GOLD GIVES HALL FIFTH NATIONAL MEDAL
CITY of Sheffield swimmer Debbie Hall clinched the most exciting
victory of the day as the Swimming Times ASA National Youth
and ASA Championships drew to a close.
Hall, aged 17, won the Women's Open 200 Breaststroke final
on the last day of the Championships after edging out Glasgow's
Rebecca Hillis by just .06 of a second.
A delighted Hall said: "I'm really pleased with that
finish. I wanted to win it and I was determined to win it.
"This victory means such a lot to me. I was up against
some tough opponents, but all my hard work has paid off.
"It was special to win it in front of my home crowd
too. I had great support inside the arena today."
Hall won the 100m Breaststroke event earlier in the week,
and has also secured three silver medals.
Fifteen-year-old Jordan Tomlinson had a day to remember also.
She added the Women's Open 400m Freestyle title to her earlier
success in the 14/15 Yrs age group.
Sunday's action at Sheffield got under way with pleasing
wins for Lincoln Vulcan Tomlinson in the women's 14/15 Yrs
400m Freestyle, and Canada's Breanna Hendricks in the 16/17
Yrs event. Hatfield's Rachael George took the gold medal in
the 16/17 Yrs event though, thanks to her time of 4:19.44.
Saturday's star Xavier Mohammed (Bexley) followed that up
with his record swim in the Men's 15/16 Yrs 400m Individual
Medley final, before Gallica's Daniel Coombs then made his
trip across the Pennines very worthwhile. He edged out Stockport
Metro's Patrick Hazlewood to win the 17/18 Yrs 400m IM in
an impressive time of 4:29.22 - a new personal best.
Loughborough University's Michael Unsworth completed a fine
victory in the Men's Open 1500m Freestyle - a time of 15:29.25
going some way to helping wipe away his disappointment at
coming fourth in the Commonwealth Games trials earlier this
year.
Unsworth's club-mate Ian Hulme then did the business in the
Open 100m Butterfly with a time of 54.11secs giving him a
sweet victory.
Ross Clark produced a personal best time of 28.84secs to
win the Open 50m Breaststroke final, while back in the Women's
events, Loughborough secured further golden glory when Hana
Capstick's time of 2:14.69 won her the Open 200m Butterfly
final.
Welshman Owen Morgan produced a super swim to win the Men's
Open 50m Freestyle final. The Cranleigh star's time of 22.85secs
was a personal best by one hundredth of a second.
Ben Ward (Loughborough) rounded off the individual evenrts
with victory in the Open 400m IM.
To round things off after another successful day at Ponds
Forge, Gallica won the Youth 4x100m Freestyle event, while
Beckenham SC took the honours in the Women's.
There were some notable last-day heroics in the EAD events
also.
In the first event, the Women's MD 200m IM, there were two
British records smashed by Bolton's Rachael Latham and Luton's
Claire Warne - their times 3:11.45 and 4:30.28 respectively.
The next event - the Men's MD 200m IM - boasted two world
records, however. These came from the experienced Sascha Kindred
thanks to his time of 2:47.24 and Robert Welbourn from Lincoln
Vulcans (2:24.86).
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