MARSHALL & CO MAKE RELAY GRADE
There were relay qualifications in the pool on day three
of the ASDA British Swimming World Championships Trials as
Loughborough University's Melanie Marshall and her club mates
qualified for the 4x200m freestyle relay.
Clocking a time of 1:58.50 seconds, just 14 hundredths of
a second off the individual qualification mark, the feisty
swimmer punched the pool as she checked the board after the
200m freestyle final.
"I'm happy and I needed that," she said. "At
this stage in the season coming off the back of an Olympic
year I'm not bothered about qualifying at this meet and I'm
confident of getting the time in June.
"It's a great start to my season. I got a bit taken
up with it all yesterday after the semi but today was just
great.
"I'm not up to my training volumes and I'm not practising
my skills all the time I'm in the pool so to go as fast as
I did tonight is a real positive.
"It was great to qualify for the 4x200m relay. Julia
Beckett did very well as did Caitlin McClatchey and with the
likes of Jo Jackson we're going to have another strong quartet
in Montreal this summer."
It was good news too for Marshall's club mates who joined
her on the podium as Caitlin McClatchey set a second Scottish
record of 1:59.53 seconds for silver and Julia Beckett swam
a personal best time of 2:00.86 from lane one to bag the bronze.
Stirling's Todd Cooper won gold in the men's 100m butterfly,
but his time of 53.53 seconds was a clear second off the qualification
time for the World Championships.
"This meet for me is very much a case of just coming
here to compete with very little emphasis on actual qualification,"
he said. "I'm not shaved or rested and yesterday in that
condition I put in a fastest time.
"I'm quite confident of attaining a time later in the
season. At the moment I have so much going on training-wise
that this meet was just going to be too soon for me."
Matthew Bowe of Loughborough University touched in second
place in 54.48 seconds ahead of club mate Matt Edwards who
took bronze in 54.70 seconds.
Gemma Spofforth (Portsmouth Northsea) collected her second
gold of the Championships after clocking a time of 29.53 seconds
in the 50m backstroke.
"I'm extremely happy with that as it was only 0.1secs
off my PB," she said.
"That's two out of the three backstroke titles - we'll
go for the set tomorrow. I'll be aiming for the qualifying
time and I'm just going to go for it."
Lincoln Vulcans youngster Lizzie Simmonds added to her growing
medal tally with silver in 30.17 seconds and Laura Beechey
of Loughborough University won bronze in 30.35 seconds.
There was nearly upset for Robin Francis (University of Bath)
in the 200m individual medley as 19-year-old Loughborough
University swimmer Joe Roebuck led from the blocks on the
first three lengths.
But Francis' experience saw him through and despite a strong
fight back from Roebuck he managed to keep a lead in the last
50m to win by a fingernail in 2:03.34 seconds. Roebuck touched
home in 2:03.44 seconds and Euan Dale, also of Loughborough,
took bronze in 2:04.00 seconds.
In the 200m breaststroke, City of Edinburgh's Kristopher
Gilchrist won gold in 2:15.17 seconds, City of Salford's Joe
Gannon was runner-up in 2:18.84 seconds and Chris Watkinson
of Loughborough University won bronze in 2:18.91 seconds.
City of Aberdeen's David Carry put in a strong swim in the
200m freestyle semi-final and was within a second of the World
Championships qualifying time, which he will be aiming to
achieve in tomorrow's final. Edward Sinclair of Millfield
set a new Scottish record time of 1:50.91 seconds in the same
race.
In other semi finals of the evening, Stacey Tadd (University
of Bath) qualifies fastest for the final of the 200m individual
medley, Jessica Dickons (Borough of Stockton) is fastest through
to the 200m butterfly and Kirsty Balfour progresses in top
spot in the 200m breaststroke.
In the men's 50m backstroke semi, Loughborough's Liam Tancock
was within reach of World Championship qualification, clocking
a time just seven hundredths of a second off the mark.
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