TORNADOES of South Dorset built on a superb performance in the first round of the Arena League by winning the second stage of the competition at Dorchester Leisure Centre.

The Tornadoes took an early lead in the evening’s proceedings, securing their first race win in event three, the girls’ 11-and-under freestyle relay.

The girls went on to dominate the events in their age group as Bethany Firth, Abigail Barnes, Tabitha Samouelle and Jessica Gale also won the medley relay.

In the individual races, Gale won the 50m backstroke, Barnes clinched the 50m butterfly, Samouelle claimed the 50m breaststroke and Firth was second in the 50m freestyle.

The 13-and-under boys, Josh Rowe, Joshua Frampton, Oliver Mills and Henry Wyril, were in superb form too and also won both their relays while securing two individual wins.

Frampton was first in the 100m butterfly and freestyle, with Rowe and Mills second in the 100m backstroke and breaststroke respectively.

With three more wins in the first 10 events – the girls’ 13-and-under medley relay team of Eve Hewett, Abigail Hamilton, Chloe Perkins and Freya Stanger, the boys’ 13-and-under medley relay quartet of Rowe, Mills, Frampton and Wyril, and the ladies’ open medley relay team of Jenny Scott, Rebecca Beal, Eleanor Harvey and Bethan Whittall – the Tornadoes had a two-point lead over Frome and Soundwell B.

First places kept coming over the next eight races with Gale’s backstroke victory and wins in both the ladies’ and men’s open 100m butterfly for Harvey and Niall Laming.

However, with Frome starting to put in some good swims the Tornadoes’ lead was reduced to just one point.

Two wins in the next eight races (Barnes in the 50m butterfly and Scott in the 100m backstroke) were backed up by a couple of second and third places to stretch the Portland club’s advantage back out to five points.

And in the next 24 races there were 16 top-three finishes for the Tornadoes, including 10 victories.

Samouelle (50m breaststroke), Frampton (100m butterfly and 100m freestyle), Beal (open 100m breaststroke), Stanger (100m freestyle), Scott (open 100m freestyle), the girls’ 11-and-under medley relay, the girls’ 13-and-under freestyle relay team (Hewett, Perkins, Stanger and Eleanor Smith), the boys’ 13-and-under freestyle relay squad and the ladies’ open freestyle relay team (Scott, Kirsty Holmes, Lily Young, Beal, Whittall and Harvey) all triumphed.

Such a strong finish meant the Tornadoes had won the second round of the league by 22 points from Frome with Soundwell B in third.

The result puts the Tornadoes fourth in the league after two rounds and means they will compete in the A final in round three, hoping to gain promotion to League One next season.

Lead coach Chris Beal was extremely pleased with his team, saying: “This was a must-win event and the swimmers worked so hard to earn this result.

“The A final is their reward and this will be this team’s biggest test yet.”

There were 34 personal best times achieved by the following swimmers;

Abigail Barnes – 50m freestyle, 50m butterfly (twice); Bethany Firth – 50m freestyle; Joshua Frampton – 100m butterfly; Jessica Gale – 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle; Aaron Griffin – 50m backstroke; Eve Hewett – 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle; Kirsty Holmes – 50m freestyle; Lewis Limm – 50m butterfly (twice); Oliver Mills – 50m freestyle and 100m breaststroke (twice); Chloe Perkins – 50m freestyle; 50m butterfly and 100m butterfly; Emily Robinson – 100m breaststroke; Josh Rowe – 50m freestyle (three times); Charlie Samouelle – 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 200m IM; Freya Stanger – 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle; Henry Wyril – 50m freestyle (four times).

Anyone wishing to join Tornadoes of South Dorset to learn to swim, swim competitively or access extra training should contact the club secretary via tornadoessecretary@btinternet.com