DORSET recorded only one win and one second place but a good all-round team performance gave the youth team eighth place out of 17 in Division Two of the ASA Inter-County competition at Sheffield.

It would have been seventh place but for an unfortunate disqualification in the final relay, when a swimmer missed the wall on his turn.

The team also recorded a handsome haul of 19 personal best times including six in relays.

Tornadoes of South Dorset swimmer Leanne Studley gave the county a flying start with victory in the very first event of the 31-race programme.

She clocked a short course personal best time of 58.00 to win the 16-17yrs 100m freestyle by 0.03sec.

Thereafter the best result was second in the boys' 16-17yrs 100m butterfly by Bournemouth Dolphins' 16-year-old Ben Gibbs. His time of 59.10 was also a PB.

Gibbs was also fifth in the 100m freestyle in 53.86, Studley sixth in the 100m butterfly (1:08.80).

Wareham's national youth championships finalist Hannah Blakeley collected a third place in the 16-17yrs 100m breaststroke in 1:16.23.

So did Dolphins' national age group medallist Sabina Heywood with best time of 59.80 in the 12-13yrs 100m be freestyle.

Another Bournemouth swimmer, Chris Campbell, contributed to two fourth places.

He equalled his PB with a time of 1:07.04 in the 12-13yrs 100m butterfly, then teamed up with three fellow Dolphins to come fourth in the 4 x 50m medley relay.

Their split times were: Nick Marsh (back 31.76), Dominic Macdonald (breast 35.06), Campbell (fly 30.06) and Carl O'Brien (free 28.33).

Campbell was also fifth in the individual 100m breaststroke in a best 1:17.15.

The results of almost all the Dolphins swimmers were achieved despite a heavy training programme which saw them notch up 12,000 training metres on Friday before leaving for Ponds Forge on Saturday.

A fifth place went to Ferndown's Emily Freeman in the 14-15yrs 100m freestyle (1:00.73).

Lydia McManus (Ferndown) recorded two sixth places - in the 12-13yrs 100m breaststroke in 1:17.86 and the 100m fly (1:09.63). Both times were PBs.

Sixth places also went to Tornadoes' Richard Watts was in the 16-17yrs 100m backstroke (1:01.93) and the boys' 16-17 medley team of Watts, Kostas Stamatakis (Dolphins), Gibbs and Leigh Jenkinson (Ferndown).

Other individual results: 12-13yrs Carl O'Brien (Dolphins) 1:01.61; Lara Maskell (Poole) 14th 100m back 1:14.64; Nick Marsh (Dolphins) 7th 100m back 1:07.43. 14-15yrs George Melling (Ferndown) 9th 100m fly 1:04.06, 15th 100m breast 1:15.74; Claire Humphreys (Dolphins) 10th 100m fly 1:09.26; Katie Jeffery (Ferndown) 11th 100m breast 1:20.54; Joshua Eiles-Clark (Wareham) =9th 100m free 56.40; Emily Freeman (Ferndown) 7th 100m back 1:09.52; James Baker (West Dorset) 15th 100m back 1:07.43. 16-17yrs Ashleigh Osborne-Scott (Dolphins) 13th 100m back 1:12.31; Kostas Stamatakis (Dolphins) 12th 1:10.07.

Division Two result: 1 Scotland East 500, 2 Berks & South Bucks 480, 3 Nottinghamshire 470, 4 Gloucestershire 438, 5 Lincolnshire 430, 6 Derbyshire 412, 7 Devon 405, 8 Dorset 394, 9 Scottish Midlands 378, 10 Leicestershire 360, 11 Cambridgeshire 342, 12 Oxfordshire & North Bucks 318, 13 Cumbria 304, 14, Bedfordshire 281, 15 North Wales 272, 16 Shropshire 271, 17 Cornwall 258.

Bournemouth Dolphins Sabina Heywood, Chris Campbell and Dominic Macdonald will be heading for Loughborough University next week for British Swimming's assessment week.

They were chosen following their successes at the national age group championships in the summer and will be assessed by sport scientists with a view to selection for the national talent squads.