THREE Tornadoes of South Dorset members were in competition at the ASA South West Regional Youth Championships, held at the Plymouth Life Centre.

Joshua Frampton, Oliver Mills and Chloe Perkins all attended the meeting, while three other qualifiers in Rebecca Beal, Ciaran Richards and Charlie Samouelle were unable to compete due to work and other commitments.

Frampton, 16, was at his second youth regionals and qualified for 12 events including the 50, 100 and 200m freestyle, the 50 and 100m breaststroke, the 50, 100 and 200m backstroke, the 50 and 100m butterfly and the 200 and 400m individual medley.

The youngster made an impressive three finals, claiming many personal bests (PBs) along the way and finished in a respectable eighth place in the 100m backstroke on the last day of competition.

Mills, 16, was also at his second regional event and qualified for the 50m breaststroke. He arrived on the last day of the competition and produced a good swim, finishing just short of his best-ever time.

Perkins, also 16, qualified for her first regional event in the 50m butterfly and produced a lifetime best on the first day of the competition.

Two weeks after the senior swimmers had competed it was the turn of the younger swimmers. The Tornadoes took five age group swimmers in Charlie Rowe, Bethany Firth, Jessica Gale, Nathan Moorey and Harry Stewart, sharing 32 events between them.

The event was held over two weekends, the first at Hengrove in Bristol and the second at Millfield.

Rowe, 12, was the busiest swimmer with 12 events, including the 50, 100 and 200m backstroke, the 50, 100, 200 and 400m freestyle, the 50m breaststroke, the 50 and 100m butterfly and the 200 and 400m medley.

Producing some good swims to make five finals, Rowe missed a medal in the 50m backstroke by just 0.03 seconds.

Firth, 13, qualified for three events including the 50m backstroke, the 200m backstroke and 50m butterfly, coming away with three long course PBs, with her best in the 50m fly on the last day of competition, where an improved stroke rate saw her time drop significantly.

Gale, 14, qualified for the 50m backstroke and conjured a personal best time with a very well controlled sprint. It was a fitting way to end for the youngster, who has now decided to take a break from the sport.

Moorey, 14, qualified for the 50 and 100m backstroke, the 200m medley, the 50 and 100m freestyle and the 50, 100 and 200m butterfly.

Due to illness, Moorey missed the first day of competition but came back strongly to produce his best time in the 50m fly, where he has put himself in with a chance of national championships invitation.

Bridport-based Stewart, 13, recently added extra training time with the Tornadoes and the rapidly-improving swimmer qualified for the 50, 100 and 200m breaststroke, the 50, 100 and 200m freestyle, the 50m butterfly and the 50m backstroke.

Stewart swam extremely well to make the 50m breaststroke final where he finished a creditable sixth.

Lead coach Chris Beal was delighted with the performance levels over all the regional weekends.

The coach said: “Josh Frampton just got better as the competition went on and is proving to be one of the best all round swimmers in Dorset with some very strong performances. Charlie Rowe is also turning into a very capable swimmer, making five finals was very impressive.

“Chloe is a great example of how if you never give up in sport, eventually you will be rewarded for all of your efforts. For her to turn up at the biggest event she has ever done and swim so well was great to see and will hopefully inspire others to keep training hard.”