Brits Set Pair of Age Group Standards at ASA National Youth Championships

PONDS FORGE, Sheffield, England, Aug. 3 A pair of British age-group records went down on the third day of the ASA National Youth and ASA Championships at the Ponds Forge International Sports Center. Xavier Mohammed and Peter Thompson stole the show with a series of sparkling swims in South Yorkshire.

Sixteen-year-old Mohammed turned on the steam in the men's open 200-meter individual medley final, while fellow teenager Thompson excelled to win gold in the men's 15/16yrs butterfly final.

Thanks to an impressive time of 2.04.22, an improvement of 9.48 seconds on his heat qualifying time, Mohammed made sure of first place on the podium in a closely fought 200 IM final. His time also shaded his previous personal best, 2.05.83, by more than a second and a half.

Mohammed led from the front for the entire race and, despite a strong challenge from 2005 ASA Youth 17/18yrs champion Craig Elliot kept his hand in front to savor sweet success.

Elliot, 19, touched home less than a hundredth of a second behind in a tense final freestyle leg, while Loughborough University swimmer Ben Ward, 21, took bronze in a time of 2.07.30.

“I saw [Elliot] over my shoulder and I thought ‘I'll have to get my head down here’,” Mohammed said. “So, I did and gave it everything I had. That's the fastest I've ever swam. I felt amazing out there. I had a great start and just felt really comfortable on the last leg having had a good start.”

Not to be outdone, Thompson made sure he had an evening to savor with a new British age-group record in the men's 15/16yrs butterfly final.

The 16-year-old clocked a time of 2.02.60 to win gold, edging Australia's Daniel Arnamnart by 0.39 seconds. Adam Mallett, swimming for Lincoln Vulcans, won bronze in a time of 2.05.99, three seconds behind the teenager from Down Under.

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