BURNETT BREAKS THIRD BRITISH STANDARD
Simon Burnett set the example again tonight as the 22-year-old
Wycombe District swimmer set a new British Record in the 100m
Freestyle at the Swimfit.com Commonwealth Games Trials.
Burnett swam below the 49-second mark in Sheffield to set
a Commonwealth qualification time and qualify fastest for
tomorrow's final in 48.76. Scotland's Craig Houston qualified
fifth in a new Scottish Record time of 50.68.
"I was pretty tired at the end," admitted Burnett.
"I need to rest a bit tomorrow morning. Doing the 50s
these last couple of days took much more out of me than I
thought. I've got real muscle soreness and a tiredness that
you don't get from a 200m.
"I was feeling very rough this morning - my legs were
particularly tired. I'm looking forward to a long swim down
and some rest and hopefully I'll go quicker in the final."
In the 1500m Freestyle, Olympic and World Championship bronze
medallist David Davies (City of Cardiff) swam a sub-15 minute
time to take gold in 14:59.20.
The clear favourite led from the start in a field of up-and-coming
swimmers that included European Junior bronze medallist Chris
Alderton (Durham University Aquatics) who finished second
in a lifetime best of 15.22.05. Stirling Swim's Ross Hughes
slashed his previous best by ten seconds to take bronze in
15:28.54.
"That was hard and I feel very tired," admitted
Davies. "I don't think I've ever felt this knackered
but it was good to go under 15. That was my aim but at one
stage I didn't think I'd have enough to finish the race.
"It's been a long couple of weeks and having done the
big one in Montreal the pressure was off. I just wanted to
see how I could react, but I'm desperately tired.
"The 1500m is just so hard. With two races at the Worlds
and two here I've found it very difficult, but I'll be there
at the Commonwealth Games and I'll be looking forward to representing
Wales."
Scotland's Gregor Tait swam to victory in the 200m Individual
Medley in a personal best time of 2:02.20. He was just outside
the national record set earlier this year by fellow countryman
David Carry, who took silver behind Tait tonight in 2:02.54.
"That feels mint," said Tait. "I'm really
happy with that after the way it's been over the past week.
I'm mentally and physically tired.
"The medley just gives me a chance to do something different.
I aim to go in and just enjoy it. I never feel the pressure
to perform although it was quite scary having Dave Carry chase
me down at the end."
Loughborough University's Euan Dale made it a Scottish one,
two, three as he took bronze in a new lifetime best of 2:03.56
and Kerry Buchan, who swam a qualifying time for Scotland
at the Scottish Nationals earlier this year qualifies fastest
for the final of the 200m Breaststroke in 2:31.11.
Once again Liam Tancock (Loughborough University) dominated
the men's backstroke and leads the field into tomorrow's 100m
final with a time of 55.61 while Loughborough University take
the top four spots through to the 100m Freestyle final as
Melanie Marshall leads team mates Lisa Chapman, Caitlin McClatchey
and Ros Brett.
In the women's 50m Backstroke, Portsmouth Northsea's Katy
Sexton will be looking for her third title at these Championships
after qualifying fastest in 29.84 seconds while Commonwealth
Record holder James Gibson (Loughborough University) will
be hoping to beat a strong field after qualifying fastest
in the 50m Breaststroke in 28.09.
There were two finals and a British Age Group Record in the
ASA National Youth Championships this evening.
Results are as follows:
Mens 15/16 Yrs 200m IM
Gold James Johnson City of Newcastle 2:06.93 GBA 16Yrs
Silver Jonathan Cook Co Newcastle 2:08.01
Bronze Billy Purnell Warrender 2:09.84
Mens 17/18 Yrs 200m IM
Gold Craig Elliot Cockermouth 2:06.28
Silver Thomas Haffield Co Cardiff 2:06.85
Bronze Edward Downes Maxwell 2:06.92
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