Three C'Wealth Records: Goddard; Adlington; Cook
2008-04-02
Craig Lord
British Olympic Trials: 200m medley: James Goddard 1:57.72; Liam Tancock 1:57.92. 400m freestyle: Rebecca Adlington: 4:04.50; 100m breaststroke: Chris Cook, 59.88

British Olympic trials in Sheffield - qualifiers (morning finals):

200m medley: James Goddard 1:57.72, Commonwealth record; Liam Tancock 1:57.92.

400m freestyle: Rebecca Adlington (in a Diana suit): 4:04.50, Commonwealth record; Joanne Jackson, 4:08.75.

100m breaststroke: Chris Cook, 59.88, Commonwealth record; Kris Gilchrist, 1:01.06,

50m freestyle: Mark Foster, 22.30

100m backstroke: Gemma Spofforth, 59.90; Lizzie Simmonds, 1:00.66 (William the Conqueror and all that...)

On a frenetic morning that saw three Commonwealth records tumble in quick succession at trials in Sheffield and boasted the first British man, Chris Cook, and woman, Gemma Spofforth, to race inside the minute in the 100m breaststroke and backstroke respectively, Mark Foster set a different sort of record - as the oldest British man ever to make an Olympic swimming team.

James Goddard blasted a 1:57.72 Commonwealth record in the 200m medley (fourth-fastest ever), and Rebecca Adlington, 19, eclipsed the Commonwealth mark of Australian Linda MacKenzie with a 4:04.50 victory (eighth best all-time) in the 400m freestyle.

The pace of progress in Britain is sound, and while it is too early in the year to relate performance to places on the world rakings, three records inside the pace set at speedy Australian trials in Sydney last week is a happy measure for Britain of just how solid their advance has been.

Loughborough teammates Goddard, coached by Ian Turner, and Liam Tancock, coached by Ben Titley, are now fourth and fifth fastest ever in the 200m medley, and event that is a 'fun' distraction away from their main events. Goddard’s 1:57.72 kept Tancock at bay by 0.24sec and was 0.07sec inside the standard Tancock had set in heats. Before last year, no British man had swum inside 2 minutes. Now there are three, with Gregor Tait (coached by Fred Vergnoux in Edinburgh), on 1:59 in heats, opting not to race the final in order to focus on the 200m backstroke heats later in the day (in which he set a British record of 1:56.84).

Like Goddard, who will become a father in May, and Tancock, Cook, 28, can challenge for a place on the podium in Beijing. In 59.88, he shaved 0.14sec off the national 100m breaststroke record to become the first Briton – and eighth all-time – to crack the minute in the 100m breaststroke.

A relieved Cook, coached by Ian Oliver at City of Newcastle, said: 'I’ve had such a poor year, 18 months of not really performing, trying every way of racing that event - and that was the one I've been looking for.' He had had no trouble with the early morning start: 'I'm up at 4.30 most days and in the water by 5.30-6, so today was a breeze.'

Adlington, who on Saturday will test the 22-year-old British record of Olympic medalist Sarah Hardcastle in the 800m freestyle, entered a new class with a 4:04.50 morning effort that makes her competitive in a second event in Beijing. Joanne Jackson took the second berth for Beijing. 'I never thought about the 400. Now I'm on the Olympic team. I can’t believe it. I’m thrilled,' said Adlington, coached by Bill Furniss in Nottingham.

So was Florida-based Gemma Spofforth, who qualified in the 100m backstroke with a 59.90sec effort that left her 0.02sec shy of the time in heats that had made her the first British woman to race inside the minute. Second on a big personal best of 1:00.66 was 17-year-old Lizzie Simmonds, coached by Mark Spackman in Lincoln. Simmonds locked Katy Sexton, former world champion in the 200m, off the team.

Her coach, Foster, stepped up to his blocks in the 50m freestyle, then he stepped down, held up his hand, tore off his bodysuit and explained to the Olympic trials referee that his zip had broken. After a short delay, Foster, 37, was ready to race in the leggings he was wearing underneath the problem suit 'because I had an inkling that something might go wrong'. A wise decision given his history of errors at critical moments: he missed the cut for Athens 2004 by just 0.01sec. Wise too because had he kept two suits on, he would have broken rules governing the thickness of suits. Once on his blocks, Foster made no mistakes, emerging from his dive ahead and maintaining his pace until the final five metres, when national record holder Simon Burnett surged forward. It was too late. Foster stopped the clock at 22.30, the only man under the target time of 22.35, with Burnett on 22.38 and Matthew Tutty on 22.46.

Foster had intended to wear the new Speedo LZR Racer in which 17 world records have been set since February 16, but he had not wanted the distraction of wearing a costume he was not used to. 'There’s no coincidence that times have got so fast just as the suit has been launched,' said Foster, a winner of six world short-course titles and a man who will spend the rest of this week practicing in the Racer in preparation for the World short-course Championships in Manchester next week.

Foster will be 38 by the time he boards the plane to Beijing with a team whose average age, without him, will be about 21. After three days of trials, the 14 swimmers who have booked Olympic tickets so far in solo events include five teenagers who were not born when Foster raced at his first Olympic Game in 1988. Ellen Gandy is the baby of the swimming team so far, at 16, while the overall Britain team will include diver Tom Daley, at 13 the youngest European champion off the 10m platform two weeks ago in Eindhoven. He will be 14 years and 79 days when Games open in Beijing.