British Championships - round up

Its been a long and exciting week in London with some highs and lows along the way........

It's clear that the team made an impact on the meet with several swimmers being interviewed by various people from the media. We had some amazing results that we can all be very proud of, although it was often a case of so near yet so far on many occasions.

Firstly the boys........

Ben Goodall at his first ever British Championships comes away with 2 PBs in the 1500m Freestyle (16:23.79) and the 200m Fly (2:10.63). The 1500m Frs was also a new DX Squad Record. He also competed in the 400m IM narrowly missing his PB but setting a PB for 100m Fly on the way to a 4:43.69.

Kane Haggett has now firmly established himself as a hot prospect for the future in Sprint Freestyle where the average age of a male Olympian is 24 years. Kane finished 5th in the 50m Freestyle although his best time came in the semi-finals where he went 22.75 - a time that places him 28th in the 2012 World Rankings and 16th in the all-time rankings of Great Britain performances.

Onto the girls......

Hannah Jones recorded a massive PB of 2:17.79 in the 200m Fly and was within 0.2 secs of making the GB team for the European Junior Chamoionships. Next season she will be a hot favourite to earn an international call-up by continuing her fantastic form and great work ethic in training.

Sarah Vasey, despite only qualifying for Trials at our own open meet in February, smashed her PB with a 1:12.30 in the 100m Breaststroke and a 50m PB of 33.41 at the 50m split!!

Jodie Hawksworth swam to season best performances in both the 100m and 200m Breaststroke and in the shorter event she missed qualifying for the semi-finals by just 0.01 secs. Times of 1:11.56 and 2:38.34 will give her immense confidence to build on for the remainder of the season.

Abbie Wood produced some fantastic swims, most notably in the 100m Breaststroke with a time of 1:14.27. She also came within 0.6secs of making the semi-finals in the 200m Breaststroke (2:37.17) at just 13 years of age. New best times were also established in the 200m and 400m IM.

Finally was Molly Renshaw who at 15 years came within 0.18 secs of becoming the youngest swimmer on the Olympic Team. Her time in the 200m Breaststroke of 2:26.81 was a new British Age Group Record and is the 8th fastest time in the world this year! Molly now has a second chance to qualify in June at the ASA National Championships where a winning time of 2:26.87 will be enough to make the Olympic team. Molly's performance in the 400m IM on the first day of the meet saw her qualify for the European Junior Chamoionships in Belgium this summer.

Other Derventio swimmers competing in London were. Chris Steeples (City of Manchester), Josh Booth (Millfield School), Emma Smithurst (Swansea ITC) and Zichen Liu (Loughborough University).