as he won the 11/u 50m backstroke and Leigh Jenkinson cruised home first with a comfortable win in the 15/u 100m freestyle (59.22).

Jenkinson was also involved in two relay wins - with Chris Wilson, Greg Styan and Daniel Meaker in the 15/u 4x50m freestyle (1:51.24) and Guy Jamieson, Meaker, Styan, Paul Corbin and Mark Francis in the open 6x50m freestyle (2:45.21).

Another relay win came from the boys' 13/u freestyle team of Aidan Fairhall, Sam Redfern, Daniel Turton and Jay Jenkinson (2.11.53).

Result: 1 Exeter 234, 2 Poole 219, 3 Street A 210, 4 West Dorset 179, 5 Llanelli 128, 6 Street B 69.

Bournemouth SC's Karen Yendole collected five gold medals and one silver in the 19-24yrs age group at the Basingstoke masters open meet.

It might have been six golds had she not been controversially disqualified for a false start.

"The girl in the lane next to me false started but they disqualified me instead," she said.

"Everyone spectating said that it wasn't me and after some lengthy discussions I managed to get a re-swim - but only as a time trial. I would have won by two seconds!"

Yendole won gold in the 100m medley (1:15.68), 50m breaststroke (37.47), 50m butterfly (34.19), 25m freestyle (14.33), 25m butterfly (15.40) and silver in the 25m breaststroke (17.42).

Full results of Bournemouth SC's pier to pier swim (reported briefly with pictures last week):

Male wet suit: 1 Chip Rimmer 31min 15sec, 2 Dave Dowst 31:37. Male open (non west suit): 1 Roy Harding 32:35, 2 Robert Truman 36:21, 3 Barnaby Donahew 37:00, 4 Phil Richardson 42:40, 5 Phil Hayward 44:30, 6 Frank Coney-Lax 46:53. Boys open: 1 Tom Gobey 43:15.

Ladies open: 1 Ann Richardson 36:37, 2 Rachel Gillingham 39:43, 3 Nikki Gillett 47:47, 4 Pat Etches 48:11.

BSC club championship - Boys: 1 Matthew Lands 40.05, 2 Mike Robinson 48.11. Girls:1 Kelly Gobey 35.32. Ladies: 1 Paula Barnes 45.30, 2 Penny Robinson 52.30.