Ross Davenport wins 200m freestyle - 2011 British Gas Swimming Championships: Day three
Ross Davenport claimed the title of 200m freestyle meet in an astonishing time of 1:48.34 minutes on the third day of 2011 British Gas Swimming Championships held at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.
His bombarding effort confirmed him a spot in Britain’s Swimming Team for 2011 Shanghai World Championship in July. The race was considered to be one of the most interesting races of the championship as it included three different champions of different
Commonwealth Games; Ross Davenport, Robbie Renwick and David Carry.
Ross Davenport was the 200 m freestyle champion at the 2006 Commonwealth Games; Robbie Renwick was the 200 m freestyle Champion at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games and David Carry was the multi stroke champion at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in the 400 m
freestyle and 400 m individual medley events, respectively.
Carry was in the lead for the first 100m of the race in 52.57 seconds, followed by Renwick in the second spot in a time of 53.33 seconds. Then, Davenport, the pupil of Ben Titley at Loughborough University geared up his swim in the last 50m of the swim and
surged ahead of Renwick and Carry with a lead of 0.42 seconds and 0.86 seconds, respectively.
Davenport was then engaged in a neck-to-neck competition with Renwick, the Commonwealth god medallist in the last lap of the race. Davenport’s desire to get back to his previous title was hard to overcome and he managed to finish 0.18 seconds ahead of Renwick.
While, Carry ended third with a nice timing of 1:49.12 followed by Joshua Walsh, Jak Scott and Ieuan Lloyd in 1:49.92 minutes, 1:49.96 minutes and 1:50.21 minutes, respectively.
These late finishers will be given a second chance for their selection in British swimming team for World Championships in June, at the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) National Championships. The winner of these races will be eligible to represent Britain
at the Shanghai Championships. The first four swimmers at ASA Championships will be selected for the 4*200 m freestyle relay. The time qualification standard for the distant relay team at World Championships is 7:12.66 minutes.
After winning the race, Davenport commented, “That was great. We have a lot of experience and speed in our training group and we all work really well together. I wanted to go out, hit the race and see what happened. There is a lot of youth coming through
in the 200m and that is only going to push the event forward and hopefully lead to success in the relays.”
The gold medallists of each event at this year’s World Championships will ensure their appearance from their respective countries for the 2012 London Olympics. At the moment, Britain has seven top-class swimmers who are well qualified for Shanghai Championships.
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