After their dream gold rush in the Beijing Olympics, the British swimming team are competing at Sheffield's Ponds Forge for a place at the World Championships in Rome later this year.
Results indicate that the young talent are living up to their potential set in East Asia last year, highlighting noneother than the performance of Northallerton youngster Joanne Jackson.
Loughborough University product Jackson (22) picked up gold for the 400m freestyle at the packed out venue.
In a spectacular race that set a world record she made sure she defeated double Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington, the Mansfield born swimmer having to settling for silver.
After Jackson earned bronze in Beijing she's delighted to still be progressing for the event in the Italian capital;
“I was really happy with the bronze in Beijing but you still want to do better and to come away eight months after the Olympics and do that has totally shocked me,” said Jackson.
The showcase once again provided us with evidence of the nation's richness in young swimmers and their sporting brilliance, something British swimming has rarely seen before. Each stroke defined purpose, each breath grabbed courage and each victory echoed greatness.
As the two great swimmers settled for a photo-finish, many a supporter among the crowd shouted in celebration as they realised the intensity with which they competed against each other;
''I'm always happy whether I come second or not to Jo, she is such an incredible swimmer. I just have so much respect for her as a person and as a swimmer,'' said Adlington.
The event will be a perfect warm-up for the their trip to Italy and Team Britain will be hoping to win more gold medals there. If what we saw here is an indication, it could well be a reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment