CARRY CONFIRMED AS BRITISH NUMBER ONE
Scotland's David Carry reinforced his position as British
and Commonwealth number one by swimming to victory in the
400m Freestyle in Sheffield tonight.
The City of Aberdeen swimmer fought it out in a tough field
that included fellow Commonwealth Champions David Davies (City
of Cardiff) and Ross Davenport (University of Bath).
Carry, who was put under pressure by Davies in the last 100m,
held on to take gold in 3:50.65. Davies won silver in 3:50.72
and 17-year-old Robbie Renwick of City of Aberdeen collected
bronze in a new British Age Group Record of 3:51.54.
"Pride was the real motivation for me in that race,"
admitted Carry. "I'm not really in great shape at the
moment - I've got a bit of a hangover from last week, swimming-wise.
"It's important for me to keep winning races and not
let it all get on top of me. I was really suffering there,
I still haven't recovered from my jetlag, but it's a delight
to swim reasonably when I'm feeling like this."
Hannah Miley (Garioch) continued her form from the Commonwealth
Games to win gold in the 400m Individual Medley in a new Scottish
Record time of 4:46.55.
15-year-old Jessica Dickons of Stockton set a new British
Age Group record for silver in 4:47.62 and Cassandra Patten
(Plymouth Leander) won bronze in 4:49.15.
"If only I'd swum like that in Melbourne," said
Miley. "That's my first senior title so I'm really pleased.
I've been able to bounce off the Commonwealths and I'm just
about over the jet lag. I've been wanting to swim under 4:47
for a while now, so to do a PB is great."
In other events this evening, Commonwealth Champions Gregor
Tait (City of Cardiff) and Matthew Clay (Swansea) will face
a tough race in tomorrow's 100m Backstroke final, after qualifying
behind Olympic finalist James Goddard (Stockport Metro), and
15-year-old Lizzie Simmonds (Lincoln Vulcans) leads a field,
including former World Champion Katie Sexton (Portsmouth Northsea),
into the finals of the 200m Backstroke.
Earlier today, Britain's top disability swimmers were in
action in the 200m and 400m Freestyle events. Stirling's Mhairi
Love (S6) took gold in the 400m event ahead of Eleanor Simmonds
(S6, Boldmere) and Emma Cattle (S10, Luton).
In the men's event, Daniel Pepper (S14) of Stockport Metro
won gold, Craig Moate (S14, Becontree) took silver and Rob
Welbourn (S10, Lincoln Vulcans) was bronze medallist, while
Anthony Stephens of Swansea won the shorter event in 2:52:53.
Also tonight, swimmers competed for the titles in the British
5km Championships, where a record 30 swimmers turned out to
tackle the tiring 100 lengths of the pool.
Izzi Newman of Swim Swansea, who was competing in this event
for the first-time, sealed gold in the women's event in an
impressive 58.46.8 minutes to set a qualification time for
the European Championships this summer. 16-year-old Rachel
Jack (City of Leeds) also swam within the qualifying standards
to win silver in 58.59.7 and Swim Swansea's Phillippa Davies
won bronze in 59.35.4-.
There was upset for open water specialist Alan Bircher (Durham
Aquatics) in the men's event after City of Edinburgh's John
Owen dominated the race to touch home more than a length ahead
in 53.43.8. Bircher clocked in in 54.18.2 for silver, which
means both men have dipped below the qualification standards
for Europe. Northampton's Simon Panting won bronze in 55.34.6
minutes.
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