Twynham School’s Jack and Harry Thorpe cooked up a winning recipe in the swimming pool – and, in Harry’s case, in the kitchen too.
The Swim Bournemouth-coached brothers each recorded a hat-trick of wins in the Dorset Schools Championships at Littledown.
And just 24 hours earlier, Harry was named Junior Cook of the Year after winning a cook-off at the Christchurch Food and Wine Festival.
After first winning an in-house competition at Twynham School, the 15-year-old rustled up a tempting dish of pork tenderloin with an Italian-style stuffing and tiramisu to defeat his fellow finalists from The Grange School and Highcliffe School.
In the pool, his offerings were just as tasty as he served up gold-winning swims in the intermediate boys’ 50m freestyle time trial (25.80), 100m freestyle (56.59) and 100m butterfly (1:02.95).
Meanwhile Jack, 17, blasted to victory in the equivalent events for senior boys with times of 25.21, 56.11 and 1:04.70.
Like other leading competitors at Littledown, the brothers will be considered for the Dorset team for a revamped regional schools championship.
So will Talbot Heath’s Fiona Hardie, who extended her run of form to win the senior girls’ 50m freestyle (28.00), 100m butterfly (1:08.60) and 200m individual medley (2:27.22).
Her Poole SC club-mate Alan Wong, representing Poole Grammar School, was also a triple winner, taking the junior boys’ 50m time trial in 27.77, 100m backstroke in 1:03.60 and 100m butterfly in 1:06.54.
Double winners included a third Poole swimmer, Maddy Kemp (St Edward’s School), in the junior 100m butterfly and 200m medley and Swim Bournemouth’s Lucy Kirkham (Ferndown Upper) in the intermediate 50m time trial and 100m freestyle.
Kirkham narrowly missed a third win in the 100m breaststroke, finishing half-a-second behind Swim Bournemouth club-mate Bethany Hebditch (Bournemouth School for Girls).
Fellow BSG pupil Naomi Vides won the senior 100m breaststroke in 1:16.86 and came second to Hardie in the medley.
Swimmers selected for the Dorset schools team will find themselves competing in a new-look South West Division after the English Schools Swimming Association (ESSA) voted to swap their traditional 12 geographical divisions for eight divisions corresponding with the ASA’s eight regions.
It could make the regional competition tougher for Dorset, as the South West includes swim scholarship schools Millfield and Plymouth College.
In the old Division 12, Dorset competed against Hampshire, Sussex and the Channel Islands.
Date changes are also planned with the ESSA national finals moving from October to June or July and the relay finals from February to November.
New dates for the regional championships – previously held in September – have not yet been announced.
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