BOURNEMOUTH Collegiate School swimming academy recorded their best ever finish at the ESSA’s Secondary Schools Team Relay Championships in Birmingham last weekend.

The junior boys quartet of Ethan, Connor, Monty and Angus became the school’s first male team to win a medal at the national showpiece, taking home silver in the 4x50m freestyle.

That meant at the same time the boys bettered the 2017 result of the school’s intermediate girls medley team, consisting of Ella, Honour, Kayla and Alesha, who came third at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, London.

2017’s top three finish was also the last time a Dorset school won a medal, and the boys’ second place is the first time a male team has finished top three since Bournemouth School’s junior boys team won the 2010 freestyle team title.

After being disqualified for a technical infringement in the medley relay, the boys pulled together them to produce a wonderful race with every member swimming faster than in the heats.

In the end they were they only narrowly beaten to first by 0.39 seconds.

Teams from Talbot Heath, Parkstone Grammar, and Poole Grammar also competed.

The Championships are run as a national final with competing schools determined by the fastest times achieved in a qualifying round organised by the ESSA divisions. In 2022, 2099 teams from over 300 schools participated in the qualifying round.