SWIMMING: Mollie strikes British Championship gold for COPS

The 18 year-old member touched first in the the women’s 50m backstroke on day five of the championships at Ponds Forge pool in Sheffield.

Allen had won the bronze medal earlier in the championships in the 100m backstroke but that was just a warm-up for her title-winning performance.

She won her heat in 29.46 and went through to the final as the fastest qualifier.

In the final she got the perfect start and in the one-length mad dash her winning time of 29.08 won her the title of 2016 British Champion.

COPS qualified for two other finals on day five.

Chloe Hannam (20) qualified for the 400m freestyle final in eighth place and went on to improve her time by 2.3 seconds to finish in seventh place in the final in a time of 4:23.24.

Hannam went on to qualify eighth fastest for the 200m individual medley final where she marginally improved her time to 2:20.45 to again finish in eighth place.

On day six of the championships Myles Robinson-Young (14) qualified third fastest for the final of the men’s 200m freestyle with a three-second personal best (PB). He then went on to improve by a further two seconds to finish in a time of 2:00.95 for fourth place.

Also swimming in the 200m freestyle was Jamie Scholes (16), who finished in a time of 2:01.07 for 20 th place.

Scholes then went on to compete in the 200m backstroke event where he qualified for the final in second place and despite improving his time by 1.5 seconds he finished in a time of 2:07.12 for fifth place.

In the women’s 100m breaststroke event Rebecca Burton (18) finished in ninth place for her final and despite setting a new PB of 1:12.10 she finished in 10th place.

Also swimming in the 100m breaststroke were Amelia Monaghan (14), who finished in 13th place with a time of 1:16.91, and Leah Roughan (17), who finished in a time of 1:13.77 for 14th place.

In the women’s 14-16 years 400m medley team relay COPS had two teams qualify for this event. The COPS A team of Rachel Wellings (16), Amelia Monaghan, Poppy Richardson (15) and Anna Blakeley (15) qualified for their final in fifth place and despite improving their time to 4:22.43 they finished again in fifth place.

The COPS B team of Maddison Saunders (15), Lauren Harrison (15), Mia Leech (14) and Mackenzie Whyatt (14) finished in 19th place with a time of 4:32.32.

The women’s 17 years and over team of Mollie Allen (18), Leah Roughan, Taylor Goodby (18) and Bethany Saunders (17) also qualified for their final in sixth place and despite improving their qualification time by over three seconds their finishing time of 4:18.70 placed them in seventh position.

The men’s 14-16 years 400m medley team of Matthew Gray (16), Harvey Norman (15), Harry Whiteman (16) and Jamie Scholes finished their event in a time of 4:12.97 to take 23rd place.