SWIM Bournemouth “ex-pat” Nathan Theodoris toppled five Dorset records as he took on the best of Britain at the British Gas Championships.

They were among nine Dorset senior and junior records set by three swimmers during the eight-day meet in Manchester – but, bizarrely, not one of the trio is now based in the county.

In fact, for various reasons, all five “Dorset” swimmers in the championships do most or all of their training elsewhere.

Theodoris, 15, lives and trains in Portugal but has family connections with Bournemouth and swims for the club at national competitions.

That could also soon be international competitions following his Manchester swims, which made him a strong contender for selection for the British team at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Turkey in July.

Theodoris was the youngest swimmer to make the semi-finals of the men’s 200m backstroke in which he lopped four seconds off his Dorset senior and junior long-course records with a time of 2:05.75.

He placed 16th in that event, 26th in the 100m butterfly in a junior county record of 57.55 and 27th in the 100m backstroke in 59.88, a Dorset senior and junior record.

Joe Poynter, 16, swimming for Millfield but still training with Swim Bournemouth in the school holidays, is another candidate for Turkey after breaking Dorset senior records as he came 20th in the men’s 400m freestyle (4:01.52), 22nd in the 200m individual medley (2:09.08) and 23rd in the 400m medley (4:37.08).

He was also 11th in the 800m freestyle (8:24.19) and 27th in the 200m freestyle (1:55.85).

Amelia Maughan, 14, the reigning European Youth Olympics champion, will be heading for the European Junior Championships in Belgrade in July after reaching star-studded semi-finals of the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle, where her opponents included Olympic double champion Rebecca Adlington and European champions Fran Halsall and Hannah Miley.

Maughan’s 100m time of 57.05 booked her ticket to Serbia. In the 200m, she set a Dorset junior record of 2:03.07.

Maughan is now based at British Swimming’s Intensive Training Centre (ITC) in Bath but is eligible to break Dorset records because she is still a member of Swim Bournemouth and, like Poynter and Theodoris, has not competed in another county’s championships this year.

Christchurch Seagulls’ Chris Campbell, now a medical student in Cardiff, reached his first senior national semi-final, then came within one place and 0.2sec of his first final as he placed ninth in the men’s 50m butterfly in 25.33.

Martin Littlefair, now with former Bournemouth Dolphins coach Graham Bassi at Swansea ITC, came 31st in the men’s 200m freestyle in 1:57.52.