WORLD champion swimmer Liam Tancock inspired his home-town club to an impressive fifth-place finish in the Western Premier Division final.

That result leaves Exeter City still in with a chance of qualifying for the Arena National Swimming League B final from what is considered to be the most competitive region.

And, while he is concentrating on taking on some of the world's best swimmers at the Duel in the Pool event this weekend, Tancock says his old club still remains dear to his heart.

"It was brilliant swimming for Exeter again," said Tancock, who won all three of his events in the Western final at Millfield. "Obviously I'm an Exeter boy, I was born and bred in Devon.

"It's fantastic to support my local community. Whenever I get the chance I do that.

"I grew up and learnt to swim in Exeter and Exeter was my club until I was 18.

"Jon (Randall) used to coach me when I was 11 or 12 and he's the coach there again now, so it's really nice to go and represent the club and represent Jon again because he's done a lot for me.

"It's nice to give a little bit back and racing in a final is the least I can do.

"It's exciting going back and seeing some familiar faces and hopefully inspiring some more to take it up and get involved and become the best they can be."

Exeter may have been seeded to finish seventh at Millfield, but they produced a brilliant performance to claim fifth.

As the dust settled after two hours of intense racing, 2009 national champions Plymouth Leander secured the win with 345 points. Millfield and Bournemouth were second and third with 277 and 244 respectively, and Cardiff just held off Exeter by one point — 212 to 211.

Taunton Deane (181), Swindon SX3 (174) and Bridgend (151) took the minor places.

Tancock cruised to victory in the 200m individual medley in a time of 2.05.87 and followed that up with a 57.37 in the 100m backstroke and 50.56 in the 100m freestyle to take top points.

National schools champion George Fearnley, 13, swam brilliantly in the 100m butterfly to finish in 1.02.53. He was also second in the 100m freestyle in 57.67.

Jess Twose, 14, scored maximum points in the 100m backstroke with a super quick 1.06.30. She then teamed up with Amy Cole, Sally Whybra and Connie Fearnley to claim second place in the 4x50m medley relay in 2.06.40 — the quickest time ever by an Exeter medley relay team.

Georgia Cotterill, 11, was third in her 50m freestyle final in 32.48, Simon Cooper recovered from a slip at the start to finish third in the 15-and-under 100m breasttroke in 1.14.03 and Liam Spruce matched his PB in the open 100m breaststroke to finish third.

Rebecca Jenkins, returning from her studies at Loughborough University, posted a third place in the open 100m backstroke in 1.06.31.

The men's open medley relay team of Tancock, Alex Wooldridge, Warren Barrett and Ryan Tancock placed third and the quartet were joined by Spruce and Nye Levitt for the 6x50m freestyle relay, in which they finished second.

Exeter coach Randall said: "The whole team were primed to step up their game at this gala and what a superb team effort they produced. Exeter is a small club compared to most of the other teams in the final, yet we challenged in every race.

"The ultimate prize for us would be to qualify for the national B final via the virtual gala, which is run with the top six teams from the six leagues around the country.

"Our times as a team are excellent and we didn't have any disqualifications, so we must sit tight and wait for the results to be posted."