News
Silver for Smith on final day of British Championships 1 Apr 2007
Lewis Smith made it a successful day for Warrender as the British National Championships came to a close in Manchester. On the final morning of finals action, Smith raced to a silver medal in the men's 400 IM in a time of 4:23.80.
Loughborough's Joe Roebuck took the race out hard from the start on the butterfly leg to establish a significant lead ahead of Smith, Commonwealth silver medallist Euan Dale (also Loughborough), and Thomas Haffield from City of Cardiff. Smith closed down the gap on the backstroke section and began to establish his own lead in second place over Dale and Haffield. Dale tried to come back on the breaststroke leg but Smith maintained his advantage whilst holding position with Roebuck who held on over the final 100m freestyle to take the win. Smith moved two seconds clear of the field in the silver medal position, with Haffield just edging out Dale for the bronze medal.
Thirty minutes later and Smith was back in action, this time in the final of the men's 200 backstroke. However, it was clear that fatigue was still present after the 400 IM and Smith could not repeat his successful semi-final PB, instead fading to 7th place in 2:06.94.
The schedule of events did not leave Smith much chance to get his breath back as he returned to the water again at the end of the session to lead off the men's 4 x 200 freestyle relay. A tough race ensued and this time Smith rose to the occasion to set a new personal best for the distance of 1:55.02 on the opening leg. Billy Purnell took over from Smith recording a split of 1:59.52, with Andrew Haslett next in 2:03.53, and Ewan Johnston on the anchor leg in 1:55.86 for a total time of 7:53.93 and 6th place.
Meet Summary
Although not every swim went to plan, this meet was highly successful overall for Warrender. With 11 swimmers taking part, this was the highest number of qualifiers we have ever had at this competition and it made for a great week, with the team's results as a whole raising several comments from external observers of how well the club was doing. One silver medal, one bronze medal and numerous final and semi-final swims each day kept Warrender's name on the scoreboard throughout the meet. Swimming finals at 8:00am proved to be a very difficult challenge for all swimmers at the meet, and although people got better at it as the week went along, it was not something that encouraged fast times, or something that most people will want to repeat in a hurry.
Loughborough's Joe Roebuck took the race out hard from the start on the butterfly leg to establish a significant lead ahead of Smith, Commonwealth silver medallist Euan Dale (also Loughborough), and Thomas Haffield from City of Cardiff. Smith closed down the gap on the backstroke section and began to establish his own lead in second place over Dale and Haffield. Dale tried to come back on the breaststroke leg but Smith maintained his advantage whilst holding position with Roebuck who held on over the final 100m freestyle to take the win. Smith moved two seconds clear of the field in the silver medal position, with Haffield just edging out Dale for the bronze medal.
Thirty minutes later and Smith was back in action, this time in the final of the men's 200 backstroke. However, it was clear that fatigue was still present after the 400 IM and Smith could not repeat his successful semi-final PB, instead fading to 7th place in 2:06.94.
The schedule of events did not leave Smith much chance to get his breath back as he returned to the water again at the end of the session to lead off the men's 4 x 200 freestyle relay. A tough race ensued and this time Smith rose to the occasion to set a new personal best for the distance of 1:55.02 on the opening leg. Billy Purnell took over from Smith recording a split of 1:59.52, with Andrew Haslett next in 2:03.53, and Ewan Johnston on the anchor leg in 1:55.86 for a total time of 7:53.93 and 6th place.
Meet Summary
Although not every swim went to plan, this meet was highly successful overall for Warrender. With 11 swimmers taking part, this was the highest number of qualifiers we have ever had at this competition and it made for a great week, with the team's results as a whole raising several comments from external observers of how well the club was doing. One silver medal, one bronze medal and numerous final and semi-final swims each day kept Warrender's name on the scoreboard throughout the meet. Swimming finals at 8:00am proved to be a very difficult challenge for all swimmers at the meet, and although people got better at it as the week went along, it was not something that encouraged fast times, or something that most people will want to repeat in a hurry.
