HAYWOOD LOWERS BAR IN SEMI FINALS
Loughborough University's Kate Haywood proved she meant business
as she clocked a new British record in the semi final of the
100m breaststroke at the ASDA British Swimming World Championships
in Manchester.
The 17-year-old smashed her personal best and knocked more
than half a second off the previous record held by Rachel
Genner with a new British benchmark of 1:08.14 seconds.
Her time was well within the qualification standard for the
World Championships, but she must repeat the performance in
tomorrow's finals to be guaranteed a place in the Montreal
squad.
Haywood was delighted with her time:
"I came here thinking I was going to go 1:09 low which
would have given me a personal best, but to get the British
record is unbelievable," she said.
"I've been working so hard to get this and finally it's
paying off. I've just got to do it again tomorrow.
"Last year was a bad one for me as I had my tonsils
out. Since then I've spent three weeks training in South Africa
and it's really paying off with my coach Ben Titley, who pushes
me really hard."
City of Aberdeen's David Carry was the only gold medallist
of the opening night as he beat Olympic bronze medallist David
Davies (City of Cardiff) in the final of the 400m freestyle.
His personal best time of 3:50.30 seconds wasn't enough to
secure a spot on the GB team for the FINA World Championships
in July, but he has a second chance to make the grade at a
meet to be held in June.
"I was really going for the qualifying time and to just
miss out is quite upsetting," he said. "But I take
some solace from the fact I'm fairly new to the event.
"A personal best is great, but I'm still fairly new
to this and I'm looking at doing bigger things in the 200m
freestyle - my main event.
"The work I'm doing with Ian Turner is making me a much
better swimmer and I'll be looking to qualify for the 400m
at the stage three meet."
Welshman Davies took silver in the 400m freestyle in 3:52.35
seconds and Loughborough University's Dean Milwain was bronze
medallist in 3:56.22 seconds.
Semi-finals dominated the rest of the session with City of
Edinburgh's David Leith qualifying fastest for the final of
the 50m butterfly in 25.15 seconds. European Short Course
Champion Mark Foster (University of Bath) goes through to
the finals in fourth position after recording a time of 25.51
seconds in the semis.
Commonwealth Champion Sarah Price (Loughborough University)
clocked in ahead of British rival Katy Sexton (Portsmouth
Northsea) in the 100m backstroke semi-final with a time of
1:03.14 seconds. Sexton clocked 1:03.55 seconds and 13-year-old
Lizzie Simmonds (Lincoln Vulcans) was two two-hundredths of
a second behind that and qualifies for the final in third
position.
In a battle of Britain's best, rivals James Gibson (Loughborough
University), Chris Cook (City of Newcastle) and Darren Mew
(University of Bath) all swam sub-29 seconds in semi-finals
of the 50m breaststroke to qualify for the final in the middle
three lanes.
The semi-finals of the men's 100m backstroke ensured Olympians
Gregor Tait (City of Cardiff) and James Goddard (Stockport)
are still in contention to make the World Championships squad
after qualifying for the final behind Loughborough University's
Liam Tancock.
Tancock's club-mates Lisa Chapman, Rosalind Brett and Chris
Cozens also progress to the finals in pole position.
Chapman's time of 26.10 seconds in the women's 50m freestyle
semi was enough to secure her a lane four start in tomorrow
night's final and Brett's time of 1:00.09 seconds in the 100m
butterfly puts her in first position for the final and is
enough to qualify for the World University Games later this
year - but she must knock more than a second off to make the
squad for Montreal.
In the final event of the night, Cozens was a second of World
Championship qualifying pace in the 100m freestyle but touched
ahead of University of Bath's Ross Davenport in 50.05 seconds
to go fastest into the final.
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