Angharad Evans breaks British record for Junior gold

Angharad Evans lowered her British Age Group record in heats and final to claim the Junior 50m Breaststroke title on the opening night of the British Swimming Championships 2017.

The West Suffolk swimmer, who turns 14 on Tuesday, was the fastest U18 swimmer from the heats, leading the way against swimmers up to four years her senior in 32.37.

BRITISH AGE RECORD SWIM FOR EVANS

Day one at the British Swimming Championships 2017 saw West Suffolk swimmer… https://t.co/YOIrm84E9N

— WSSC (@westsuffolkswim) April 19, 2017

And Evans surged home from the middle lane in the final, lowering the record for the third time in two weeks to take the touch in 32.04.

Callum Smart pounces from lane eight for 100m Breast gold

City of Oxford’s Callum Smart took an axe to his PB to win the Junior 100m Breaststroke title at the end of the session.

The 16-year old squeezed into the final as eighth fastest qualifier, setting a PB 1:04.54 in the heats.

But Smart, whose previous lifetime best had stood at 1:04.86 from last year’s British Summer Championships, produced a stunning effort from lane eight to take the gold.

Leading on 29.59 at the turn, he held his form to take the touch in 1:03.01, tying for the third fastest effort of all time by a British 16-year old.

A blanket finish saw another four swimmers home within a second of Smart, with Wycombe’s James McFadzen taking silver on a PB 1:03.39 and York City’s Harry Devlin bronze in a PB 1:03.82.

The competitiveness of the final was underlined by the fact that Mount Kelly swimmer Oliver Taverner’s 1:04.26 PB for eighth elevated him to third in the British 15 Yrs all time rankings.

Turley and Coulter put on show in 400m Free

Luke Turley and Harrison Coulter went head-to-head in a memorable battle for the Junior 400m Freestyle title, with both swimmers beating their own PBs.

Stockport Metro swimmer Coulter took charge of the race at the half-way stage, pulling clear of the field with more than a second in hand with 100m to go.

But Hatfield’s Turley slowly hauled him in, eventually taking the iniative in the final 50m to claim gold on 3:53.83 to Coulter’s 3:54.43.

Newcastle Swim Team’s Emily Large was the only other English gold medallist in the junior events from the opening day in Sheffield.

The 16-year old, who is reigning European Junior champion over 200m Fly, won the final in 4:47.97.

Image credit: West Suffolk Swimming Club Facebook