POOLE’S departing coach Robin Armayan has told his swimmers they need to “step up” between heats and finals.

As reported in yesterday’s Daily Echo, the Frenchman is leaving Poole later this month after being appointed as number two to Plymouth Leander’s Olympic gold-winning head coach Jon Rudd.

His parting message follows performances at the recent ASA Southern Regional Zonal Meet at Millfield, where some swimmers swam slower in finals than they did in their heats.

“From our results it is obvious that we did not perform at the expected level in the finals,” said Armayan.

“That is something we will have to change. We cannot be satisfied with a PB or national qualifying time in the heat and lose our focus prior to a final.

“This simple statement is going to have a significant impact on the training sets over the next few weeks. The ability to step up in the final is a necessary requirement to race at regional, national and international level. It requires specific training practice but also individual psychological preparation.

“Our training camp in Cyprus in a couple of weeks will provide us with the perfect facilities to practice.”

Madison Kemp, Jasmine Holmes and Noah Vides were Poole’s three medallists at the Zonal Meet.

Kemp secured a national qualifying time as well winning gold in the 15/o 100m butterfly in 1:04.99.

She was also seventh in the 100m freestyle final (1:01.30).

Holmes won gold in the 200m freestyle in 2:10.79 and was sixth in the 100m (1:02.47).

Noah Vides took silver in the 16/o 50m breaststroke in 30.96 and made the other two breaststroke finals, placing sixth in the 100m in 1:09.66 and eighth in the 200m in 2:41.12.

Emily Clarke achieved her national qualifying time with 2:21.94 in the heats of the 200m backstroke before slipping to fourth in the final in a slower 2:23.77.

She was also fourth in the 400m freestyle in 4:40.32 after setting a PB of 4:38.51 in the heats.

Todd Price also made two finals, coming fifth in the men’s 100m butterfly in 59.43 and eighth in the 100m freestyle in 56.33 after recording a PB of 54.98 in the heat.