SWINDON Dophin Rebecca Flack produced a personal best time in her first ever national championship.

Flack and clubmate Charlotte Gardo, also making her national bow at Ponds Forge , in Sheffield, were competing in the 50m breaststroke. Flack’s swim took just under two tenths of a second off her personal best while Gardo finished just outside her entry time.

With the discipline a single open age-group it made progress beyond the heat stage a very tough ask that, despite stellar performances, neither Dolphin could answer.

Charlotte Pitts was competing at her last national champions in Dolphin colours.

Her first swim in the 800m freestyle was still a few seconds off her best. Pitts’ final appearance in the 400m freestyle was just a few hundredths of a second shy of her best time and a new club age-group record, delighting the Swindon swimmer.

For the second year running, Lauren Matthews was competing in the 200m butterfly having qualified with an outstanding 2:22.89.

Matthews split the first 100m in 1:07.01, on pace for her sub 2:20 target. However with the time being just under her 100m personal best, it proved too much to hold and Matthews finished one second outside her entry time in 2:23.89. However it did mean she ended the season in the top 25 for her age-group.

James Clark competingin the over 19s category, swam 23.91 in the 50m freestyle, a better time than he swum at this year’s previous two national events.

Mathew Sambrook had qualified for the 1500m freestyle with relative ease at the South West Regional Youth Championships back in May and was confident of producing a new best time. Despite looking on course after 500m Sambrook finished just outside his entry time. A national top 20 finish, however, is an encouraging start to Sambrook’s national championships career.