FORMER Bournemouth Dolphin Amelia Maughan is heading for her second European Junior Championships after hitting her best form for some time in the Olympic trials.

Maughan, 15, now based at British Swimming’s Intensive Training Centre at the University of Bath, was the fastest junior in both the 400m freestyle, in which she finished 19th overall in a PB of 4:19.88, and the 200m freestyle in 2:01.18, missing the women’s final by a single place.

The 200m time also qualified her for the European juniors in July and ranked her as the quickest under-16 swimmer in Europe.

She was also the fastest junior in Wednesday’s heats of the 100m freestyle, clocking 56.35 to qualify ninth fastest for the British semi-finals.

That makes her a strong contender to qualify for tonight’s top-eight final.

With up to six places on offer for Britain’s 4x100m freestyle relay squad for the Olympics, a place in that is not out of the question, though Maughan will need to improve on her PB of 56.0 to achieve that.

“I’m really pleased with the way I’m swimming,” said Maughan. “It’s the fastest I have been since the summer of 2010.

“I’ve had a pretty bad year and some challenges to deal with but I’ve upped it a lot here. I’m glad I have come out of that.

“I am now first in the under-16 European rankings.”

Bournemouth-born Nathan Theodoris could be joining Maughan in Britain’s European junior team after an impressive heat in the 200m backstroke.

His time of 2:02.74 made him the fifth fastest qualifier for the British semi-finals and ninth overall.

Theodoris, the reigning European Youth Olympic champion, was brought up in Portugal but swam for Bournemouth Dolphins when in Britain and is now with former Dolphins coach Graham Bassi at the Swansea ITC.