Adlington shines in 200m

Eurosport - Fri, 26 Jun 16:34:00 2009

Double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington won the 200m freestyle at the Scottish Nationals in Glasgow to put herself in contention for World Championships selection.

Great Britain's Rebecca Adlington in action in the Womens 200m freestyle semi final at the UK Championships in Sheffield - 0

Adlington was in control from the start and turned for the final 100m with a one-second lead.

At the final turn Adlington led by two seconds and touched home in one minute, 57.15 seconds, more than half-a-second quicker than Caitlin McClatchey's time at the British Championships in Sheffield in March

Selection for the World Championships in Rome requires a win n Sheffield or one of the two fastest times overall from Sheffield and Glasgow.

"I knew that it was going to be a challenging race so obviously I'm delighted to have come through," Adlington said.

"I just wanted to swim well enough to guarantee a relay place though. I won't race the 200 in the Worlds, I don't think - 800 is still my best event and I want to concentrate on that.

"But the 4x200 is such a fun relay and with the strength in depth we have I know we are going to be challenging at the Worlds."

Jazmin Carlin took silver in 1:58.34, while McClatchey edged Hannah Miley for third in 1:58.49.

In the women's 50m backstroke, Olympic finalist Gemma Spofforth lowered the British record to 27.99 seconds in the heats before winning the final in 28.03.

"It's good to get the British record back of course," Spofforth said.

"I wanted to go faster again in the final but I guess I just wasn't so focussed this afternoon. It's better to have a great field like that so it's a shame I didn't take the chance

"But, saying that, obviously I'm really happy to come out on top of a world class field - the work I've been putting in, in the USA has really helped me.

"But my ultimate aim is the world record - I want to get that at the World Championships. I am still to qualify but obviously I'm riding high on confidence at the moment so we'll see how it goes."

In the 100m butterfly, Jemma Lowe took gold with a two-second margin but failed to better Fran Hasall's qualifying time for Rome.

Olympian Lowe touched in 58.41 seconds to miss Halsall's time by 0.30 seconds.

"I trained well all week but I just didn't perform on the day," Lowe said. "I was slow in qualifying but thought I would improve a lot in the semi but I didn't.

"Lots of things went wrong - my suit ripped down one side and after that I was always struggling to make a good time."

European record holder Hannah Miley won the women's 400m individual medley.

Miley was third at the 200m mark but showed her strength in the breaststroke leg to opne a five-second lead going into the final 100m, before finishing in 4:39.55.

Michael Jamieson won the men's 200m breaststroke but failed to set a time quick enough for selection.

Jamieson had to beat 2:10.75 and looked on track at the 50m mark. But he was unable to maintain his pace in the final 50m and missed the 2:10 barrier as he finished in 2:11.17.

Simon Burnett won the men's 100m freestyle in one of the closest finishes of the day as five swimmers attempted to achieve qualification.

Burnett won in a time of 49.19.

Daniel Fogg won the 1500m by almost 30 seconds but his time of 15:08.53 was just outside Richard Charlesworth's 15:07.50 qualifying mark.

Ian Hulme won the men's 50m butterfly in 24.17.

Eurosport

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