BRITISH TRIO WIN GOLD IN WORLD RECORD TIME
Individual Medley events provided six of Britain's eight
medals in the pool tonight as the country's top swimmers swam
to three world titles in world record times.
Sascha Kindred (Leominster), Natalie Jones (Colchester Phoenix)
and James Crisp (City of Sheffield) set world standards in
their respective events to boost Britain's medal count. With
just a day of competition to go Britain heads the medal table
with 20 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze medals.
In the SM6 200m Individual Medley Kindred, Matt Whorwood
(Newquay Cormorants) and Gareth Duke (Swim Swansea) got the
clean sweep for Britain in a thrilling race.
Kindred lowered his world record by over a second to touch
clear in front of the chasing pack in 2:46.20 and 16-year-old
Whorwood put in an awesome sprint to beat hero Gareth Duke
on the final leg. Whorwood sealed silver in 2:56.28 and Duke
won bronze in a six-second best of 2:56.64.
"That was awesome," said a delighted Kindred. "Not
only did I get the world record, but Britain got a one-two-three.
And with Gareth and Matt so young it's a really good sign
for the future.
"In the warm-up I did some sprints and I was going pretty
quick so I felt capable of the record tonight. The race felt
smooth but that last 50m hurt so much I thought my legs might
stop working.
"I'd really like to thank Halo Leisure and BGC for supporting
me this year and in the lead-up to Beijing."
Whorwood, who won silver in the 400m Freestyle just last
night was overjoyed to get a second individual medal at his
first major international meet.
"It's fantastic to get a one-two-three, I'm over the
moon," he said. "I could see the Chinese guy and
I wanted to beat him, then I saw Dukey and it urged me to
charge home. The thought that the Brits could wipe the board
was an added incentive."
In the women's event Natalie Jones followed Kindred to glory
with gold and a new world record in 3:16.70. Fuying Jiang
of China touched for silver in 3:20.62 and Nyree Lewis clinched
the bronze in 3:23.38. Swim Swansea's Liz Johnson set a three-second
personal best for fourth position in 3:25.46.
"I feel absolutely fantastic," said an emotional
Jones. "I was deflated this morning after my swim and
I was quite nervous getting up onto the blocks with the Chinese
girl next to me. I knew she'd take the lead from the start
and when I turned for the breaststroke leg I thought 'there's
a lot of work to do', but I knew I could bring it back on
the freestyle. It's unbelievable. I'm so excited I really
can't believe it."
City of Sheffield's James Crisp grabbed a surprise win in
the S9 400m Freestyle, securing the gold in a new world record
time of 4:22.60. After a slow start to competition, Crisp
set his first personal best in this event in two and a half
years to beat Australia's Matt Cowdrey and Jesus Collado of
Spain.
"That's a total shock, I wasn't expecting that at all"
said Crisp. "I felt quite drained going in, but I knew
I had to just attack it. I saw I was ahead at the first 100m,
I kept the pressure on to 200m and managed to hold on to the
end.
"I was disappointed with my swims at the start of the
meet, but I seem to have improved as the week's gone on. That
was a three-second PB."
In the S10 400m Freestyle Rob Welbourn repeated his performance
in Athens to take silver in a new European record. The Lincoln
Vulcan swam home in 4:12.89 to add to the gold he won earlier
this week as part of the 34-point 4x100m Freestyle team.
"This morning after the first 200m I eased off and just
finished the race," he explained. "It was enough
to get me in one of the middle lanes and I knew I had a lot
more left for this evening. I expected a PB as I've not done
one since Athens and I've been working really hard. I would
have been disappointed if I didn't get that.
"The competition has moved on and it's got a lot harder
but I've been able to move on myself and keep up. I knew it
would be between myself, Benoit and Andre so to get the silver
is really good."
Britain's final medal of the evening came courtesy of double
Paralympian Dave Roberts. After a busy five days of competition
the 26-year-old won bronze in the SM7 200m Individual Medley
in 2:51.53 behind Rudy Garcia-Tolson (USA) and Rong Tian (China).
"I took it out hard and I knew if I turned at the 150m
mark in third I would be happy to stay there," said Roberts.
"It was the sensible decision as I've got another two
races tomorrow.
"Winning the bronze here goes to show that Athens wasn't
a fluke and I can get in the medals."
Earlier today, 18-year-old Angela McCowan (Stirling) set
a new British record of 5:24.65 in the S10 400m Freestyle.
|
