DISAPPOINTMENT AS SWIMMERS MISS MARK
There was an air of disappointment for Britain's swimmers
on day two in Swansea as athletes missed their final opportunity
to qualify for the World Championships next month.
The Stage Three meet at the Wales National Pool allows those
unable to achieve qualifying in March to make the grade but
yesterday's feeling of success with six additional World Championship
events gained gave way tonight to a sense of what might have
been.
For Stirling Swim's Todd Cooper his failure to qualify in
the 100m Butterfly event came as a massive blow to the British
Record holder.
Cooper, with a time of 52.50 as his target, finished just
outside in 52.85 ahead of Matt Bowe (Loughborough University)
in 54.34 and Matt Edwards (Loughborough University) in 55.65.
"That has really upset me," said a stunned Cooper.
"To be honest I thought I was going to light it up tonight
with a great performance. I've been swimming well and expected
to go much quicker than that.
"I need to sit down with my coach Chris Martin to figure
out just what went wrong. The time needed was well within
me but it just didn't happen. I'm totally bemused."
David Carry (Loughborough University) came very close to
qualifying for the Montreal championships in the 200m Freestyle
as well as the 400m after a big effort in the final of the
former.
Needing a 1:47.74 to make the standard, Carry went out hard
but couldn't bring it back quick enough, due to his exertions
over 400m yesterday, and finished just outside his own personal
best in 1:48.44. Robbie Renwick (City of Aberdeen) was second
in 1:51.09 and Alex Scotcher (Loughborough University) was
third in 1:52.68.
Carry's coach Ian Turner was full of praise for his swimmer
who has given everything to his performances this weekend.
"That was a good job by David," said Turner. "It
was a big ask to go that fast yesterday and then put in another
top 10 world ranked swim 24 hours later.
"It was his second quickest swim of all time and shows
the amount of work he's putting into his training and racing."
Katy Sexton (Portsmouth Northsea) won the 50m Backstroke
in 29.39 ahead of Lizzie Simmonds (Lincoln Vulcans) with a
new personal best of 29.94 and Gemma Spofforth (Portsmouth
Northsea) was third in 30.70.
Kirsty Balfour (City of Edinburgh) was able to fend off the
challenge from Loughborough's Kate Haywood in the 200m Breaststroke.
The pair were inches apart for most of the race until Balfour's
experience told. She finished in 2:30.48, Haywood went 2:32.40
and Amy Konowalik (Nova Centurion) was third in 2:33.55.
Edinburgh team mate Kris Gilchrist won the men's event in
2:16.07 ahead of University of Bath's Darren Mew in 2:18.26
and City of Sheffield's James Kirton was third in 2:18.36.
Becky Cooke (City of Glasgow) came home first in the 800m
Freestyle in a time of 8:31.12 while Keri-anne Payne (Stockport
Metro) touched in 8:35.92 with Jordan Tomlinson (Lincoln Vulcans)
third in 8:50.00.
The Stage3 meet takes place at the Wales National Pool, Swansea
between Friday 17th and Sunday 19th June. It will provide
the final opportunity for Britain's swimmers to qualify for
the World Championships in Montreal next month.
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