FERNDOWN Otters' Hayley Morris gave a glimpse of the form which recently won her gold medals in junior internationals to lead Dorset's medal haul at the Western Counties Youth Championships.

The 16-year-old Parkstone Grammar School girl dominated the freestyle events at Millfield and ended up with three gold medals and a silver.

Her most spectacular swim came in the 16-17yrs 200m freestyle in which she finished more than six seconds ahead in a long course time of 2:06.63.

The 400m freestyle was almost as impressive. This time the victory margin was 5.2 secs as she clocked 4:31.47.

Things were a lot tighter in the 100m freestyle but Morris still touched first by 0.22 secs in 59.74. The 50m freestyle added a silver to her collection in 28.22.

Otters' backstroker Jessica Brown went one better in gold medal terms, winning not only the 18/o 100 and 200m backstroke in 1:07.78 and 2:26.42 respectively, but the same distances in the freestyle (1:01.36 and 2:16.91). She was also sixth in the 50m free in 29.06.

The girls' breaststroke events produced plenty of rewards for Ferndown, not least a 100m gold in the 16-17yrs final for Hannah-May Hawkins (1:17.54).

Zoe Davies came fifth against international opposition in the 14-15yrs event (1:19.69), but there was disappointment for her older team-mate Tina Dunford, who looked favourite to win gold in the 18/o age group until she was disqualified for moving at the start. Dunford made amends 24 hours later by taking gold in the 200m breaststroke (2:43.37).

Davies and Martha Holman were fourth and sixth in the 14-15yrs 200m in 2:51.23 and 2:54.67 respectively.

Ferndown's William Thomas, representing Millfield, won the 15-16yrs 100m butterfly in 1:00.12 and - by 3.41 secs - the 200m event (2:11.87).

Hannah Langdown was fourth in the 14-15yrs 200m butterfly (2:32.76) and backstroke (2:30.76) and in the same age group Sadie Howes came fourth in the 50m freestyle in 29.12.

In the boys' 15-16yrs backstroke, Lee Holden finished fifth in the 200m in 2:21.45 and fourth in the 100m in 1:05.62.

Brown, Morris, Langdown and Howes were also fifth in the 4x100m medley relay (4:49.08).

Bournemouth Dolphins' Tom Cunningham and Corinna Colmer both maintained the dramatic improvements they have shown over the last year to claim their first Western Counties titles in lifetime best times.

Colmer, 16, clocked 2:33.6 in the heats of the 200m butterfly but pressure from Swindon Tigersharks' Isla Hull in the final pushed her to 2:31.23 as she nosed ahead over the last 25m. She added a silver to her gold by finishing second to Hull in the 100m fly in 1:09.25 as well as coming fourth in the 100m back (1:11.95) and fifth in the 200m backstroke (2:35.79).

The ever-busy Cunningham, 18, reached the final of five of his six events and achieved PBs in three of them as he won a gold and two bronze medals. Gold came in the 17-18yrs 200m freestyle as he used a combination of fitness and pace judgment to see off a competitive line-up of opponents including Millfield international Sam Blunt who on paper was two secs quicker.

Cunningham produced a searing last lap split of 29.89 to claim his first major title in 2:00.66.

His two bronze medals came in the 200m backstroke (2:16.31) and 200m fly in a national qualifying time of 2:17.00.

He was also fourth in the 100m fly (1:00.57), fourth in the 100m back (1:14.47) and ninth in the 100m freestyle (56.87).

Team-mate James Bakewell claimed two bronze medals, placing third in the 200 and 400m individual medley (2:23.05 and 5:06.76) as well as fifth in the 400m freestyle (4:29.23) and 10th in the 200m backstroke (2:26.1).

Chloe Evans won bronze after seeing off her Ferndown challengers in the 14-15yrs 200m breaststroke (2:50.02). She was also fifth in both the 400m freestyle (4:46.30) and 200m medley (2:50.02).

Wareham's Hannah Blakeley was fourth in her 100m breaststroke final in 1:19.39 after recording a national qualifying time of 1:18.87 in the heat. She was also seventh in the 200m breaststroke (2:56.48) and eighth in the 100m butterfly (1:13.05).

Other Ferndown Otters top-10 placings: 6 Rory Smith (1500m freestyle) 18:54.21, 9 Nicola Bolton (800m freestyle) 10:19.72. Bournemouth Dolphins: 10 Amy Rees (100m fly) 1:13.53, 10 (200m fly) 2:45.27, 10 (100m back) 1:14.06, 6 Ross Gardiner (100m back) 1:07.19, 8 (200m back) 2:23.89, 6 Bryony Tibble (100m breast) 1:20.52, 9 (100m free) 1:04.51, 9 Tom Cunningham (100m free) 56.87, 6 Lucy Kember (200m backstroke) 2:33.50, 7 (800m free) 9:59.42, 8 (100m back) 1:14.97.