RELAY FOUR MOUNT BRAVE CHALLENGE
A determined British 200m Freestyle quartet attacked the
women’s relay at the World Championships in Montreal
tonight as they went all out too increase the squad’s
medal count.
Brave performances from Mel Marshall, Caitlin McClatchey,
Jo Jackson and Becky Cooke put the British four in with a
real chance of the bronze, despite a late change to the line
up, but they were eventually caught and finished outside the
medals in fourth.
The U.S. team won in a Championship Record of 7:53.70 after
silver medallists Australia had set the early pace. The Aussies
touched in 7:54.06, China were third in 7:57.29 and Britain
finished in 7:59.04.
Marshall (Loughborough University) led Britain off with a
1:59.47 leg to hand over in fourth to McClatchey (Loughborough
University) who went 1:58.26 to put the British quartet in
third place.
Jackson swam a strong leg to retain third in 1:59.16 before
distance swimmer Cooke (City of Glasgow), drafted in that
afternoon for the final, gave it her all to finish in 2:02.15.
Cooke’s inclusion in the relay for the final was unexpected.
She had helped the team to qualify in the morning but was
due to make way in the afternoon. However, a problem with
Julia Beckett (Loughborough University), part of the original
planned four, saw Cooke reinstated.
It was a tremendous effort from the swimmer who will be in
action again tomorrow in the Women’s 800m Freestyle.
For coach Ben Titley the make-shift quartet gave a good account
of itself.
“The girls gave everything tonight,” said Titley.
“It was a huge effort and they can be proud of themselves
for giving it a real go.
“We had to rethink things after the heat but we couldn’t
have asked for more from the swimmers, they responded brilliantly
in what was a very fast race. They are showing some real promise
for the future”
Britain’s Backstroke men Gregor Tait and James Goddard
were unable to step up their performance enough to make tomorrow’s
final after they narrowly missed out on progressing though
the semi-finals.
Tait (City of Cardiff) missed out on a place in the final
by the narrowest of margins as he went 1:58.97 to finish ninth
with eighth place going in 1:58.91. Goddard (Stockport Metro)
finished in 11th place in 1:59.16.
“|t seems I just don’t want to be in a world
championship final,” said Tait who two years ago missed
out on a final in a swim off.
“I thought I’d done enough, to be honest, but
yet again it was not to be. This year has been very difficult,
it’s been hard to get my focus back after last summer’s
Olympics.
“If I was in tomorrow’s final I know I’d
go quicker again but I won’t be there and I have to
live with that.”
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