ALEX Savage's rollercoaster Commonwealth Games trials ended with another near miss at Sheffield's Ponds Forge pool on Tuesday.

Savage, 19, continued the form which had produced a string of personal best times in her first four events with another huge PB of 27.79sec in the final of the 50m butterfly.

But, for the second time in three days, she also missed out on a medal by the smallest of margins - in this case by 0.02sec.

The result left her with a mixed bag from the six-day trials of two disqualifications (in the 50m and 100m breaststroke), one bronze medal (in the 200m individual medley) and two fourth places (in the 50m and 100m butterfly).

But in each case she had swum faster than ever before and headed home to Southbourne with her confidence boosted and ready for a second crack at the Commonwealth Games qualifying times at the last chance meet in Swansea in December.

"There were disappointments but I am really pleased with the way I am swimming," she said.

"I am definitely up there with the top athletes in the country. I knocked so much off my best times and I feel so confident in myself.

"I enjoyed it as well and in training we have stuff to focus on. I don't feel the qualifying times for Melbourne are out of reach and I shall be working hard to get them."

In the simultaneous ASA national youth championships, Bournemouth Dolphins' Sabina Heywood produced five personal best times to reach the 14-15yrs youth finals in four of her five events - despite being in the younger half of that age range.

What's more, she did it against some of the finest swimmers of that age in the world including medallists girls from the recent European Junior Championships and European Youth Olympics.

Her highest place in the age group was sixth in the 200m freestyle in 2:06.98.

She was also eighth in the 800m freestyle (9:12.48), ninth in the 400m freestyle 4:28.26, heat 4:26.92), 12th in the 100m freestyle (1:00.07) and 26th in the 50m freestyle (28.46).

Ferndown's Lydia McManus, 14, also made her first youth championship final.

A personal best time of 1:05.58 took her into the last 10. She then improved by another half-second to finish seventh in the 14-15yrs age group in 1:04.96.

The Swanage youngster was also 28th and 29th respectively in the 14-15yrs 100m and 200m breaststroke (1:17.20 and 2:49.07).

Team-mate Emily Freeman, 15, had two top-20 finishes - 18th in the 14-15yrs 200m backstroke (2:27.13) and 20th in the 100m backstroke (1:09.02).

In her freestyle events, she was 22nd over 200m in 2:10.11 and 31st in the 100m (1:01.22).

Ferndown's Nicole Scott, 14, placed 18th in her event, the 14-15yrs 100m butterfly (1:06.79).

Bournemouth Dolphins' two nationals debutants, Claire Humphreys and Danielle Francis, both 15, swam PBs.

Francis was 20th in the 14-15yrs 800m freestyle (9:20.52), 31st in the 400m free (4:34.84) and 64th in the 100m free (1:02.72).

Humphreys came 39th in the 14-15yrs 800m freestyle in 9:31.45 and 61st in the 200m free (2:14.34).

In the youth 4x200m freestyle, Bournemouth Dolphins had a team of 14 and 15-year-olds swimming against girls aged 14-17.

The quartet of Heywood (2:07.69), Humphreys (2:13.19), Kate Allen (2:22.25) and Danielle Francis (2:11.21) saw off teams from Derbyshire, Coventry and Leatherhead to finish 17th in 8:54.34.

Poole's Sarah Meaker, 16, came 26th in the 16-17yrs 50m freestyle (28.46) and Nicola Sloan, 14, from New Milton Torpedoes, was 42nd in the same event for 14 to 15-year-olds.

The youth championships marked the end of Bournemouth Dolphins' head coach Laurie Dormer's career.

He is retiring after 55 years as a coach and 2005 saw him attend national championships for the 44th consecutive year.

"At this year's age group and youth championships, I have had five or six swimmers in the top 20, two of whom are in Britain's world class performance scheme with a third likely to get on to the Welsh scheme soon," said Dormer.

"I feel privileged to have been working with these swimmers.

"It's the best squad we have had at nationals.

"I am leaving behind me a good legacy and I'm looking for my successor to pick up and run with it. And that is as it should be."