BRITISH BOYS FIGHT BACK WITH DOUBLE BRONZE
Tonight it was the turn of Britain's male contingent to bring
home the honours as Kris Gilchrist and Matt Clay picked up
bronze in the pool at the European Championships.
After qualifying seventh into the 200m Breaststroke final,
Gilchrist (City of Edinburgh) swam a fierce race that saw
him lead at the first turn. The Scot was unable to hold on
to his lead at the halfway point but was up with the leaders
to finish in 2:13.21, and when Italian Loris Facci was disqualified,
Gilchrist was promoted to third position.
"I wasn't happy with my times in the heats or the semi
- my stroke was all over the place, but I felt I put some
of that right tonight," he said. "I decided to go
for it a bit more this evening. At 150m I just felt I had
nothing left but I dug in to try to finish strongly. I gave
it everything and I was very happy to see I'd been promoted
after the winner was disqualified."
Poland's Slawomir Kuczko won gold in 2:12.12 and Paolo Bossini
of Italy took silver in 2:12.35. Fellow Brit James Kirton
(City of Sheffield) finished sixth in 2:14.26.
In the men's 50m Backstroke, Swansea's Matt Clay led out
and was in the medals as he swam home to bronze in 25.15.
World Champion Aristeidis Grigoriadis (Greece) was just a
hundredth of a second ahead of Clay for silver, and gold went
to Germany's Helge Meeuw in 25.06.
"I could see I was ahead at 25m so I suppose I'm a little
disappointed with the bronze," he said. "I thought
he'd come back at me so I needed a big finish but he touched
me out.
"Saying that, a European medal to go with Commonwealth
gold has exceeded my expectations for the year."
British record holder Liam Tancock (Loughborough University),
whose preparation has been hampered by a broken wrist, finished
a respectable sixth in 25.53.
In a fast 4x200m Freestyle race that saw Germany's women
smash the world record by almost three seconds to 7:50.82,
the quartet of Mel Marshall (Loughborough University), Jo
Jackson (Durham Aquatics), Fran Halsall (City of Liverpool)
and Caitlin McClatchey (Loughborough University) set a record
of their own with a new British standard of 7:57.86.
Despite the time, the team finished outside the medals in
fourth position - Poland took silver in 7:56.44 and France
won bronze in 7:56.44.
Lead swimmer Mel Marshall gave her take on the race.
"Everyone gave it their best tonight but it just didn't
click," she said. "We stood up together but we didn't
achieve our best. There are positives we can take, but collectively
we missed."
Commonwealth champion Simon Burnett is out of contention
for the 100m Freestyle title after finishing joint tenth in
49.56 in the semi final. The University of Arizona student
had a poor start, which pushed him off the pace behind a strong
field including world record holder Pieter Van Den Hoogenband.
Italy's Filippo Magnini is fastest through in 48.91.
"I messed up the start and that's something I wanted
to get right tonight," said Burnett. "I don't honestly
know what's wrong with me.
"In the Commonwealth Games semi finals I went 49.1 and
it was so easy. I gave everything I had tonight and it just
didn't happen. Something isn't right and we need to find out
what that is."
Kirsty Balfour (City of Edinburgh) and Kerry Buchan (South
Aberdeenshire) are both back in action tomorrow night after
making it through to the finals of the 200m Breaststroke.
Balfour qualified in first position in 2:27.48 while Buchan
goes through seventh after a personal best swim of 2:29.80.
"That felt good," said a confident Balfour. "It
was relaxed after I felt a bit tight this morning. The time
was where I thought it would be and I'm sure it will be quicker
tomorrow."
Terri Dunning (City of Birmingham) and Ros Brett (Loughborough
University) both qualified for the semi finals of the 100m
Butterfly but will not progress to the finals after finishing
in 11th and 14th position in 59.66 and 1:00.31 respectively.
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