BRITISH SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIPS: Good golly, a medal for Miss Mollie
Allen (18) picked up a bronze in the 100m backstroke after peaking at just the right time.
Allen, who was ranked first in the UK going into the event, qualified for the final in eighth place, but bettered her heat time by a whopping 1.3 seconds in the final to finish third in 63.12. The city swimmer started the final well and was second at the halfway point.
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Hide AdYesterday (July 28) was a great day for COPs with seven final appearances and five new personal best times.
Leah Roughan (17) missed out on a second COPs bronze by just one hundredth of a second after setting a new personal best (PB) of 2.32.85 in the 200m breaststroke. Rebecca Burton (18) also set a PB in the same final with a time of 2.36.71 which was good enough for ninth place.
Rachel Wellings (16) finishied sixth in the 100m backstroke in 64.21, while Chloe Hannam (20) came ninth in the same event in a PB of 63.70.
Lauren Harrison (15) qualified for the final of the 200m breastroke in eigth place, but then set a new PB of 2.38.15 to claim sixth place in the final.
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Hide AdJamie Scholes (16) was the only COPs finalist in a men’s event and, despite recovering only recently from glandular fever, set a new PB in the heats of the 100m backstroke event of 59.57 to qualify in sixth. He couldn’t quite match that time in the final and finished seventh.
Swimming alongside Scholes was Matthew Gray (16) who finished 17th in 61.62.
In the men’s 200m butterfly Harry Whiteman (16) finished in 2.13.30 to finish 21st.
Today (July 29) COPs swimmers reached four finals and set six PBs
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Hide AdClosest to a medal was Anna Blakeney (14) who finished fifth in the womens 50m freestyle in a PB of 27.32. She also set a PB in her heat.
Mollie Allen again qualified for a final in her age group, but finished eighth in 26.56. Rachel Wellings (16) came 22nd 27.95.
Poppy Richardson (15) finished 10th in in the 200m butterfly final after smashing her PB by two seconds to 2.22.66 in her heat.
Taylor Goodby (18) also took part in the 200m butterfly and her time of 2.22.02 saw her finish in 16th place and improve her UK ranking by two places.
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Hide AdThe other COPs final place was won by the 17 years and over 4 x 200m freestyle relay team of Chloe Hannam, Mollie Allen, Bethany Saunders (17) and Leah Roughan who swam 17 seconds faster than their qualifying time to start the final in sixth place. They went on to improve that time by a further 2.6 seconds, but had to settle for sixth in 8.28.82.
In the men’s races Harvey Norman (15) is another swimmer returning from illness and he set a creditable time of 4:59.29 in the tough 400m individual medley to finish in 21st place.
Myles Robinson-Young (14) set a new PB time of 57.06 to finish 16th in the 100m freestyle. Jamie Scholes (16) finished the same event in 55.51 and then went on to set a season’s best time in the 1500m
freestyle of 16:28.20 for 25th place.
It is a testament to the depth of talent at COPs nine relay teams qualified for these Championships and they stepped up to the mark.
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Hide AdThe women’s 14-16years 4 x 200m freestyle team was led off by Poppy Richardson who set a new PB of 2:10.85 before handing over to Mia Leech (14), Rachel Wellings (16) and Maddison Saunders (15) who brought the team home for a time of
8:48.48 to finish in 15th place.