Titan Swimmers Medal At British Gas Swimming Championships
At the recent British Gas National Swimming Championships and Commonwealth Games Trials, Ellesmere College Titan swimmers Stacey Tadd age 21, Darren Mew age 30 and James Faure age 21 put Ellesmere College and Shropshire swimming well and truly on the sporting map.
The Championships which were held at Ponds Forge in Sheffield from the 29th March to the 3rd April, doubled up as the Trials for this autumn’s Commonwealth Games which are being held in Delhi, India. The best very swimmers from all over the UK, including world record holders and Beijing Olympic medallists Rebecca Adlington, Jo Jackson and Gemma Spofforth competed against each other to be crowned as British Champions.
Ellesmere College Titan Stacey Tadd, who also represents Bath University won the gold medal in the 200m breaststroke in a personal best time of 2:29.66 – beating Olympic heroin Hannah Miley into second place, and securing herself a place at the Commonwealth Games.
Stacey also won the bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:09.90 and came 7th in the final of the 200m Individual Medley (IM) in a time of 2:16.86 and 8th in the final of the 400m IM in 4:54.52.
Commenting upon her success Stacey said “It’s just fantastic. I’m delighted to have gone under 2:30.00 for the first time in my life and selection for the Commonwealths is brilliant”.
Darren Mew
British record holder Darren Mew had to settle for the silver medal in the 50m breaststroke having been pipped to gold by just 1/100th of a second. His time in the final of 0:28.74 was 35/100ths of a second slower than he had achieved in the semi final. In the 100th breaststroke he was dissapointed to finish 4th in 1:01.51.
James Faure returning from illness and a week off training faced an uphill battle in the 200m butterfly and had to settle for 12th place in a time of 2:02.84.
James and Darren will get a second chance of securing Commonwealth Games selection at this summer’s ASA Championships.
Titan head coach Jon Pardoe commented “I’m truly delighted for Stacey and I’m confident that both Darren and James will seize their Commonwealth opportunity at the ASA Championships in August. All three of them are incredibly positive role models for our young swimmers”.