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Gandy: 2:04.84 Euro/Commonwealth Record 200 'fly

Mar 19, 2009  - Craig Lord

Australia-based Brit Ellen Gandy clocked 2:04.83 in the 200m butterfly at British trials in Sheffield, establishing new European and Commonwealth records. She is now third fastest ever behind the Chinese bolters of Beijing, Liu Zige and Jiao Liuyang, Olympic gold and silver medallists.

"I want to call my coach but he's Australian and he'll be asleep," said Gandy with a nod to Rohan Taylor Down Under. "I can't believe it, I'm in shock," she added after racing in a fast bodysuit past legends galore. Her time delivers good and bad news for Australia: Taylor helped get her there in Melbourne but he also got her past Aussies Jess Schipper and the legendary Susie O'Neill.

Gandy was just 0.65secs off the world record set by China's Zige Liu and inside the European and Commonwealth standards held respectively by Poland's Otylia Jedrejczak and Australian Jessicah Schipper. Gandy is the first British woman ever to hold the European record.

The splits we will bring you later - actually, we may not, it seems: the scoreboard was faulty on the way to the end result and appeared to flash up the times being swum by Gandy in the lane occupied by Jessica Dickons, third in 2:10.21 behind a swift 2:08.24 from hannah Miley, who clocked a 2:31 200m breaststroke heat earlier in the day, followed up with a 2:29.64 in the semi, and must surely be looking at a phenomenal 400m medley performance tomorrow.

Officials were said to be trying to put together a set of splits that would be acceptable to the referee for signing off.  Then, a message was delivered to the media: no split times. Computer back-ups were then retrieved and we were told to expect the news tomorrow. Gandy's time would be sent to LEN, the European Swimming League for ratification, and the splits might not matter anyway. The swimmer, courtesy of a timing system that has played up on and off all week here at trials but rarely in finals, look set for nervous wait after racing to the third sub 2:05 effort ever.

But good news came earlier than expected: the splendid folk in the glass box on the deck came up trumps. They found the "lost" data that had not showed up on the scoreboard in full (and what had shown up, did so in the wrong place). Bravo! And here are those splits:

  • Gandy: 28:33; 1:00.33; 1:31.99; 2:04.83
  • WR splits: 27.80;  59.37 (31.57);  1:31.59 (32.22);  2:04.18 (32.59)

Pity that Hugh Porter, the race commentator and a man adept at gee-ing up the crowd to get behind swimmers on their way to special things, was left with no option but to say that Gandy was "just outside British-record pace" with 50m to go. She was, in fact, well inside it - almost a second - but the crowd was oblivious. 

Gandy set out as she intended to go on - fast but controlled. Her third length was solid, her fourth blistering. Her stroke never faltered. She will go to bed tonight not only a member of the squad in the 100 and 200m 'fly for the world championships in Rome this July but with the podium in her targets.

The new all-time top 10 for the 200m 'fly:

  • 2:04.18 Liu, Zige CHN
  • 2:04.72 Jiao, Liuyang CHN
  • 2:04.83 Gandy GBR
  • 2:05.40 Schipper AUS
  • 2:05.61 Jedrzejczak POL
  • 2:05.81 O'Neill AUS
  • 2:05.88 Hyman USA
  • 2:05.96 Meagher USA
  • 2:06.01 Thomas AUS
  • 2:06.38 Nakanishi JPN

Out of the top 10 goes the 2:06.49 of Aurore Mongel of France and the 2:06.64 that had given Jemma Lowe the British record and all-time No11 slot slipped to number 12.

The 2:06.71 that earned American Kim Vandenberg thid at world championships in Melbourne, 2007, is now 14th best. Gandy had stood at all-time No28 before last night, on a 2:07.69. That was swum in the same fast suit as Gandy wore tonight. In 2007, at 15, she clocked a 2:09.67 that hinted at the storm to come.

Rebecca Adlington, double Olympic champion and not yet back to doing her best and toughest sets in training following a break after Beijing, put in a superb performance in the 800m freestyle: 8:18.52. She wore the suit of her sponsor but has been under 8:20 wearing a garment that pre-dates February 2008. Only she, Janet Evans, Kate Ziegler (both USA) and Laure Manaudou (FRA) have ever swum faster that the time seen tonight. Adlington is now the owner of four of the top 10 times ever and five of the top 15 times ever. 

The 20-year-old Brit led from start to finish in a final that was a race against self and clock not rivals. The battle for silver went to Jazmin Carlin, coached by Janet Evan's mentor, Bud McAllister at Swansea's Intensive Training Centre, in 8:30.12, ahead of Kerri-Anne Payne, Olympic silver marathon medal winner, on 8:35.03.

Adlington said: "I'm a bit shocked by that to be honest. I just really wanted to give that a solid swim which is why I pulled out of the 200m because in a five-day meet it is so hard to do it all. With my fitness not being where I want it to be I can't push it on the 200m."

In something of an understatement, Adlington added: "It's been a good week, definitely a learning curve. Obviously I've had to start from scratch again after Beijing after having such a long break. I really want to push on from now and the 800 is still my number one focus. It would have been silly to expect a world record here but off that ... hopefully it’ll come this summer."

 She was "just looking forward to racing - last time I went to worlds I didn't race very well so an outdoor meet especially when it is going to be boiling hot there is going to be very different."

Her blast at Ponds Forge pool was "stunning", said her Nottingham coach Bill Furniss. On Monday she would have claimed the 400m freestyle world record had it not been for Olympic bronze medal winner Joanne Jackson setting a global standard just 0.23sec ahead of her. 

"She's just got this steel to her. She hates to lose, she hates to swim a bad set in training, she is a perfectionist. She is a lovely, bubbly character - that is one side of her personality. But she's this Jekyll and Hyde character where she has this amazing ability to produce world-class performances in training and competition and that takes steel and determination and she's got it. She's done a remarkable job. People forget she's only just 20 and her life's changed 1,000 per cent."

Chris Walker-Hebborn, based Down Under at Britain's soon-to-be-no-more offshore centre, the Southport School (the school will remain, we hasten to add) with Chris Nesbitt, went to bed last night thinking something similar: in a shock 200m backstroke result, the four-time European Junior champion deposed former Commonwealth champion James Goddard, with Marco Loughran in third. The victor clocked 1:57.95.

In the first semi-final of the 100m freestyle, bodysuited backstroke ace Liam Tancock powered to the pad in 48.76, a best time by 1.03sec. Eight men dipped below 50sec, seven of them over 49sec. It feels as though a dam is about to burst in Britain's sprint events.

 

Olympic team member Kristopher Gilchrist took lane four for the final of the 200m breaststroke in 2:10.74, while Carlin's teammate Georgia Davies led the way in the 200m backstroke semis, on 2:11.87.