WEST Dorset Warriors held their Autumn Steps Gala at Thomas Hardye Leisure Centre, giving the younger members of the club the chance to compete against each other and obtain up-to-date personal best times.

As always there was good competition among the swimmers across all levels with brother and sister George and Isabella Maslen leading the way with three wins each.

George won the Steps Three 25m breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle races, while Isabella won the Steps One 25m backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle in only her second swimming gala.

Debutant Kristina Pugh, who only joined the club in September, also put her claim on the Steps Two level by winning all four races, closely followed by Bethany Trewartha, who came second in the 25m butterfly, backstroke and freestyle, with Rosie Jones splitting the two by coming runner-up in the breaststroke.

Third places were shared by Charlie Wyatt in the freestyle, Becky Warland in the butterfly, Jones in the backstroke and Trewartha in the breaststroke.

In the boys’ Step Two, Cameron Robinson swam three personal best times to win the 25m backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle, including an improvement of over 12 seconds in his 25m breaststroke.

Elliott Twigg showed great improvement to win the 25m butterfly and finish second in the backstroke and freestyle, and third in the breaststroke.

Shem Martin completed the honours with second place in the breaststroke and third in backstroke and freestyle.

Elisha Webb dominated the Steps Three level by winning all four races but there was close competition for the other places.

Olivia Foice came second in the butterfly and freestyle, and third in the breaststroke where her sister Minnie beat her to the runner-up spot.

Elsewhere, Olivia Cregg came second in the backstroke with Mieke Hateboer finishing third in butterfly and freestyle.

With George Maslen winning three of the races in Steps Three it was left to Jack Hayward to claim top place in the 25m backstroke.

Oliver Jeanes, taking part in his first gala, came second by the narrowest of margins in both breaststroke and freestyle, and he also claimed second in the butterfly and third in the backstroke behind George Green, who was third in the other three disciplines.

For the Steps One girls, Ella Martin claimed second place in the 25m backstroke and third in the 25m breaststroke, while Gemma Wyatt and Imola Tantrum came second in freestyle and breaststroke respectively.

Lizzie Pugh finished third in the backstroke and Sasha Hateboer grabbed the same position in the freestyle.

Chris Tutton won the backstroke and the freestyle in boys’ Step One with Luke Wheeler claiming success in the breaststroke.

In the more experienced Steps Four competition Luke Knight collected wins in all four races, with George Gordon coming second in both the 50m breaststroke and 50m freestyle, and the 25m butterfly.

George Kelman-Johns was also in the mix with second place in the 50m backstroke and third place in the remaining three races, with Ollie Fairman, at eight-years-old, claiming third in the backstroke.

For the girls, Megan Young won the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke together with the 25m butterfly, while Katie Cramp showed great speed to triumph in the 50m breaststroke, reducing her personal best time by five seconds. She also came third in the three other races.

Erin Gowers also showed consistent form in coming second in the breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle with Erin Lee claiming second in the 50m backstroke and third in the breaststroke.

Every competitor contributed well to another successful gala with 146 new personal best times recorded.

Biggest improvement on the day went to Saffron Twigg, who knocked just under 15 seconds off her previous best time in the 25m backstroke.

All the swimmers are now looking forward to their next Steps Gala in January 2012.

West Dorset Warriors train at both the Thomas Hardye Leisure Centre in Dorchester and the Bridport Leisure Centre, and also take part in long course training at Millfield School.

New swimmers and athletes of all levels are welcome.

If you are interested, contact Janet Hewitt on 266175 or visit westdorsetwarriors.org