Medals were harder to come by for the British Team on the second night of finals in Palma de Majorca, but that didn’t mean that they left empty handed with gold for Francesca Halsall and Lizzie Simmonds and Georgia Davies claiming silver and bronze in the girls 100m backstroke.
Halsall was a class apart in the freestyle, posting a time of 55.47, just 0.2 outside Franziska van Almsick’s championship record and 1.33 seconds ahead of the runner up, Ophelie Etienne of France. The Liverpool swimmer was never headed and had opened up a lead of almost a second by the halfway point. Team-mate Lauren Collins finished 7th in 57.93.
Despite getting the faster start, Simmonds trailed eventual winner Anastasia Zueva of Russia by the 50m mark and couldn’t make up ground over the second lap as she came home in 1:02.79, just 0.47s behind the winner. Davies meanwhile overhauled Christine Zenner on the way home to snatch bronze by just 6 one hundredths of a second in 1:03.87.
Elsewhere, there boys 800m freestyle relay team took 5th place being anchored by individual 200m champion Robbie Renwick, who also placed 5th in the 400m final earlier in the session. There was also a 5th placing for Marco Loughran in the 200m backstroke.
Final appearances were also made by Charlotte Barnes who placed 7th in the 100m breaststroke, and Jemma Lowe who was 6th in the 100m butterfly, while Jazmin Carlin and Jordan Tomlinson placed 6th and 7th in the 8700m event.