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15/09/2002: BSC Day 4 finals: 5 titles for Parry as championships close
The 2002 British Short Course Championships closed with a bang tonight in Cambridge as the last 11 titles were decided. This championship has been varied in its success in terms of swimming performances, but has never been anything other than entertaining. The final session more than lived up to that premise.
The 400IM saw most attention focused on the two young ladies in 3 and 4. The fastest qualifier was Becky Cooke, but 16-year-old Julia Preston had the faster lifetime best and her eyes on the junior qualification time. Cooke took it out hard on the fly, clearly aiming to blunt the advantage that the other girls would seek to gain on the breastroke led, her weakest section of the event. This worked to some extent as Preston faded, but swimming from lane 2 Loughborough's Thea Evanson took her chance, surging through on the third 100. She was unable to get far enough clear though and Cooke’s freestyle was simply too much as she surged through for gold.
Sarah Price prepares to
get her 200 backstroke
final underway
Darren Mew had a clean sweep on his mind as he lined up for the final of the 200m breastroke, but Adrian Turner, and Ian Edmond had other ideas. Mew took it out strongly as befits a sprinter, but could not hold onto his early pace. Edmond and Turner, swimming stroke for stroke, picked him off and surged clear of the field moving through the 3rd fifty. It seemed as though Edmond would use his strength to pull clear, but Turner was having none of it, hanging on doggedly to and then pipping Edmond to the touch in 2.12.07. That time broke his 6-year-old PB by 2s and qualified him for the European team. Edmond was also under the time and should make the trip.
Turner had just 15 minutes to recover from that win as he took his place in the 100IM final. The previous rounds had indicated that the raw power of some of his rivals would be too much, but that was not to be. Turner made his move on the breastroke leg and looked strong coming home to set a second PB of 56.52, more than a second faster than his previous best, but agonisingly just 0.33 over the European qualifying time. Ian Edmond also showed great powers of recovery as he held off Edinburgh teammate David Leith for silver
The two Karens seemed set to battle it out again as they went for the 200 freestyle title. Legg though wasn't able to hold onto Pickering who set a blistering early pace from the start giving herself a body length's advantage by the halfway stage. Melanie Marshall, having qualified fastest for the final, attempted to bridge the gap over the second 100, but could not quite make it, settling in the end for silver. Pickering posted a 1.57.56, Marshall a second lifetime best of the day of 1.58.39 whilst Legg held on for bronze. The Ipswich swimmer was back in the water later in the session as she took bronze in the 100 fly, behind a Welsh record from Gemma Howells and a second gold for Ros Brett. Brett's time of 60.3 was good enough for a trip to Riesa.
It was Jamie Salter's last chance of making the team for Riesa following a disappointing 400m, and he grabbed it firmly with both hands. Taking it steady but strong over the first half of the race, Salter turned on the burners from the 125m mark as he opened up a lead over the chasing Simon Burnett and Gavin Meadows. From that point on Salter never looked in trouble, coming home in 1.48.01, well under the selection time. Meadows and Burnett will have given Bill Sweetenham a selection nightmare as they touched joint 2nd in 1.48.50, again under the selection time.
The big question on everyone's lips was whether Steve Parry could add to his 4 titles won so far this week as he contested the final of the men's 100 backstroke. British Record holder Gregor Tait again had to concede to Parry's superior underwater work around the turns and took another silver as the City of Manchester swimmer posted a time of 53.15 to clean sweep the backstroke events. That time equalled Martin Harris' 12-year-old English record and represents his 4th PB of the week.
There were no such doubts over the ability of Sarah Price to complete a backstroke sweep in the 200m event. The former world record holder appeared to hold back over the first 100 but still led at halfway. From that point on Price really turned the screw flying away from the field to come home in 2.07.59 well clear of young Stephanie Proud who was just outside the British Junior record in second. She will surely claim that mark in due course. Nova's Kayleigh Boyle came from absolutely nowhere at the 150m mark to snatch bronze from Commonwealth champion Katy Sexton in the last few strokes.
Todd Cooper led home the first semi final in a Scottish record of 24.61 and looked very powerful, but it was James Hickman who looked most impressive in qualification as he went through fastest. That was the case in the final as, with no Mark Foster to contend with, Hickman cruised home to complete the third clean sweep of the session. Cooper duly took silver and Seth Chappels of Ferndown the bronze.
Elsewhere, the 100m breastroke for women was again all about youth. Fifteen-year-old Kate Haywood took the race from the gun and was never headed despite a late charge from 200m winner Kirsty Balfour. Her time of 1.10.13 just missed the junior standard for the GB team.
The women's 50m freestyle had the honour of closing the championships. Alison Sheppard posted a very impressive 24.67 semi final swim on her way to the final and was never really in danger of losing her title. She had a huge lead after only 15m of the race and came home well clear in 24.53 to take her 3rd gold of the meet.
All of which only left the overall awards to complete. The top male swimmer of the meet went to James Hickman for his 200 fly while Sarah Price took the female award for her 200m backstroke performance. Chris Alderton and Stephanie Proud took the equivalent junior titles. David Davies was awarded the Top swimmer of the meet after his superb showing over 1500m. City of Manchester took the club trophy.