Jay Lelliott Claims Four Golds At National Winter Championships: British Record For Ulyett

Jay Lelliott World University Games Gwangju 2015

Former European 400m freestyle bronze medallist Jay Lelliott won four gold medals at the National Winter Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

There was also a British record in the 200m breaststroke for Jocelyn Ulyett while Loughborough University claimed all the relay titles.

Jay Lelliott World University Games 2015

Photo Courtesy: Gwangju Summer Universiade Organizing Committee

Lelliott, who competes for City of Sheffield, topped the podium in the 400m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 100m and 200m backstroke as well as claiming bronze from lane seven in the 100m freestyle.

The 24-year-old, who won bronze over 400m at the 2014 European Championships in Berlin, set a personal best of 1:53.80 in the 200 fly which came just half an hour after he won the 100 backstroke title.

He said: “I think one of the things I’ve done really well so far is that I’ve got a base behind me, and it’s shown that I’ve got the speed.

“But the one thing I’m missing is that back end and what I really find works for me in training is a lot of back-end work.

“In training it’s been similar, so I know that it’s there and it’s something I can change, which is confidence, so I’m really happy with that if I’m honest.”

He added: “But that 200m butterfly – over a second off, finally! I’m just so…I can’t even express it…it’s been a long time coming and my butterfly has been feeling mint in training and everything has been going well. So I knew I deserved to swim like that and I’m glad that I finally got it.”

Ulyett lowered Molly Renshaw’s British 200 breaststroke record to 2:17.10, set in 2016, and is now the proud owner of both the long and short-course marks.

She also broke Siobhan O’Connor’s English record in the 100m breaststroke, cutting 0.06secs from the previous mark set in 2018 to stop the clock at 1:05.01.

Commonwealth 50m breaststroke gold medallist Sarah Vasey was second in 1:05.42.

Ulyett said: “My focus after this will be just getting back to Loughborough, sitting down with my coaches and seeing what needs to be improved and hopefully implement that into training.

“It’s been a good year. I’ve just really been focusing on my training. I didn’t really do rested short course meets last year, so I was just excited to come here and see what I could post.

“This is my last competition of this year, so next year I’m just kind of … well you know January will be really hard, burning off all that Christmas dinner!

“But then it’ll just be the same as this cycle really – hard work, hopefully staying focused and see what I can produce later on in the year.”

Jacob Peters set a new personal best in the 100m butterfly before setting his sights on the Olympic trials in April.

The Poole swimmer, who won Commonwealth silver in Gold Coast last year, touched in 51.16, 0.27secs inside his PB.

Peters said: “Obviously this year is a big season with the Olympics so I’m going to see if I can get a bit closer to that Olympic qualifying time in the 100m Butterfly – I’m hoping I can get as close to that as possible.”

There was a whole host of record-breaking performances across the meet in Sheffield indicative of current excellence and hinting of things to come.

However, one such notable performance was by Jacob Whittle, the Derventio Excel swimmer, who made waves in July when he dipped inside 50secs in the 100m free, clocking 49.97 at the European Junior Championships to become the fastest 14-year-old in history.

Now 15, Whittle broke the British junior record set by Matt Richards, the European junior champion, in the 100 free, lowering it to 49.05.

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