From
the
Advertiser, first published Wednesday 9th Aug 2006.
TILLY Gray
produced an outstanding series of swims for Dolphin in
.
The highlight
came in the 200m butterfly final, where she now ranks 13th in the GB women’s rankings.
Firstly Gray,
14, eclipsed her personal best by 0.5 seconds in the 100m free, clocking 1.01.82 to
rise 59 places in the national rankings.
On the second
day, Gray managed a five-second personal best, breaking the club record at both 400m
and 800m, en route to close in 9:22.67 seconds, finishing 50th in the national rankings.
Melanie Agius
maintained her improvement, shaving a second from her previous best in the 800m, rising
six places in a time of 9:31.14 seconds.
Gray continued
her rich vein of form on day three with a steady first 50 in the 100m butterfly.
A fightback
over the final length saw her set a new club record in 1.06.20 seconds to rank 14th
in the 14/15 year’s age group.
The next day,
she put on a barnstorming performance in the 200m butterfly, where a four-second personal
best was enough to place her 13th in the GB women’s rankings and fifth fastest going
into the 14/15-year’s age group final.
In the grand
final, Gray followed the race plan to the letter, shaving another 1.5 seconds from
her heat time, surpassing the qualifying standard for national senior women in a new
county and club record time of 2:20.50 seconds to finish seventh in her age group
and 13th overall in Great Britain.
She was unable
to replicate her early meet form in her final event, the 400m freestyle, finishing
five seconds outside her best.
Elsewhere
for Dolphin, Jon Audis, 25, just missed his target of sub one-minute, touching out
in 1:00.50 in the 100m backstroke.
He later suffered
the agony of finishing as reserve finalist in the 50m backstroke touching home in
58.55 seconds.
Mark Tanner
just missed out on a PB by a tenth but managed to climb six places in the national
table in the 100 metres freestyle.
Georgia Dymoke’s
split time of 33.83 seconds in the 14/15-year’s 100m backstroke ranked with the leading
contenders, but she faded in the closing stages to finish just outside her best on
her national debut.
Nicholas Southern
marked his national debut in the three-kilometre freestyle event, setting personal
best times at the 200, 400 and 800m markers to finish in 40:26.81 seconds.
On a glittering
fifth day, Nigel Masters had a close-on personal best performance in the 50m breaststroke
in 31.72 seconds.
But Dolphin
records began to tumble with Andrea Alleyne smashing her 50m free mark with 27.72
seconds, catapulting her up the national rankings by 26 places (31).
The 17-year-old
finished eighth in the national 17/18-year’s double age band but was edged out of
the grand final by three overseas swimmers.
Tanner, 17,
shaved nine-tenths of a second off his 50m free time to leapfrog seven places in the
national standings to 53 with a new club record time of 25.01 seconds.
From
the
Advertiser
http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk
© Newsquest Media Group 2006
