2009 NATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS: day four report

Today started with the mens 200 freestyle and Charlie Bitowt redeemed his poor performance of yesterday by coming home in his PB time of 2.01.

The girls then dominated the rest of the day, starting with Hayley Williams who swam a new PB of 33.47 for the 50m breaststroke and took a place in the Open final this evening as the youngest competitor.

Hayley then returned to the starting blocks only a few minutes later to swim a new PB in the 200 Individual Medley, followed by team mate Mollie Temple who swam a fantastic 200 IM posting a 1.5 second PB to earn herself a place in the 14/15 years semi final later today.

Long distance swimmers Lauren Freeman and Grace Conlon arrived for the later session and swam well achieving new PBs - Lauren made a 3 second improvement to her entry time finishing in 18.04.76, while Grace, swimming in a later heat, also brought back a 1.5 second improvement posting a new lifetime best time of 17.39.73.

In the semi final of the 200 IM Mollie Temple - in a disputed judgement on her butterfly length - was robbed of a new lifetime best of 2.25 when she was disqualified.

Our commiserations to Mollie who swam her heart out.

In the Open Womens 50 Breaststroke final Hayley Williams swam a strong race close to her earlier PB of 33.47 with a 33.60 to retain her entry position of 7th overall - great swim Hayley!

Swimming continues tomorrow ....