STOCKPORT, England, August 15. JAMES Gibson continued his World Championship-winning success to set a new British and Commonwealth 100m breaststroke record on the opening day of the British Short Course Championships in Stockport. <\/p>\n
In Thursday\u2019s semifinals, both Gibson and Newcastle\u2019s Chris Cook were under the previous record, with the Loughborough swimmer carving 0.64 off Cooke's six-month-old standard to qualify fastest for Friday\u2019s final. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had a bit of a comedown after the World Championships and it as difficult to pick myself up again, so that was fantastic and I\u2019m obviously still in great form,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait for tomorrow\u2019s final. It should be a great race. It\u2019s going to be tough. That was by no means perfect and I\u2019ve got to work on the technical aspects of my swim because I had some awful turns there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Edinburgh backstroker Gregor Tait bounced back from his World Championships disappointment to rob Stephen Parry of his British record in the 200m backstroke, lowering Parry\u2019s year-old standard by 1.59 seconds to 1:52.52. Parry and Stockport teammate James Goddard picked up the silver and bronze medals. <\/p>\n
All three swimmers were inside the selection criteria for December\u2019s European Short Course Championships in Dublin, the last major international event before next summer\u2019s Olympics in Athens. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t complain at that,\u201d said 24-year-old Tait, whose Scottish record placed him ninth in Barcelona after he was forced to swim-off for a place in the World Championship final. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought I could go pretty quickly. It gave me a lot of encouragement being ahead of Stephen Parry because I\u2019m used to chasing him, so that gave me a big push towards the finish.\u201d <\/p>\n
Swimming in his home pool, fellow countryman Graeme Smith set a new Scottish record of 3:45.27 to win the men\u2019s 400m freestyle, defeating the defending champion Adam Faulkner of Nova by half a second, with youngster David Davies of Cardiff third in a Welsh record 3:48.14. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling great after the Worlds so coming here I wasn\u2019t sure how I\u2019d swim,\u201d said Smith. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m over the moon, that\u2019s my best by over three and a half seconds and this is looking good for my 1500m, which is my best event. It\u2019s great to swim here at home and for a Stockport swimmer to win gold.\u201d <\/p>\n
A closely contested men\u2019s 200m individual medley saw just 0.17 divide the top four swimmers, with Bath\u2019s Robin Francis clinching the title in 1:58.31, with Ian Edmond second in 1:58.46, and Adrian Turner and Gregor Tait two and three hundredths behind, respectively. <\/p>\n
\u201cI came from behind to win and it was a great race between all three of us,\u201d Francis said. \u201cI\u2019m pleased because I\u2019ve not swam that race for two years. It wasn\u2019t a perfect race but I felt strong and it was a great time for me, but very very close.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mark Foster successfully defended his title in the men\u2019s 50m freestyle final, clocking 21.41 seconds to finish a body length ahead of Loughborough\u2019s Chris Cozens and Alabama-based Matthew Kidd, while Coventry\u2019s Rachel Genner took the women\u2019s 50m breaststroke crown in 31.44, beating Irish international Emma Robinson of Bath and Millfield youngster Rosie Morahan. <\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Jenifer Fratesi finished five meters clear of the field to take the women\u2019s 200m individual medley in 2:11.96, with Hull\u2019s Claire Windeatt the fastest British swimmer in 2:15.09 to win the silver medal, with Glasgow\u2019s Rebecca Cooke third, while Texas-based Georgina Lee lifted the women\u2019s 200m butterfly title, clocking 2.10.82, with Durham\u2019s Joanne Jackson and Lousie Gowans of Southend making up the medals. <\/p>\n
In tonight\u2019s semifinals, Barnet\u2019s Sarah Price, the former 200m backstroke world record-holder in the short course pool qualified fastest for Friday\u2019s 100m backstroke final 59.70 in front of Loughborough\u2019s Melanie Marshall and World Champion Katy Sexton. Newly crowned European Junior Champion Stephanie Proud set a British junior record of 1.01.45 to qualify sixth fastest. <\/p>\n
Stirling\u2019s Todd Cooper established a new Scottish record of 53.02 to qualify third for the men\u2019s 100m butterfly. Four-time World Short Course Champion James Hickman of the City of Manchester is in the pole position for Friday\u2019s final after a semifinal time of 51.79. <\/p>\n
Alison Sheppard set a new Scottish record of 53.75 to qualify fastest for the women\u2019s 100m freestyle final tomorrow, while Owen Morgan lowered his Welsh record to 22.54 seconds in the 50m freestyle semis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
STOCKPORT, England, August 15. JAMES Gibson continued his World Championship-winning success to set a new British and Commonwealth 100m breaststroke record on the opening day of the British Short Course<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n