COOKE SWIMS UNDER COMMONWEALTH STANDARDS
Rebecca Cooke was the only athlete to swim within the qualification
standards on a night when Simon Burnett threatened Mark Foster's
four-year-old freestyle record at the Swimfit.com Commonwealth
Games Trials in Sheffield.
City of Glasgow's Cooke opened the session with a strong
swim in the 800m Freestyle which kept her well within the
qualifying standards for the Commonwealths. The five-time
national champion swam her second fastest race of the year
to take gold in 8:30.51.
"I was really happy with that coming off the back of
a disappointing time last week," she said. "I had
to really mentally prepare myself and that swim has given
me a lot of confidence to overcome my problems at the World
Championships.
"A lot of it is down to the support I received from
my team mates, such as Mel Marshall, Caitlin McClatchey and
Jo Jackson."
Stockport Metro's Keri-Anne Payne won silver in 8:36.62 and
was named overall Youth Champion, and the World Championship
medallist over 400m, Caitlin McClatchey (Loughborough University),
took bronze in 8:37.59.
In the women's 200m Individual Medley, City of Birmingham's
Terri Dunning took gold, but was outside the qualifying time
in 2:16.73. City of Coventry's Sophie Caul won silver in 2:17.91
and Alex Savage of Ferndown collected bronze in 2:18.05.
Multi-Paralympic medallist Matthew Walker (Marple) looks
to have booked himself a spot on the Melbourne-bound squad
after swimming a qualification time in the 50m Freestyle.
Walker, who was part of the World Record-breaking 4x100m
Freestyle squad last year in Athens, finished the race in
28.71 seconds, just over a tenth of a second off British team-mate
David Robert's World Record.
"I've been doing the time in training for the past couple
of weeks so I knew I could do it, but there's always that
niggling doubt," he said.
"To swim a qualification time for the Commonwealths
means a lot and it's not something that all disability swimmers
have the chance to do. To be able to represent England is
really special.
"I'm just off Dave's World Record now and it's going
to go very soon. It's going to take a World Record to win
in Melbourne and I want to come away with a medal."
In this multi disability event, where medals are awarded
to the swimmers closest to their respective world record times,
Graham Edmunds (Swim Swansea) took silver and a new S10 British
Record of 26.05 seconds and Lincoln Vulcans' Rob Welbourn
won bronze in 26.37.
Double Paralympic bronze medallist Rhiannon Henry (Bridgend)
swam a personal best time in the 100m Freestyle to set a new
British Record and swim within the Commonwealth qualifying
standards for Wales.
S9 classification swimmers Lara Ferguson (Incas) and Claire
Cashmore (Kelly College) took silver and bronze in 1:09.18
and 1:09.97 respectively.
In this evening's semi-finals, Kate Haywood (Loughborough
University) is fastest through to the 50m Breaststroke final
with a time of 31.75 - less than two tenths of a second off
the qualification time; in the 200m Butterfly Stirling Swim's
Mark Lewis progresses in pole position in 1:59.61; in the
100m Breaststroke Chris Cook (City of Newcastle) dipped below
the qualification time with 1:01.22 but must swim below the
mark again tomorrow to gain consideration; Jo Fargus (University
of Bath) finished quickest in the women's 200m Backstroke
in 2:13.75 and Stockport Metro's James Goddard was fastest
in the men's event in 2:02.63; Ros Brett (Loughborough University)
goes through first in the 100m Butterfly in 1:00.59; 200m
Freestyle Champion Simon Burnett is just off Foster's British
record and qualifies fastest for the 50m Freestyle in 22.29
and Mel Marshall is top in the 200m Freestyle after recording
a time of 2:01.31.
YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS RESULTS ROUND-UP
Women's 16-17 yrs 800m Freestyle
GOLD Keri-Anne Payne Stockport Metro 8:36.62
SILVER Rebecca Adlington Nova Centurion 8:44.20
BRONZE Laura Chase Portsmouth Northsea 8:52.82
Women's 14/15 years 800m Freestyle
GOLD Jazmin Carlin Tigersharks 8:44.25
SILVER Jordan Tomlinson Lincoln Vulcans 8:47.16
BRONZE Rachel Jack City of Leeds 9:04.92
Women's 16/17 years 200m IM
GOLD Stacey Tadd Bath University 2:19.70
SILVER Julie Gould Guildford City 2:19.97
BRONZE Lorna Smith City of Glasgow 2:21.07
Women's 14/15 years 200m IM
GOLD Helena Thornton Nova Centurion 2:21.66
SILVER Jemma Lowe Borough of Stockton 2:21.77
BRONZE Jessica Dickons Borough of Stockton 2:22.00
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