British Gas ASA Youth Championships (50m) 2009, incorporating the National Championships - Day 3
The Boys 17yrs British Age Group record for the 800m Freestyle fell three times at the National Youth Championships (50m), incorporating the National Championships (50m) 2009 today as the swimmers at Ponds Forge continued to smash records.
Thomas Sunter (Co Sheffield) lowered the old mark by almost a second and knocked more than 22 seconds of his PB with his Heat 9 swim of 8:14.70 but in Heat 10 Martin Cremin (Stirling Swim) took nearly another second off the British record with his 8:13.75.
With the final heat still to go, in-form Thomas Allen (Swim Flint) annihilated both times, clocking 8:03.31 to take the gold in the Boys 17/18rs category and the National Title. Only Job Kienhuis (NZE) went faster clocking 7:55.12 and earning himself a commemorative medal.
"That was faster than I expected to go," explained Allen. "I’ve had a bad year so to finish on that is great. I saw Job go and just tried to go that fast." And more was still to come from Allen as he took gold in the evening session in the Boys 17/18yrs 200m Butterfly. His 1:59.10 was just 0.2seconds off the Age Group record.
In the first race of the evening, James Disney-May (Millfield) was pushed to a new British Age Group record in the Boys 15/16yrs 100m Freestyle in a hard-fought battle with James Young (Plymouth Leander). Disney-May touched in 51.26, while Young’s 51.59 equalled the previous record. Felix Samuels (Camden Swiss) snatched bronze with 51.85.
Disney-May said: "I was trying to get a PB and a medal so I’m happy I did. It was a hard race but I felt good in the water."
With Age Group records falling, Cameron Brodie (Kelly Coll) went 2:01.28 in the Boys 15/16yrs 200m Butterfly to secure gold and set a new British 16-year-old standard. The fast pace also led silver medallist S Van De Schootbrugge (Co Oxford) to a personal best 2:03.05, as it did for bronze medallist Joseph French (Harrowgate) in 2:04.92.
Cameron, who returned from the LEN European Junior Championships earlier this month, said. "That was fantastic and a bit surprising particularly because I thought I was losing a bit of fitness after the Europeans.
"I’ve got the 100m Fly in two days and hopefully I can produce a big swim there and manage gold and maybe a British record. I could be getting greedy now, I want more!"
There was a nice birthday present for Emma Saunders (Co Manch Aq) as she took gold in the Girls 14/15yrs 100m Backstroke with 1:03.90, ahead of Fiona Donnelly (Nova Cent’n) 1:04.08 and Lauren Quigley (Co Manch Aq) in 1:04.79.
"It’s just been a normal day really but I was impressed I went that fast," said the 15-year-old who has also returned from the Europeans. "I went 64.1 at the Europeans so I knew I was close to it and I just tried today to get myself ready before the race and keep myself focused."
Disability Swimming continued to witness some great performances, as more British records fell. In the morning session Louise Watkin (Kelly Coll) showed she was in great shape as she knocked 0.2 seconds of her own PB and set a new British record in the Womens MD 100m Breaststroke SB4-SB14 heats with 1:25.03. But more was still to come and in the final Watkin touched in 1:23.51 to lower the British record again and set the European standard in the process.
"It’s unbelievable," she said of her evening’s swim. "I broke the record this morning but I knew that I could have gone faster. I didn’t think I would go 1:23, maybe 1:24, and throughout the whole race I didn’t know what was going on but it just felt good."
In the same race, Claire Cashmore also lowered the British mark for the SB8 category with a time of 1:21.91.
Day three for Daniel Pepper (Stockport Mo) saw his third British record, this time in the Mens MD 100m Breaststroke, as he lowered his own mark to 1:11.33. His points total of 807 was enough to take bronze behind Matthew Whorwood (Swansea Perf) with 822 points and gold winner Sascha Kindred (Leominster) with 882.
Click to view full results from Day 3
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