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Scottish Championships - Day 3 Report

Jun 24, 2001  - Anita Lonsbrough

Nicola Jackson stormed down the Tollcross pool in Glasgow, to a British record for the 200m freestyle on the final day of the Scottish Championships doubling up as the trials for the World Championships.

Jackson, 17, led from the start and held off a strong challenge from Karehn Legg and former Commonwealth 100m freestyle champion, Karen Pickering, to touch home in 1:59.32. This time slices 0.33sec of Pickering's record. Jackson's winning margin was 0.85sec over Legg and almost a second over Pickering.

Up until the end of May this year June Croft had been the only British swimmer to go under the two minutes and that was when she won the Commonwealth Games gold medal back in 1982. But in the space of three weeks Pickering and Jackson have dipped under the magical barrier.

A jubilant Jackson whose time was well inside the selection standard explained afterwards "I felt good. My coach told me to go out fast and I managed to keep it up". Adding "a few minutes ago I was going (to the world championships) just in the relay but now I'm going in the individual as well!"

Quickly on Jackson's heels came another British record. This time in the 50m butterfly where sprint freestyle specialist Alison Sheppard raced down the pool to a 27.05sec. This shaved 0.27sec off the previous best. Her time was also a World qualifying time. The Canadian based Scot admitted "I can't believe it!" adding "I still prefer the freestyle".

Ian Edmond erased the oldest record from the Scottish book when winning the 200m breaststroke in 2:12.70 a World championship qualifying time. This erased the figures established in 1976 when David Wilkie swam to gold at the Montreal Olympic Games.

The twenty two year old was devastated when he failed to make the Olympic team last year and admitted "I nearly called it a day" adding "I came here hoping for a 2:14 or possibly a 2:13 but not a 2:12"