PATTEN ADDS BRITISH TITLE TO RECENT HONOURS
World Championship Open Water medallist Cassie Patten proved
her stamina by taking the British 800m title just one week
after securing World silver over 10k.
In a field saturated with French swimmers, the 20-year-old
from Stockport Metro took charge early on, but was pushed
all the way by France's Coralie Balmy. Patten fought off the
European challenger and a sprint finish on the final 15m secured
her the title in a new personal best of 8:36.64. Balmy touched
in 8:37.91 and compatriot Charlene Neufcoeur took bronze in
8:41.14.
"I'm really pleased with my time - it was a PB,"
said Patten. "It was a bit of a French final with only
two Brits in it, but it was good to have pressure from the
French girl as it pushed me to the end. I wasn't going to
get beaten at the British Champs.
"Because of the World Championships, I haven't really
been able to prepare properly for this meet. We went to China
on the way home and trained in a small hotel pool and I'm
a little jet lagged, but everyone is tired so I take the positive
from that. I've come here to do my job and swim well.
"Most people think I'm odd to switch between the pool
and open water but I really enjoy it. I love the challenge
of open water, but I've been swimming since I was nine so
I can't say I'm solely one type of swimmer or the other. At
the moment I'm loving doing both."
In the 200m Individual Medley Euan Dale, a Scottish Commonwealth
medallist over 400m, kept Loughborough team mate Joe Roebuck
at bay to take the British title in 2:01.92. Roebuck won silver
in 2:02.17 and Stockport Metro's Simon Birch picked up bronze
in 2:04.85.
"I train with Joe and I knew he'd pull ahead on the
Fly, but I tried to reel him in on the Backstroke, pull away
on the Breast and then fight for it on the Freestyle,"
explained Dale.
"I wanted to get a fast time here, but it's the winning
that's important. Because we're swimming finals in the morning
I really went after the time in the heats, which is why I
was quicker last night. It's hard to get a good time in the
morning, although in Beijing that's what we'll have to do.
I now just need to qualify next year."
Liz Johnson set a new European Record in the multi-disability
50m Breaststroke. Spurred on by faster athletes in the higher
classifications, the SB6 Swim Swansea swimmer put in a lifetime
best performance to finish in 47.26 seconds. Nova Centurion's
Charlotte Henshaw, who competes in the same classification
as Johnson, won silver in 49.72 and Claire Cashmore of Kelly
College (SB8) picked up bronze in 41.53.
"That was a big surprise," said Johnson. "I've
been working on a cycle geared towards Beijing and I haven't
done a lot of work for this event.
"I had a great start to the year with a training camp
in Macau, which gave me a boost training in a different environment
with different athletes. But after I came back I was out of
the pool with a viral infection and I'm in my final year at
Uni so I've had a lot of work to do for that.
"But when you're in the lower classifications, the multi-disability
events give you someone to chase and that obviously helped
me today."
In the men's event Johnson's Swansea team mate Gareth Duke
(SB6) also benefited from swimming in a fast field and took
gold with a time of 41.16 seconds. Leominster's Sascha Kindred
was next closest to his respective record for silver in 39.30
and David Ellis (Derventio, S13) won bronze in 33.55.
In the multi-disability 100m Backstroke, multi-Paralympian
Nyree Lewis (Leominster, S6) won the women's gold in 1:31.31
and backstroke specialist Andrew Lindsay (Incas, S7) won the
men's event in 1:15.73.
Scotland's Kerry Buchan took her second British title in
as many days with victory in the 50m Breaststroke. Buchan
made the short sprint in 32.58 seconds, just one tenth of
a second ahead of Wrexham's Lowri Tynan who finished in 32.68.
Deborah Hall of City of Sheffield won bronze in 32.85.
French duo Benjamin Stasiulis and Camille Lacourt dominated
the podium in the men's 50m Backstroke, with Marco Loughran
finishing just outside the Welsh record he set yesterday to
secure bronze in 26.30 seconds. The French duo took gold and
silver in 25.94 and 26.26 seconds.
It was the same story in the men's 100m Freestyle, where
Frenchmen Kevin Trannoy and Matthieu Madelaine touched home
first, leaving the challenge for bronze between Loughborough
University's Daniel Coombs and Hatfield's Adam Brown. Coombs
got the better of the touch, sealing his podium spot by two
hundredths of a second in 51.17.
In the final event of the session - the men's 4x100m Medley,
the Loughborough University quartet of Scott Hathaway, Chris
Watkinson, Matt Edwards and Quentin Lahana became British
Champions with a time of 3:48.22.
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