BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS: COPS are mixing it with the very best

The very best of British swimming talent is on show and City of Peterborough Swimming Club (COPS) have a record number of 10 swimmers taking part.

The 2017 British Championships are the stage for selecting the British squads that will represent the nation at the World Championships in Budapest, the World Junior Championships in Indianapolis and the European Junior Championships that will be held in Netanya in Israel.

The schedule of events feature heats in the morning and three finals for each event in the evening – an A final targeted at selecting the squad for the World Championships, a Target Tokyo final for those swimmers aged over 18 years that have the potential to challenge for selection to the next Olympics and a Junior final for those aged 18 years and under looking to qualify for the European Junior Championships.

DAY ONE

On day one of the championships COPS had four swimmers on poolside competing in five events. Between them they set five new personal best (PB) times and qualified for one Target Tokyo final.

Rebecca Burton (19) set a new PB of 32.19 in the heats of the 50m breaststroke event to qualify fastest for the Target Tokyo final in which she finished in second place.

Amelia Monaghan (15) clocked a new PB of 4:59.13 in the 400m individual medley and just missed qualifying for the Junior final by one place.

In the men’s 400m freestyle event Myles Robinson-Young (15) set a time of 4:05.67 which is a new PB, beating his previous best by two seconds. Jamie Scholes (17) also set a PB of 4:04.31 in his heat. Scholes then went on to compete in the 50m backstroke event in which he again set a PB of 27.73.

DAY TWO

On day two seven COPS swimmers were in action and they set six new personal best times and qualified for two Junior finals and four Target Tokyo finals.

It was a busy day for 19 year-old Mollie Allen with two appearances in the evening finals. She set a new PB to qualify fourth fastest for the 50m butterfly Target Tokyo final in which she again improved it to 27.61 to take third place. Mollie also set another PB of 1:02.71 to qualify for the 100m backstroke Target Tokyo final in which she finished in sixth place.

In the women’s 200m breaststroke event Amelia Monaghan (15) posted a new PB of 2:34.66 making her the youngest athlete to qualify for the Junior final. Her time in the final was 1.74 seconds faster than her heat time and placed her in a very creditable fourth place.

Rebecca Burton (19) posted a time of 2:36.07 to qualify fifth fastest for the 200m breaststroke Target Tokyo final where she finished in seventh place.

Also swimming in the women’s 200m breaststroke was Lauren Harrison (16) who posted a season’s best time of 2:39.82.

Rachel Wellings (17) qualified eighth fastest for the Junior 100m backstroke final in which she really raised her performance to post a new PB of 1:02.86 to finish in fourth place.

Jamie Scholes (17) set a PB of 58.20 in the 100m backstroke event to miss qualifying for the Junior final by one hundredth of a second and Thomas Wiggins (18) also set a new PB of 30.04 in the 50m breaststroke event.