WITH the county championships a distant memory and the regional championships on the horizon, Swindon Dolphin excelled at the short course competition pool at GL1 in Gloucester and the Hengrove Park long course pool at Bristol.

Numerous personal best swims, regional consideration and qualifying times and a new age group club record for William Davies in the 400m freestyle ensured a successful few days of competition for the Swindon club.

The big prize at Gloucester was regional qualification or a regional consideration time.

Oscar Pearcey and Maya Grounsell had confirmed their regional championship places with qualifying swims earlier in the year, although both underpinned this with excellent regional standard performances across multiple events.

Ethan Fowler and Megan Adamson also confirmed their places, making the move up from having regional consideration to regional qualifying times.

The top Dolphin medallist at Gloucester was Tyler Hillier with two golds, while Grounsell also picked up a gold, silver and two bronze. Lucy Adamson added a further bronze.

Other medallists were Erin Henly (three silver), Fowler (silver, bronze), Jake Lewis (silver, bronze), Caitlin Gulliver (silver), Adamson (silver), Hannah Brown (bronze) and Hannah Knight (bronze).

The long course Bristol meet was the first opportunity to post national ranking times during the assigned March to May window for national qualification.

At the end of this window, only the top nationally ranked swimmers will be invited to attend the summer championships in July and August.

Twelve year olds Henry Rideout and Miles Farrington both vastly improved on previous best times, while 15 year old James Watson and 14 year old William Davies both reaped the benefits of their commitment in training.

Watson produced personal bests in all five of his swims whilst Davies set a new age group best time in the 400m freestyle in a time of 4:28.14.

Medals came thick and fast for Dolphin with Harrison Crook top of the pile netting four gold and three silver. Farrington was close behind with three gold and one silver and also finishing in the top three were Henry Rideout (gold), William Davies (silver, two bronze), Lauren Matthews (silver), Olivia Flack (silver), Sean Purvis (silver), Josh Fox (three bronze), James Watson (bronze) and Cathy Naus (bronze).