Olympic star Rebecca Adlington showed great form at this weekend’s Scottish National Championships. She made a splash in her first race of the Glasgow meet by beating her 200m freestyle personal best by almost two seconds, winning in 1.57.15, with Swansea’s Jazmin Carlin close behind.
On Friday she followed up the achievement with a victory in the 800m freestyle, an exact second ahead of runner-up Joanne Jackson of Loughborough.
A good result at the event was crucial for qualification into this year’s World Championships, which will be held in Rome in July.
Interestingly though, the 20-year-old withdrew from the 400m freestyle in the heat stages. The race, left open, was won by Sasha Matthews.
As well as dismissing herself from one of her Olympic medalling events, it is not definite that Adlington will participate in the 200m freestyle race at the Worlds either.
‘’I feel I have a lot of work to do before I can compete against the other girls and have a world-class swim.’’ she commented later.
However, it is safe to assume that she will concentrate her energy towards the 800m event, her strongest event, as well as taking part in the 4x200m relay.
Meanwhile elsewhere around the competition, Hannah Miley basked in the triumph of cleaning up at the Tollcross Park Centre. After winning both the 200m and 400m individual medleys, she enjoyed a comfortable 1500m freestyle victory with a three second margin, as well as taking the 200m breaststroke title and claiming a close second place in the 200m butterfly.
Following the event, the squad who made the cut for the World Championships has also been announced. Adlington, Miley, Carlin and Jackson were selected amongst the 18 to represent Great Britain in Italy.
British Swimming Head Coach Dennis Pursley commented:
‘‘This team has a really good mixture of veterans and young, up and coming swimmers and that was our goal. Our aim within the first year of the Olympic cycle plan was to get inexperienced swimmers competing in premier races, which are a good development opportunity.’’
Vanessa Kersey, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
