British Swimming Championships: Siobhan-Marie O'Connor smashes 200m freestyle PB to win in Glasgow
By Sam Drury - Follow on Twitter
Last Updated: 14/04/14 9:47am
Siobhan-Marie O'Connor claimed freestyle gold on the opening day of the British Swimming Championships.
The event in Glasgow will double as trials for this summer's Commonwealth Games and the Sky Academy Sports Scholar made the perfect start.
O'Connor, 18, touched home in a personal best time of 1:56.59 to take the British 200m freestyle title ahead of Jazz Carlin (1:57.97) in second and Eleanor Faulkner (1:58.82) in the bronze medal position.
Earlier, O'Connor recorded a time of 1:57.23, making her the fastest qualfier for the 200m freestyle final ahead of Carlin and Rebecca Turner in second and third, respectively.
“It was a great race and I’m really pleased with the time," said the new champion.
Personal best
“When I came in to this meet I wasn’t sure I would get within the consideration times so I’m really pleased to have done a personal best."
The Bath swimmer was back in action for the 100m butterfly final having qualified third fastest for Thursday evening's semi-finals. Her time of 59.70 was bettered only by Francesca Halsall (58.65) and Rachael Kelly (59.08).
The semi-final saw an incredible finish as O'Connor appeared to touch the wall simultaneously with Halsall. The Sports Scholar was ultimately awarded the second place and a time of 58.34 with Halsall winning in 58.33, demonstrating just how fine the margins were.
There was another close finish in final as O'Connor claimed the silver medal. This time it was Kelly who provided her biggest threat and the Loughborough swimmer finished strongly to pip O'Connor to the title by 0.02 seconds.
Having competed at the London Olympic in 2012, O'Connor has made an excellent start in her bid to compete at another 'home' Games this July.
