LOWE AND HALSALL RAISE BRITISH MEDAL TALLY
Two of Britain's bright young stars pushed the team's medal
tally to nine on the final day of the European Junior Championships
in Budapest.
Youngsters Fran Halsall and Jemma Lowe both collected silver
on a night when the team came agonisingly close to a further
two medals.
Halsall, whose silver completes her set of three at the Championships,
was put through her paces by Italy's Gaia Mancabelli in the
50m Freestyle.
The City of Liverpool swimmer finished 0.26 seconds behind
the Italian, one year her senior, with a time of 25.96 seconds.
"I'm quite pleased with that swim," she said. "I
would have loved to get the gold, but doesn't everyone? It
was a good swim and some great competition."
Borough of Stockton's Lowe was also in the medals, finishing
second in the 100m Butterfly.
In a tough race where less than 1.5 seconds difference separated
the swimmers going into the finals, Lowe put in a sterling
effort on the home straight to edge ahead of Hungary's Zsuzsanna
Jakabos and touch in 1:01.73 seconds.
The 15-year-old was staggered to seal the silver.
"It's amazing, I can't believe it," she said. "I
thought I might be in with a medal chance but it was a really
hard fight."
"To win the medal is the best thing ever and I'm really
pleased. I can now go into the Youth Championships next month
with renewed confidence."
The edge was taken off the girls' celebrations after their
top-ranked 4x100m Medley relay team was pushed to fourth in
the final race of the night.
The team of Hollie O'Connor (Kingston Upon Hull), Stacey
Tadd (University of Bath), Lowe and Halsall had all competed
earlier today, racking up a total of eight races between them.
The fatigue showed in the relay final and despite gaining
ground in the second 200m, they finished less than a tenth
of a second behind the medallists in 4:15.85 seconds.
"We're really disappointed," said butterfly specialist
Lowe. "I really thought Fran was going to get it on the
final leg but it was a tough race and I nearly killed myself."
"We were just pushed off the medal," added O'Connor.
"We all swam our best and it was really hard work as
we've all had multiple swims today. I can't believe we finished
fourth, it's been such a hectic night."
The evening carried mixed results for the swimmers, as five
of them progressed to the finals from this morning's heats.
Julie Gould (Guildford City), whose European Junior Championships
only started today, set a personal best time of 2:18.43 seconds
in the 200m Individual Medley to finish fourth, having previously
lowered it in the heats.
She was delighted to knock almost two seconds off her time
in her second and last visit to the Junior Championships.
"That was very pleasing," she beamed. "I'm
absolutely shattered. I really wanted to do another PB and
I knew that if I wanted it badly enough I'd be able to do
it.
"It was so close, but so far to finishing third and
it would have been good to medal but I'm just so pleased I
had a great race.
"I swam here last year and finished seventh so to go
from there to fourth, I'm just amazed."
Rachael George (Hatfield), who has competed at four events
here in Budapest and was part of the bronze-winning 4x200m
Freestyle team earlier this week, set a personal best of 2:04.34
seconds in her final event of the meet - the 200m Freestyle.
"I'm totally shattered," she admitted. "I
had no idea I was going to PB, even when I finished the race.
I went out there to do my best and I've done that so I'm pleased."
O'Connor swam in her third backstroke event of the meet,
finishing sixth over 200m in 2:20.72 seconds and Scotland's
Mark Branch (Ren 96) qualified for the finals of the 200m
Breaststroke finishing eighth in a time of 2:18.38 seconds.
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