POOLE'S Claire and Caleb Stulmacher flew almost 4,000 miles to help the Southern Junior League champions book their ticket to the 2018 final.

The siblings, aged 12 and nine, travelled from the USA specially to boost the club’s chances.

Coach Jan Hutchings said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to the Stuhlmacher family for making such a big effort to come back to join the team.”

Claire and Caleb were both among Poole’s 14 second-round winners at Littledown, where Max Looker, Lottie Vavasour, Christopher Bernal Mezzetti, Luca Sartorius, Molly Goddard, Holly Chandler, Grace Montague and Zack Studley also delivered individual wins.

Poole finished second to 2015 champions Swim Bournemouth and the clubs will meet again in the final.

Bournemouth netted 31 race wins, including 14 of the 17 relays.

Coach Sam Woodward said: “I’m proud of our swimmers and even more pleased that there is still room for improvement in round three.”

Result: 1 Swim Bournemouth A 266, 2 Poole 232, 3 Seagulls 146, 4 West Dorset 146, 5 Weymouth 143, 6 Bassett 76.

• Poole’s Max Looker was named top 11-12yrs boy after comfortably winning all five events at the Swim England South West Fast 5 meet.

His victories in the 50m butterfly, freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke and the 100m individual medley (IM) earned him 1,649 FINA points, 362 more than nearest challenger Henry Sheffield of Cirencester.

• All 22 Poole swimmers at the South West Regional Open Water Championships won medals at Weymouth with three winning fastest swimmer trophies.

Thea O’Keefe was the fastest 5k swimmer in 56min 16.43sec with gold also going to Kath Baker, Jordan Young, Jack Wiltshire, Andy Mason and Robert Lloyd-Evans for their age groups.

Teagan-Mae Graham, Liz Mills, Simon Pritchard and Martin West all won 5k silver with Fern Duesbury and Russ Corn taking bronze.

In the 14-15yrs 3k event, Miles Ward and Jack Channon came first and third with Aimie Quarrie and Abbie Slade second and third for the girls.

Ryan Openshaw was fastest swimmer in the 13yrs 2k race with Findley Chandler and Ollie Gibbs completing a podium clean sweep for Poole.

Xavi West won the 12yrs boys’ 2k and Lauren Corn and Sheila Monera were first and third for the girls.

• Dorset’s oldest competitive swimmers were among the medallists at the Great Britain Masters Championships in Plymouth.

Poole’s Robert Lloyd-Evans, 76, collected silver medals in the 75-79yrs 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke.

Club-mate Jean Howard-Jones, swimming for London club Spencer, marked her arrival in the 75-79 age group with gold in the 50m freestyle and silver in the 100m.

Bournemouth-based distance specialist Cathy Hartle, swimming for Cardiff Masters, won gold in the 60-64yrs 1500m freestyle and silver in the 800m.

Poole’s Karen Yendole won silver medals in the 35-39yrs 100m and 200m breaststroke while team-mate Jordan Young took bronze in the 18-24yrs 400m freestyle.

Bronze also went to Poole’s Bournemouth University swimmer Jade Burton in the 18-24yrs 200m backstroke.