DORSET breaststroke champion Kayla van der Merwe produced the shock of the British Summer Championship to land her first national title in Sheffield.

The 14-year-old from Bournemouth Collegiate School barely made it into the 15yrs 100m breaststroke final after qualifying ninth fastest from the heats in 1min 15.04sec.

The time meant lane zero in the 10-lane pool, well away from the centre lanes where the main action was expected to unfold.

But Van der Merwe – one of the youngest in the race – ripped up the formbook, turning half-a-second ahead in 33.73 and finishing 0.75sec clear in a personal best 1:12.03.

Dad Theo said: “It was very exciting. I don’t think anyone expected it.”

The online camera crew obviously did not. They were so focused on the middle lanes that they missed the winner’s race altogether.

Van der Merwe, whose winning time was just 0.05sec outside Beth Aitchison’s Dorset junior record which she has another 16 months to break, also won bronze in the 50m breaststroke in 33.68, only 0.05sec quicker than her split time in the 100m final.

She was fourth in the 200m in 2:38.09.

Poole’s European junior semi-finalist Jazz McCrea broke six records on her way to one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Britain’s fastest 15-year-old in water struck gold in the 16yrs 50m freestyle in a Dorset junior record 26.15.

Silver came in the 50m butterfly in 27.24, a Dorset senior and junior and South West junior record, and bronze in the 100m butterfly in 1:01.32, another county and regional junior mark.

Poole’s Jacob Peters, 16, won silver in all three 17-18yrs butterfly finals despite training up to 12,000 metres a day at Ponds Forge as he targets this month’s World Junior Championships in Indianapolis.

The British junior champion lowered his Dorset records to 24.51 and 54.34 in the 50m and 100m fly and was close to his best in the 200m with 2min 01sec in both heat and final.

Rio Paralympic gold medallists Alice Tai and Mikey Jones, both from New Milton, booked their tickets to the Para-swimming World Championships in Mexico with podium places in Sheffield.

Tai (BCS) won gold in the multi-disability 100m backstroke (1:08.16) and bronze in the 100m freestyle (1:03.98).

Jones was second in the 400m freestyle (4:48.19).

Swim Bournemouth’s Oli Fairman, 14, won bronze in the 15yrs 200m backstroke in 2:08.41 and was fifth in the 100m final.

Jay Lelliott (Bath Uni and Swim Bournemouth) came third in the 19/o 400m and 1500m freestyle.

BCS’s Christian Tai qualified fastest for the 16yrs 100m butterfly final in 58.23 but had to settle for fourth place despite improving to 57.47.

Team-mate Finn Trehane made all three 15yrs breaststroke finals, finishing fifth over 100m in 1:08.19 and seventh in the 50m and 200m (31.31 and 2:30.50).

Poole’s Fiona Hardie, Thea O’Keefe, Leonie Wiehle and Jasmine Holmes saw off many of Britain’s top clubs to reach the women’s 4x100m freestyle final, where they came ninth in 3:58.84.

Swim Bournemouth’s Amy Brown came ninth in the 13-14yrs 100m breaststroke final in 1:15.31 despite being in the younger half of the age group.

She was also 12th and 16th in the 200m and 50m breaststroke.

Alex Bryant (BCS) clocked 28.69 in both heat and final to come 10th in the 15yrs 50m backstroke final.

Also 10th was team-mate Ella Chown in the 13-14yrs 100m butterfly final as well as 15th, 20th and 21st in the 50m and 200m fly and 200m individual medley.

BCS’s Ben Samuel narrowly missed out on the 16yrs 50m freestyle final, placing 11th in 25.00.

Tanya Blanchard became Wareham’s first nationals swimmer for 12 years as she came 12th in the 13-14yrs 50m breaststroke in 34.70, missing the final by 0.1sec.

Seagulls’ Max Weeks was 22nd in the 15yrs 50m butterfly.