tancock sets new standard

Liam Tancock of Loughborough University lowered his own British record over 50m backstroke as he became the 5th swimmer to book his place on the world championships team. Meanwhile Rebecca Cooke also inked her name onto the team sheet, recording a personal best time over 800m freestyle.


Tancock’s swim of 25.64 shaved just over two tenths of a second of his previous mark and put him on his first senior national team. In second place was Matt Clay with the bronze medal going to Marco Loughran.
In the 800m, Cooke was pushed hard by young tyro Kerri-Anne Payne, but put in a finishing sprint to edge ahead of the Rochdale Aquabears swimmer, coming home comfortably clear at the finish in 8:28.30, faster than she swam to win Bronze at the Barcelona World Championships. Payne also swam a lifetime best in second with Rebecca Adlington a distant third place.
It was a chance for the new generation in the Ladies 200IM, with 16 year old Stacy Tadd taking out the gold medal in 2:16.96, ahead of 14 year old Lizzie Simmonds in second, but both were outside the qualifying mark. Another 14 year old to impress was Jessica Dickons who won the 200m butterfly in a time of 2:11.80.
Elsewhere, David Carry added the 200m freestyle to his 400m crown won earlier in the week, posting 1:48.48, but was pushed all the way by teammate Ross Davenport who finished just 2 one-hundredths of second behind. Kirsty Balfour was another to take her second title, winning the 200m breaststroke ahead of Tadd. Both Balfour and Carry were well outside their respective qualifying marks.
Finally, Karen Pickering’s non-appearance in the heats of the 100 freestyle may spell the end of her representative career. Unless she is injured, selection for Montreal is now not possible under the terms of the selection policy as swimmers have to compete in the heats and semi-finals in Manchester.