Fran Halsall gains confidence with her qualification in 100m freestyle semi-finals – Swimming news
Fran Halsall admits to regain confidence after her qualification as the second fastest swimmer for the Women’s 100m freestyle semi-finals at the 2011 British Gas Swimming Championship, held at Manchester Aquatics Centre, from March 5-12.
Halsall, the world silver medallist who just made a comeback from her knee surgery in December, last year, has finished second in the 100m freestyle heats after Amy Smith. Halsall had previously won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly and is now second
fastest swimmer to qualify for the freestyle semi-finals.
Halsall, who was displeased with her performance in the 100m butterfly final against Ellen Gandy, where she managed to finish second, gave a smile and said, “Coming to trials my fly felt a lot worse than my freestyle did so I thought I could push on the
free, but I was really not sure about the fly. So to get in and do that, I was absolutely made up with myself and it's just given me a whole load more confidence.”
Halsall, the multi-stroke European champion and world silver medallist, unlike the 100m butterfly seemed very pleased with her performance in the 100m freestyle heats. Halsall, who is participating in a first championship after her surgery, gave a tough
time to Amy Smith in the event but Smith managed to finish ahead of Halsall in a time of 55.45 seconds against Halsall’s 56.07 seconds effort.
Halsall expresses to increase the intensity of the semi-final, as she considers her performance to be well on track saying that the first session was easy and fun. She is the only British swimmer to secure five medals at the 2010 Budapest European Long Course
Championships. She commented, “It's quite nice to be involved in a race because sometimes at trials the 100 isn't as close as the 200, but I think this year is going to be a good one.”
Halsall is committed to her training and aims to represent Britain at the 2011 Shanghai World Championships alongside Smith.
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