Fran Halsall secured British Swimming’s third gold medal of the European Championships as she powered her way to victory in the Women’s 100m Freestyle on day three in Budapest.
Swimming in lane three, the 20-year-old lead from start to finish as she showed her class to fend off strong challenges from those around and touched for the victory and the European title in 53.58.
Halsall was chased to the wall by silver medallist Aliaksandra Herasimenia of Belarus who touched in 53.82 with Femke Heemskerk from the Netherlands taking the bronze in 54.12.
The victory gives the Loughborough swimmer her first individual international title to accompany her World Championship and European medals.
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“I was quite nervous tonight so to pull that out of there, to do a season’s best and to win the gold is quite a fantastic feeling,” she said.
“I knew the girls around me were really strong so I went out very hard over the first 50m and then tried to keep everything together for the return - that last 10m really hurt.
“As a world medallist I felt a bit of pressure out there tonight but I think I channeled it well and to get that first individual title bodes really well for the rest of the season.”
The British Swimming team now sit second in the overall medal table after Joe Roebuck added a bronze in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley to take the overall tally to seven.
Elsewhere in the Championships, Hannah Miley (Garioch), fresh from her gold in the 400m event, qualified for the final of the Women’s 200m Individual Medley fourth fastest in 2:11.90.
Aimee Willmott (Middlesbrough) narrowly missed in 10th with a time of 2:15.56.
Another gold medallist Lizzie Simmonds (British Gas ITC Loughborough) qualified fastest for the final of the Women’s 100m Backstroke in 1:00.52, followed all the way by close rival Gemma Spofforth (Portsmouth Northsea) in 1:00.54.
Jessica Whittington, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine
