BRIDPORT Barracudas and Tornadoes of South Dorset swimmer Eve Hewett travelled to Bristol’s Hengrove 50m pool for her first regional age group championship.

The competition was only for the very best swimmers from Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Som-erset, Wiltshire and Gloucester, so to achieve an entry was a great achievement.

Hewett, pictured, narrowly missed the qualifying time for the 100m backstroke in Febru-ary but having been so close she entered the Swim Bournemouth open meet in April to try again – and she did so comfortably by more than two seconds.

With her entry secured a trip to Hengrove in May gave her an opportunity to swim in the pool where the second weekend of the regional championships would be held.

She came away from that meet with a boost in confidence and a well-earned bronze medal, setting a new long-course personal best time to boot.

So, on the last day of the reg-ional championships, Hewett took on her event with great skill and determination, swimming a strong first 50 and then working hard in the second to finish in another long-course personal best time of one minute 21.57secs, 1.58secs faster than she swam the month before.

The time placed her 19th out of 41 entries and made her the second fastest Dorset swimmer.

Her coach Chris Beal was delighted with the swim and said: “Eve has a great attit- ude towards her training and she has shown what can be done even with limited water time.

“Everyone at Bridport Barra-cudas and Tornadoes are very proud of her achievements.”