PARALYMPIC medallist Alice Tai has become a world record holder for the first time, capping a big week for Dorset swimmers.

The 18-year-old’s time of 1:07.66 in the S9 100m backstroke came two days after Poole’s Jacob Peters and Jazz McCrea broke into in British junior set-up.

Peters, 16, was named in a 21-strong team heading for the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis in August.

And the 15-year-old McCrea is among 37 swimmers selected for June's European Junior Championships in Netanya, Israel.

Bournemouth Collegiate School’s Tai won gold in the multi-class backstroke at the British International Para-swimming World Series meet in Sheffield.

It was her first outing as an S9 swimmer following reclassification from the S10 category, in which she won relay gold and individual bronze in Rio.

Tai said: “It’s surreal. My personal best before the race was 1:08.34 so I was going to be happy with anything close to that. To get the world record is crazy.”

Her record came in the same Ponds Forge pool where a few days earlier Peters and McCrea had hit the form of their lives to earn GB selection.

Peters, who won the junior 200m butterfly final in style at the British Championships, will be the first Dorset swimmer to represent Britain in the world juniors.

McCrea, who broke seven county records in Sheffield, is the first Dorset swimmer selected for European juniors since Bournemouth Dolphins’ Seth Chappels and Charlotte Evans in 2000.

She celebrated selection by winning five gold and two silver medals at the weekend’s South West Championships in Plymouth. Her results included a clean sweep of the three 16yrs butterfly titles.

But she underlined her versatility with further wins in the 50m freestyle and 400m individual medley and second places in the 100m freestyle and 200m IM.

Peters beat mostly older swimmers in Plymouth to win gold in the 17/o 200m butterfly and silver in the 50m.

Loughborough University student Emily Clarke added to Poole’s tally with gold in the 400m and 800m freestyle and silver in the 50m butterfly.

Swim Bournemouth’s 1500m freestyle county champion Oli Fairman led a one-two for Dorset as he won the 15yrs 30-length event with Seagulls’ James Richardson taking silver.

Fairman also claimed gold in the 200m IM, silver in the 100m and 200m backstroke and 400m IM and bronze in the 50m back, while Richardson was third in the 400m freestyle.

BCS’s county breaststroke champion Kayla van der Merwe won gold in the 15yrs 200m breaststroke and silver in the 50m and 100m events and the 200m IM.

Team-mate Christian Tai had a similar set of medals – gold in the 16yrs 200m butterfly, silver in the 100m fly and 200m IM and bronze in the 400m IM.

BCS swimmer Finn Trehane had silver linings galore, coming second in all three 15yrs breaststroke finals and the 200m IM.

Swim Bournemouth’s Izzy Hepburn won silver and bronze in the 15yrs 400m IM and 400m freestyle while team-mate Abigail Manns was second in the 16yrs 200m breaststroke.

BCS’s Izzy Pryce was second in the 16yrs 50m breaststroke.

Poole’s Fiona Hardie, Thea O’Keefe, Leonie Wiehle and Jasmine Holmes won Dorset’s only relay medal – a bronze in the 17/o 4x100m freestyle.

Holmes also won individual bronze in the individual 200m freestyle and 200m IM, while Hardie was third in the 50m butterfly.

Meanwhile, at the Para-international, BCS’s S6 swimmer Leo McCrea – the 13-year-old brother of Jazz – took another step on the road to the Paralympics with six personal bests in six events, including improvements of 26 and 17 seconds in the 400m freestyle and 200m IM, respectively.