SWIM Bournemouth’s Jordan Young became a regional champion for the first time in the South West Winter Short Course Championships at Millfield.

The 15-year-old recorded a time of 17:36.45 to finish eight seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, Tavistock’s James Anderson.

Young’s time also placed him fourth in the senior event.

Team-mate Alan Wong – 16 today – collected two silver medals and a bronze in his last appearance as a junior.

The Dorset junior record holder was the second junior in the 100m backstroke in 59.88, missing the gold by 0.36sec, and later in the 50m backstroke in which he was also fourth overall in 27.57.

His junior bronze came in the 200m individual medley as his heat time of 2:10.65 qualified him for the men’s final, where he came seventh in a slower time.

Swim Bournemouth’s 14-year-old Jess Richens hit top form to record personal best times in the 100 and 200m butterfly and 200 and 400m medley, the last one with a seven-second improve-ment. Her best junior placings were fourth in the 400m medley and sixth in the 200m fly.

Team-mate Aiste Razmaite, 14, recorded a personal best time of 31.88 for 50m backstroke.

  •  Swim Bournemouth’s Jay Lelliott could be challenging for a trip to the Commonwealth Games next year after slashing half-a-minute off his 1500m PB at the British University Short Course Championships in Sheffield.

His time of 15:04.72 ranks him fifth in Britain and fourth in England and placed him second to world championship swimmer Jack Burnell in the university competition. It is also almost exactly 30 seconds quicker than his Dorset senior record but may not count, as he was swimming for Bath University rather than his club. Dorset ASA officials are considering the matter.

Lelliott, 18, also won silver in the 200m butterfly in 1:58.98 and bronze in the 400m freestyle in 3:47.89 – times which respectively rank him fifth and sixth in the country.

  •  Swim Bournemouth believe they will be involved in a three-way scrap for third place as they take on the best in the West in Saturday’s National Arena League Premier Division final at Millfield.

Plymouth Leander and Taunton Deane – first and third in the national final last April – are likely to take the top two spots.

But Swim Bournemouth coach Emma Richards believes they will be fighting for third place with Millfield and City of Cardiff.

The top six will also be among 42 from the country’s seven leagues who go into a virtual gala to help decide the 20 qualifiers for the national finals at Cardiff in April.

Richards said: “We face tough opposition but we did excep-tionally well to beat Millfield in round two and I think we will be fighting for third place.”

Seagulls find themselves as the highest ranked of five teams in the bottom gala at Weston-super-Mare, which will decide the three relegated teams.

Table-toppers Poole are hot favourites to win the Division One title for the second time in four years and regain their Premier Division status.

Swim Bournemouth B and Seagulls B are respectively in the Division One and Division Two mid-table galas at Horfield, Bristol, and Exeter Pyramids.

Wareham and North Dorset Turboes are in the Division Three bottom gala at Bath.