Francesca Halsall earns Women’s 50m freestyle gold: Day seven – British Gas Swimming Championships
Francesca Halsall of Loughborough University earned gold medal of the Women’s 50m freestyle on eighth day of the 2012 British Gas Swimming Championships at the London Aquatics Centre on Saturday, March 10
The 21-year-old Halsall lived up to the expectations of her supporters by capturing gold medal of the single lap freestyle event. Halsall, who qualified as the top contender for gold medal, faced no difficulty in posting an Olympic qualification time in the 50m event.
With her sterling performance, Halsall obtained gold medal of the event in a nice time of 24.13 seconds. Her effort was considerably faster from the Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA) A-Time Qualification Standard of 25.27 seconds.
The champion remained 0.67 seconds ahead of her closest competitor and team-member, Amy Smith, who sustained her second best spot of the event and hit the wall with an effort of 24.80 seconds for silver medal. The third spot of the event was obtained by Jessica Lloyd of Co Manchester Aquatics, who was 0.89 seconds slower from her and reached the finishing end with the timing of 25.69 seconds.
Similarly, Lloyd remained 0.02 seconds ahead of her strongest competitor, Emma Wilkins of Loughborough University, who settled on the finishing blockade for fourth position as she clocked a time of 25.71 seconds. With her alluring efforts, Wilkins enjoyed an advantage of 0.03 seconds over Co Leicester’s Sophie Smith, who completed her swim in a fifth best time of 25.74 seconds.
The sixth spot of the event was secured by Rebecca Turner of Co Sheffield who was just half a stroke behind her former finisher and tapped the finishing end with an effort of 25.88 seconds. In the meantime, Georgina Heyn of Ealing stayed just 0.09 seconds slower from her foregoing competitor and ended her swim in seventh place with an effort of 25.97 seconds.
The final spot of the event was obtained by Hannah McCarthy of Cheltenham, who was only 0.30 seconds apart from her preceding swimmer and reported 26.27 seconds for eighth position.
Furthermore, Halsall articulated her desire of achieving the same at the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games.
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