COLCHESTER Swimming Club member Laura Stephens says she was happy to reach a hat-trick of Open finals at the British Championships, in Sheffield.

The 17-year-old, who now swims for Plymouth Leander, was in impressive form in her three Women's Open butterfly events, at Ponds Forge.

Stephens told the Daily Gazette: "The British Championships have been a good chance to see how my training is going, in working towards the Commonwealth trials in December.

"Still, managing a PB and fourth place in the 50m fly was a nice surprise and I was happy to make the open finals in all my events.

"Now it's time to get back to training and continue working hard and also focus on my A level exams I'm taking, this summer."

Stephens finished fourth in the Women's Open 50 metres butterfly final after clocking a personal best (PB) time of 26.98 seconds.

The Wix teenager had earlier qualified for the final in a time of 27.41s.

Stephens was sixth in the finals of both the Women's Open 100m and 200m finals in times of 1m 00.04s and 2m 12.16s respectively, after progressing from the heats.

The former Colchester County High School for Girls pupil's next major event is the National Swimming Championships, which take place at the end of July.