ALDERTON WINS JUNIOR DISTANCE BRONZE
Great Britain's Chris Alderton boosted his team's medal tally
with a bronze in the 1500m Freestyle on the penultimate day
of the European Junior Championships in Hungary.
The Wear Valley swimmer, who turns 18 next week, saved it
to the last individual event of the session and grabbed himself
an early birthday present as he swam to glory with a new personal
best time of 15:27.15 seconds.
The race was won by Poland's Mateusz Sawrymowicz who took
the title in a new championship record time of 15:06.04 seconds.
Alderton, who finished fifth at last year's EJC's and is
one of Great Britain's talented young athletes training at
the warm weather camp in Southport, Australia, was thrilled
to medal in Budapest.
"I feel fantastic," he beamed. "It means so
much to me to medal at my last junior meet and to do it in
front of my parents is amazing. It's about time I swam a PB.
"I knew I was ranked third going into the race, but
I didn't feel the pressure to perform from others. I put it
on myself, which makes things easier for me.
"Training in Southport has helped me so much. I train
and race outside, which was obviously beneficial for me here.
"I've got another six months at the school over there
and then I'd like to stay on for two years more. I'm heading
to Loughborough now to train for a couple of weeks before
the Commonwealth Trials next month."
Earlier in the day, Daniel Fogg of Waltham Forest set a five
second personal best to finish eighth overall in the 1500m.
"I feel exhausted after that, he said. "I've been
doing a lot of split work to improve my time and concentrating
on the splits needed to do well today. I was aiming for a
15:41 but I'm really pleased with the time I did.
"I swam a PB at the trials and I've lowered it again
today, so hopefully I can take it down more next month at
the Youths."
For many of the young athletes competing in Hungary, this
is their first experience of a major international meet.
Lincoln Vulcans' Jordan Tomlinson, who attended an American
meet last year, has benefited from competing in this competitive
environment and collected two personal bests, her latest today
in the 400m Freestyle final.
In a tight race, she was edged out in the final 50m and finished
fifth in 4:16.78, less than three tenths of a second off a
podium place.
"That was a hard race and I'm gutted to finish fifth,"
she admitted. "I tried to go out faster but it wasn't
enough. I'll have to use my legs more and work on my turns
to do better in the future.
"This is the biggest meet I've been to and I hope to
come back again next year and give it another go."
Despite setting a personal best time in the heats and qualifying
for the semi finals of the 50m Breaststroke, Ross Clark of
City of Dundee, was frustrated that he couldn't repeat the
performance this afternoon to make the finals.
"I'm disappointed with that," he said. "I
know I can go faster and if I'd have managed the start right
or swum the time I did this morning I would have got in.
"I slipped off the blocks at the start and it knocked
my rhythm. It shows that small mistakes cost. That time was
slower than I did this morning and just off the Scottish record.
"I'm finished here now so I'll get back into training
back home and hopefully make it up at the Youth Championships.
I need to work on the bad and improve the good.
"It's been good to race here against the best in Europe
and see the level I'm at. I PB'd this morning and in the 100m
Breaststroke yesterday so I've got to be happy with that."
Kingston Upon Hull's Hollie O'Connor was back in the pool
today and qualified for the finals of the 50m Backstroke.
She finished eighth in 30.61 seconds.
"I gave it my best out there but my stroke rate wasn't
as good as in the semis. I've got the 200m tomorrow which
is my number one event and I'm going to go for it.
"I really wanted to medal here and so hopefully I can
pull it out the bag. I'm also swimming in the medley relay
and we've got a chance there too."
Jemma Lowe (Borough of Stockton) has qualified for tomorrow
night's finals of the 100m Butterfly after swimming just over
her personal best in 1:01.48 seconds.
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