BOURNEMOUTH Dolphins' Welsh Youth Squad member Kim Rowles came home with silver and bronze medals after her first trip with the principality's senior squad.

Rowles, 14, the youngest member of the Wales team at the Celtic Tri Nations in Dublin, came third in the women's 200m individual medley in 2:26.77.

She also anchored the 4x100m freestyle relay team to second place behind the Ireland A team in 4:03.95, 3.3sec ahead of Scotland A.

In the 400m individual medley, Rowles touched fifth in 5:11.69 but was effectively fourth as three of the four in front of her were Scots.

She also swam unofficially in the 400m freestyle, placing sixth in 4:34.90.

JOE'S SPEEDY SWIM

DOLPHINS' Joe Poynter is now the second fastest 12-year-old in the country over 800m freestyle after coming close to 9min 30sec after a race in the new 50m pool at Crawley, Sussex.

His time of 9:31.16 puts him just 0.3sec behind Ryan Flanagan, of Borough of Kirklees, who is three months his senior.

It also placed him fifth in the open event at Crawley behind much older swimmers and ahead of some 15-year-olds.

"The time equates to 818 Bagcat points, which is a very high score," said Dolphins' coach, Graham Bassi.

In the girls' 800m freestyle, 11-year-old Samantha Bush comfortably qualified for the South West age group championships with an encouraging time of 10:54.36.

"She's a good prospect for pushing for a national time later this year," said Bassi.

Natalie Moore, Charlotte Blow and Ashley Hill had a four-hour wait from warm-up to 10pm race.

Moore, 12, came sixth in the women's 800m while the other two matched their personal best times.

WILLY'S NOMINATION

BOURNEMOUTH-based Willy van Rysel has been nominated by the American magazine Swimming World for their Masters Swimmers of the Year awards.

Van Rysel, Britain's oldest female competitor at 90, broke 22 world masters records last year after moving into the 90-94 age group.

She is one of two Britons - six men and six women - nominated for the awards.

Meanwhile, she added the 90-94yrs individual gold medal and a relay bronze to her considerable collection after 1,055 metres in 30 minutes in the ASA Half-Hour Postal Swim.

This involves swimming as far as you can in half-an-hour in a pool of your choice.

COACHING COUP

BOURNEMOUTH Dolphins' head coach Graham Bassi is to be exposed to some of the world's latest and best coaching techniques after being selected by British Swimming for a late summer trip to the USA.

After attending a four-day coaching conference in San Diego in September, he will be able to choose one of the top programmes in the States and spend a week working with its coaches and swimmers.

Bassi has also be invited to British Swimming workshops in Loughborough in May and June in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics.

ROBERT'S RECORDS

POOLE'S Robert Lloyd-Evans celebrated his arrival in the 65-69 age group by breaking Welsh records in the 100m and 200m breaststroke at the Welsh Masters Long Course Champion-ships in Swansea.

Despite having a bad cold, he took gold in the 65-69yrs 50m and 100m breaststroke in 46.34 and 3:36.60 and silver behind England's Morris Dick in the 100m (1:44.40).