SIMMONDS AND THOMPSON ADD TO BRITISH MEDAL TALLY
Lizzie Simmonds and Peter Thompson took silver and bronze
respectively for Britain at the European Junior Championships
today.
Lizzie Simmonds took to the podium for the second time in
two days when she took the silver medal in the women's 50m
Backstroke final.
And yet again Simmonds set a new personal best time throughout
each stage of the event.
Swimming in the heats this morning, Simmonds touched in 29.40
and moved into the evening semi-finals as the fastest qualifier,
and did that same in the semi-finals when she finished in
29.18 setting a new Championship record.
However, in a tight final, Simmonds touched in 29.34 to take
silver with Germany's Christin Zenner snatching the gold and
taking the Championship record set by Simmonds, when she finished
in 29.14 with Poland's Karolina Urbanska took the bronze medal
in 30.21.
Although disappointed not to take the gold after her earlier
performances, Simmonds was more than happy with silver.
"I had never really thought of myself as a 50m swimmer
and had not expected too much from this particular event coming
into the meet as I wasn't rested and thought I would have
more endurance than speed," said Simmonds.
"Obviously after my earlier swims I would have liked
to take gold but all credit to Zenner for putting in a fantastic
performance in the final with a Championship record."
Also competing in the women's 50m Backstroke was Zoe Hester,
who finished 29th in a time of 31.48 in the morning heats.
Peter Thompson claimed bronze for Britain in the men's 200m
Butterfly in superb fashion from an outside lane.
Qualifying from yesterday's semi-final in 2:02.54 ranked
seventh, Thompson went into the final with an outside chance.
Swimming from lane 1, Thompson turned in second position
after the first 100m.
As he continued to push, beating his nearest rival at the
finish by two seconds touching in 2:00.69, just outside his
personal best time.
In what is his first major international meet, Thompson was
pleased to take the bronze medal.
"I really happy to win a bronze medal. Coming into meet
I was hoping to make the final but I really didn't expect
to finish with a medal so this is great."
Gold went to Dinko Jukic of Austria in 1:59.57 with silver
going to Italy's Federico Bussolin who finished in 2:00.33.
In the men's 50m Breaststroke, Robert Holderness touched
in 30.39 to finish in 25th place.
In the women's 200m Freestyle heats, Ellen Gandy recorded
a time of 2:05.21 that saw her ranked fifth fastest, however,
with only two swimmers from each nation able to progress to
the semi-finals, Gandy lost out to team-mates Lauren Collins
(2:04.61) and Sasha Matthews (2:04.69).
Going into the evening semi-finals, Collins and Matthews
were ranked third and fourth fastest respectively.
After strong swims in the semi-finals from both swimmers
they move in to tomorrows final, with Matthews going in as
fastest qualifier with a time of 2:03.04, a new personal best
and Collins ranked third with a time of 2:03.39, a new personal
best time also.
Jenna Turner finished 27th in the same event finishing in
2:09.00.
Adam Brown competed in the final of the men's 100m Freestyle
after making it through the semi-finals this afternoon in
a time of 50.95, a new personal best time.
In a tightly contested semi-final, Brown touched home in
51.19 finishing in eighth place.
Grant Turner narrowly missed out on a place in the final
of the men's 100m Freestyle by 0.04 seconds after this morning's
semi-final. His time of 51.07 saw him finish in ninth place,
a new personal best time.
Robyn Matthews finished 9th in the 800m Freestyle in 9:05.85
after the winners were declared from their heat times and
Xavier Mohammed finished eighth in the final of the 200m I.M
in 2:08.17.
Marco Loughran and Chris Walker-Hebborn qualified for tomorrows
200m Backstroke final with times of 2:02.03 and 2:03.68 respectively
from the semi-finals after making it through the morning heats.
In the women's 100m Butterfly, Ellen Gandy put in a solid
performance in the morning heats to qualify for the evening
semi-finals in a time of 1:02.45 and qualified for tomorrows
final ranked second first when she touched in 1:01.20.
Emma Smithurst finished 13th with a time of 1:02.81 after
her semi-final swim after making it through the heats in 1:03.27.
In the final event of the day, the men's 4x200m Freestyle
Relay team finished fourth in 7:26.45 - the fastest time a
National junior men's team has ever swam.
After Ryan Bennett, Chris Fox, Jonathan Greig and Grant Turner
saw the team book their place in the final after getting through
the heats in 7:32.78, the final line up of Chris Fox, Ryan
Bennett, Grant Turner and Chris Walker-Hebborn took to the
water in the evening final.
All four boys put in a fantastic performance and although
they were disappointed no to take a medal, they were happy
with their performance.
"We did are best and swam as fast as we could. It is
disappointing not to win a medal but we couldn't have done
any more than we did," said Fox.
"We work as a team and we are all here to support each
other all of time," said Turner.
Coach Chris Nesbit was keen to praise the boys for their
performance.
"At any of the previous European Junior Championships
that performance would have put the guys in a medal winning
position. I couldn't have asked for any more from them - it
was a great performance by the team."
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