Brits dominate again in Iceland

Eurosport - Mon, 19 Oct 21:53:00 2009

Charlotte Henshaw brought home a British one-two on another day of domination at the IPC European Swimming Championships.

Liz Johnson - 0

Henshaw was pushed the distance in the 100m breaststroke by world record holder Liz Johnson (pictured), touching home in a minute, 40.5 seconds.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet that I have won but I'm really happy to have won it because it has been a long time coming," said Henshaw, who lowered her personal best during the morning heats.

"I have moved back to Nottingham and that has really helped me because I am more relaxed and it helped me bring out that performance."

Louise Watkin, a multiple Paralympic medallist, claimed her first European title with a victory in the 200m medley, edging out Poland's Paulina Kamilla Wozniak and France's Emilie Gral in a tight finish.

Anthony Stephens took 50m butterfly gold and broke the British record with a 42.15s time - later admitting she was shocked with his performance.

"That was really unexpected," he said. "My main event is the 200m freestyle and so to get the title in this event is great.

"I have never been European champion before and to hear the national anthem was brilliant. We changed my stroke technique just last week and it really seems to have paid off here."

Sacha Kindred took the 200m medley title after team-mate Thomas Young, competing at his first international competition, was disqualified for a technical infringement.

In total 11 British swimmers won medals on the second day of the championships in Reykjavik. There were silvers for Eleni Papadopoulos and Emma Hollis while Robert Welbourn, Matthew Whorwood, Claire Cashmore and James Anderson all claimed bronze.

"We saw a lot of personal bests today from a lot of athletes which shows progression and for us that is really important," said British team head coach Lars Humer.

"One of the things we worked hard on in the last quadrennial was the development of the race and we are seeing the benefit of that here.

"The finishing of a lot of races has been really strong and we are winning the really close races, which is great.

"We are also seeing a lot of youngsters coming through which is really good."

More than the Games / Eurosport

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