Melanie Marshall and Rachel Genner have set new British long course records at the Gateshead and Whickham Open Meet held at Sheffield’s Ponds Forge pool this weekend. Marshall, fresh from some impressive showings short course in the word cup, carved almost a second off the 200m freestyle record as she posted 1:58.51 – the first British woman under 1:59.

Meanwhile, Genner built on a promising 2003 with a fast 1:08.86 in the 100m breaststroke to regain the British record. Her swim knocked 14 one-hundredths of a second off Jaime King’s old record set at last year’s world championship trials in the same pool.