BRITS FAIL TO PACE AS WORLD SWIMMING EVOLVES
Britain's swimmers discovered what is required to compete
at the top of a sport that has moved forward further in the
past two days at the World Championships in Melbourne that
it has in the last three years.
World Records fell yet again on day four at the Rod Laver
Arena as yet more breathtaking performances saw the sport
continue the rapid evolution it's experiencing in Australia.
The crowd, athletes, coaches and officials rose in unison
as performances from the likes of American Michael Phelps
saw swimming enter a new age.
Britain's Caitlin McClatchey (Loughborough University) was
involved in one those swims that set a new standard for the
rest of the world to follow when she went in the final of
the Women's 200m Freestyle.
With seven of the eight finalists already having gone faster
than the gold medal winning time two years ago the final was
always going to be fast.
However, French swimmer Laure Manaudou took the event to
a whole new level with a World Record winning time of 1:55.52,
almost a full second ahead of the previous standard, silver
went to Germany's Annika Lurz in 1:55.68 and Frederica Pellegrini
of Italy took bronze in 1:56.97.
McClatchey, going in an outside lane, struggled in the wash
produced by the other girls and came home in seventh place
in a time of 1:59.28.
"I got caught out by the waves produced by the other
girls," said McClatchey. "I'm not the biggest of
swimmers and those girls got ahead of me and I got caught
in their wash.
"I'm disappointed with my time as I wanted to go quicker.
We saw a world record in the semi-finals and a world record
in the final so it's moving on rapidly and I need to make
sure I follow that.
"I'll get back into training when I get home and see
where we can improve. There's always room for improvement
and I know what I need to do to give me a chance of competing
against those guys.
"I'll be looking at my volumes in training and also
a weights programme to add more muscle."
In the Men's 100m Freestyle Simon Burnett qualified from
the morning heats fifth fastest and in tonight's semi-final
couldn't find enough to secure a place in the final.
Burnett, who has struggled with form in Melbourne, went 49.22
to finish his semi-final in fifth place to give him an overall
position of 12th.
"I came here and really thought I could do something,"
said a despondent Burnett. "I had a great preparation
but this meet has become less about best times and more about
personal demons and battling them.
"I've got to get myself together again now and look
forward to the 4x200m relay. We've got a great bunch of guys
and they're relying on me. I don't want to let them down and
that's my focus now.
"At the end of the week I'll go away from Melbourne,
sit down somewhere and try to figure out what went wrong.
I'm feeling really awful at the moment and I need to find
the answer to make sure it doesn't happen again."
In the Women's 200m Butterfly Jess Dickons (Borough of Stockton)
and Terri Dunning (City of Birmingham both fought their way
through to tonight's semi-final but failed to progress.
Teenager Dickons went 2:11.32 to finish 13th and Dunning
came back in 2:13..08 to finish 16th.
"I was just trying to get out there from the start and
get involved in the race," said Dickons. "I was
thinking about my own performance and less about what the
others were doing but it was just such a fast field.
In the morning session from Melbourne, City of Edinburgh's
Gregor Tait finished 19th in the Men's 200m Individual Medley
in a time of 2:02.60. And Ross Davenport (Loughborough University
set a new personal best in the heats of the 100m Freestyle
when he went 49.69 to finish 18th.
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