GIRLS SET THE STANDARD IN LIGNANO
Great Britain's junior swimmers kicked off the European
Youth Olympic Festival with five medals - three of them gold
- to top the table on day one of the event in Italy.
The girls led the way as all three individual swims gained
a podium finish and a team effort saw them take gold in the
4x100m Freestyle in an EYOF championship record time of 3:53.72
seconds.
Hatfield's Ceri Unwin set the ball rolling in the first event
as the youngster set a British age group record to take gold
in the 400m Freestyle. Starting from lane four she swam a
steady first 100m, going out slower than in the heats, but
picked up the pace in the last three quarters to finish in
4:16.48 seconds.
Unwin's performance lifted the team and the next gold went
to Beckenham's Ellen Gandy in the 100m Butterfly. Gandy lead
the race throughout, pacing the first length and turning on
the power to come back and touch home in 1:02.60 seconds.
Gandy picked up her second gold of the evening in the girls'
freestyle relay alongside British team mates Lizzie Simmonds
(Lincoln Vulcans), Chloe Hart (Beckenham) and Lauren Collins
(City of Birmingham).
A trio of personal best times fell as Simmonds led the team
out in 58.7 seconds. The Brits were threatened on the first
two legs as the Swedes set their top swimmers off, but the
talented British quartet pulled back the lead and anchor Collins
swam a solid 100m to touch home in the new championship record.
Simmonds, who swims in her first individual event tomorrow,
was thrilled with the gold:
"Our coach had told us before-hand what the record was,
so we knew immediately that we had beaten it," se explained.
"It was a great experience with the crowd, the team and
the flags flying in the stands.
"The crowd at the medal ceremony was the biggest I'd
ever seen and it was great to share everything with the relay
team."
Nova Centurion's Helena Thornton won bronze in the 200m Breaststroke
in 2:36.14 seconds and the boys joined the medal tally courtesy
of a silver from Jonathan Cook (Nova Centurion) in the 200m
Individual Medley in a personal best time of 2:07.86 seconds.
Marco Loughran also made the finals, in the 200m Backstroke,
and swam a personal best time to improve his ranking and finish
fifth in 2:06.83 seconds.
Wycombe District's Robert Matthews-Stroud qualified for the
B final of the 100m Freestyle and finished just off the medals
in 54.55 seconds.
The boys' Freestyle relay team was also just outside a podium
finish despite a series of personal best times, and finished
fourth in 3:33.93 seconds.
Head Coach Graeme Bassi was delighted with the team's performance.
"It's been an outstanding first day," he said.
"The team's enthusiasm has rubbed off on all the swimmers
and it's the first time I've seen a team of British boys show
the spirit they did tonight in the relays.
"It's only day one and we plan to come back tomorrow
even stronger. We want to reapply what we've learnt today
and take it forward.
"We've set ourselves a tough goal of achieving 18 medals,
one better than last year, and trying to reach double figures
of gold.
"It's been a great day for the whole team and we now
need to maintain the enthusiasm and put it into the skills."
The 16-strong British Swimming team to attend the
European Youth Olympic Festival is as follows: Lizzie
Simmonds (Lincoln Vulcans); Ellen Gandy (Beckenham); Ceri
Unwin (Hatfield); Helena Thornton (Nova Centurion); Lauren
Collins (City of Birmingham); Adam Brown (Hatfield); Jonathan
Cook (Nova Centurion); Michael Newell (Aquabears); Marco Loughran
(Guildford City); Steven Beckerleg (Plymouth Leander); Stuart
Houston (Ren 96); Chris Fox (Wolverhampton); Robert Matthews-
Stroud (Wycombe District); Chloe Hart (Beckenham); Max Partridge
(City of Sheffield); Grant Turner (Tigersharks).
The European Youth Olympic Festival takes place in Lignano,
Italy from 3-8 July. The swimming programme runs over four
days from 4-8 July with a rest day on 6 July and includes
the following events:
Freestyle 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m (G)/1500m (B),
Backstroke 100m, 200m,
Breaststroke 100m, 200m,
Butterfly 100m, 200m,
Individual medley 200m, 400m,
4x100m Medley relay
4 x 100m Freestyle relay
4 x 200m Mixed Freestyle relay (2 boys/2 girls)
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