News

Warrender swimmers got off to a great start as the British National Championships got underway in Manchester today.  It was Scottish Institute of Sport athlete Lewis Smith who made the brightest start by qualifying in second place overall for tomorrow's men's 400m freestyle.  Known more for his exploits in the 400 IM, Lewis showed he is now beginning to make a name for himself in the freestyle race as well.  Taking control of his heat at the 200 metre mark Lewis stormed home to record a new lifetime best by almost five seconds (3:55.96) and goes into the final sandwiched between Dean Milwain and French swimmer Guy Noell-Schmitt.

Scottish Youth Squad member Helen McRoberts continued her recent improvements in the IM events by setting a new PB in the women's 400 IM of 5:03.21.  This placed Helen 17th overall and gained her the second fastest qaulifying time for the Junior Final (girls born 1991 or later) tomorrow morning.  Competing in her first British Nationals, Rosie Hood was just outside her best time in the women's 200 backstroke but like Helen, was a comfortable qualifier for the Junior Final where she will have another go on Wednesday morning.

Despite suffering from a heavy cold, seasoned international Fiona Booth swam her way into two semi-finals.  A time of 1:13.74 in the women's 100 breaststroke put Fiona through to tomorrow's semi in 16th place, while 28.42 in the 50 butterfly comfortably secured her second swim in 6th place.  In the men's 100 backstroke, Billy Purnell further enhanced his reputation with his time of 58.15 ranking him 8th overall and well in contention to make the final from tomorrow's semis. 

Andrew Haslett showed signs of even better things to come when setting a new best time in the men's 100 breaststroke, a race he was only doing as a warm-up prelude to his favoured 200 breaststroke and 200 backstroke events to come later in the week.  Andrew's time of 1:08.82 was 0.8 quicker than his previous best.  Katelyn Stewart was in good form recording a time of 59.80 in the women's 100 freestyle but was unfortunately ranked second reserve for the junior final.  Katelyn also swim the 100 breaststroke in 1:17.93.

Earlier in the day, distance specialist Marnie Stewart swam the 5km event as one fo the 12 fastest female entries for the race.  A determined effort of 1 hour 4 minutes 21 seconds in this challenging 100 length contest ranked Marnie 11th overall and was just outside her best for the distance, set last year in Glasgow.

The action in Manchester continues tomorrow with finals at 8am and heats at 4pm.