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Lowe Spurred On To Record Time

Thu 03 Apr, 11:09 PM


Jemma Lowe reclaimed her British 100m butterfly record in quickfire fashion at the Olympic trials in Sheffield on Thursday evening.

Lowe admitted she had been stung into action after watching Fran Halsall claim take her record in the previous race.

She duly hit back immediately to reclaim her mark in a time of 57.78 seconds at Ponds Forge.

Halsall, who won the 50m freestyle title during the morning finals session, blasted down the first length to set a then record of 58.44secs before Lowe responded in the very next heat to wipe out the City of Liverpool swimmer's mark.

The 17-year-olds' efforts came 24 hours after Liam Tancock became the first British world record holder since Zoe Baker broke the 50m breaststroke mark at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Lowe, who claimed the 200m butterfly British record earlier in the week, said: "It was brilliant. I was (confident) because of the split I did at the Europeans.

"But I was still nervous, I just wanted to make sure I qualified.

"And seeing someone else had stolen my record in the heat before made me a bit angry.

"But it also made me a bit more scared.

"I just wanted to get it over with because I have been nervous about this meet for 10 months."

Swimmers have to achieve the Olympic qualifying time in the heats and then need to finish in the top two in the final to earn selection.

In order to replicate the programme in Beijing, heats are swum in the evening with the finals the following morning.

Ellen Gandy and Terri Dunning also achieved the necessary time so the quartet will fight for two places in the morning.

Thomas Haffield was stunned after taking more than six seconds off his personal best to set a new Commonwealth record in the 400m individual medley.

The City of Cardiff swimmer claimed an emphatic victory in 4:12.59 to also beat David Carry's British mark by three seconds.

Haffield said: "It's nice but that is only half the job done. I came here to make the team, not to break records.

"Now I've got to keep calm and keep mellow."

Euan Dale and Joe Roebuck also qualified for Friday's final.

Kris Gilchrist was only half a second outside his British record as he comfortably qualified in the heats of the 200m breaststroke.

The City of Edinburgh swimmer, who has already made it on to the team in the 100m version, led from start to finish and touched in two minutes 10.82secs.

James Kirton produced a perfectly-controlled swim and led from the start to set a new personal best of 2mins 12.93secs in his hometown pool.

Only those two achieved the required time.

Rebecca Adlington claimed her second Commonwealth record of the week when she broke the longest-standing British women's record in the 800m freestyle.

Sarah Hardcastle had held the record since 1986 but the 19-year-old destroyed it by more than five seconds in 8:19.22, less than half a second outside the European record held by Olympic silver medallist Laure Manaudou.

The Nova Centurion swimmer took the 400m free Commonwealth record earlier this week and revealed her mother had promised her a new pair of Christian Louboutin shoes if she claimed Hardcastle's mark.

She said: "I can't believe it. I didn't think about that (the record).

"I always knew it was there and my mum promised me a pair of shoes if I got it."

The 2006 European silver medallist claimed she had not been making an attempt on the record, saying: "Not at all. I just took it easy."

Rebecca Cooke, Jo Jackson and Cassandra Patten also qualified for Saturday morning's final

Another record fell when Michael Rock lowered Todd Cooper's 2004 mark to 52.28.

Cooper and Matthew Bowe also made tomorrow's final.

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