BRITISH MEDAL TALLY NEARS MEET TARGET
Less than 24 hours after Britain celebrated the London 2012
decision a compact squad of the country's future swimming
talent were celebrating at the European Youth Olympics in
Italy.
The 16-strong team of 14-16 year olds scooped two gold, one
silver and one bronze medal to secure Britain's place at the
top of the swimming medal table.
Hatfield's Ceri Unwin did her part by collecting a gold and
silver in the 200m Freestyle and 400m Individual Medley events
respectively.
Unwin pulled back a deficit at the half way mark to finish
the Freestyle event in 2:05.17 seconds, while earlier in the
evening she recorded a solid time of 4:57.42 seconds in the
medley to finish a strong second ahead of German Nina Schiffer.
Lizzie Simmonds continued her impressive form to earn gold
in a championship best time of 1:02.73 seconds in the 100m
Backstroke. The Lincoln Vulcans swimmer led from the start
and clocked in almost three seconds ahead of the field.
Wolverhampton's Chris Fox boosted the team's spirits with
a bronze and British age group record in the 100m Breaststroke,
touching home in 1:04.69 seconds.
Once more Head Coach Graham Bassi was delighted with his
young team's efforts.
"It's been another outstanding day for the team,"
he said. "Everyone was a bit deflated when they heard
the news from home this morning, but we had a positive team
meeting and there have been some outstanding performances.
"The team has picked up in spite of the rest day yesterday
and we hope to make tomorrow the best day yet. We are aiming
to get up to 18/19 medals so we need to stay focussed and
regenerate tonight to be able to deliver in the pool on the
last day."
The Great Britain swim squad medal tally has risen to nine
gold, two silver and two bronze medals with one day of competition
to go in Lignano.
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