RELAY WOMEN TAKE SILVER AND SMASH BRITISH RECORD
Britain took the silver and nearly stole the show at the
European Championships in Eindhoven when they smashed the
British Record in the final of the Women's 4x200m Freestyle
Relay.
A new quartet of Jo Jackson, Mel Marshall, Ellen Gandy and
Caitlin McClatchey took nearly five seconds off Britain's
previous best time, set in Melbourne last year, and came so
close to overhauling eventual winners France in the process.
The French team of Manaudou, Balmy, Lazare and Popchanka
touched in 7:52.09, Britain were close second in 7:52.36 and
Italians Carpenese, Pellegrini, Filippi and Spagnolo took
the bronze in 7:55.69.
Anchoring for Britain, McClatchey was down to fourth at one
stage but produced the fastest ever split by a British athlete,
1:56.19, to haul in the field and nearly steal the gold at
the touch.
But McClatchey wasn't alone with her impressive time, Jackson
lead off in 1:59.10, Marshall followed in 1:57.81 and Gandy
went 1:59.26. All will be aiming to go even quicker at the
British Championships in 10 days' time as they compete, rested,
for Olympic qualification.
"We're all so proud of what we've achieved," said
Jackson. "We're still in training but we all went out
there to do our best and we did a fantastic job to take the
silver in such a fast time.
"That was something special and I'm so happy to have
played my part. You never want to let the team down and we
all delivered tonight."
McClatchey's time came as a shock to the Loughborough swimmer.
"We worked very hard and put ourselves right up there
on the podium. Sometimes we haven't fulfilled our potential
but we certainly did that today," said McClatchey.
"I tried so hard to claw back at the French and it nearly
paid off but that's a great place to be at this stage of the
season while we're not properly rested to race."
Day four in Eindhoven also saw European Champion Kirsty Balfour
ease into the final of the Women's 200m Breaststroke with
a confident semi-final performance despite the fact the City
of Edinburgh swimmer isn't fully race prepared. She qualified
fourth fastest in a time of 2:27.90.
With the British Championships beginning on 31st March in
Sheffield, Balfour's priority at this stage in the season
is to try to add the 100m event to her Olympic programme and
will be looking to be at her best in another week's time.
City of Cardiff swimmer Dave Davies goes second fastest into
tomorrow night's final of the Men's 1500m Freestyle after
he swam 15:18.02 in the morning heats.
The British Women's 4x200m Freestyle Relay team also broke
the Commonwealth Record, which stood at 7:54.06 and was previously
held by Australia since 2005, at tonight's European Championships
in Eindhoven.
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