Tom Dean wins 200m IM gold with British record in Israel

July 1, 2017

Tom Dean landed GB’s second gold medal of the European Junior Swimming Championships in Netanya, Israel with victory in the 200m Individual Medley.

Having seen Layla Black win 200m Breaststroke gold less than 30 minutes earlier, the Maidenhead swimmer took down a six-year old British 17 Years record to take the touch in 2:01.02.

The final was Dean’s second of the meet, having finished eighth with a PB over 200m Breaststroke 24 hours earlier.

And the 17-year old showed plenty of composure to stick to his race plan in the 200m IM, recovering from fourth at the half-way stage with a powerful breaststroke leg to turn in front at 150m.

The English swimmer had plenty in the tank for the final 50m, taking more than 1.5 seconds off his PB and lowering double Olympian Ieuan Lloyd’s British age group record of 2:01.57 from the 2011 European Juniors.

Hungary’s Marton Barta took silver on 2:01.82, repeating his result from last year where he touched behind GB’s Joe Litchfield. Another English swimmer, Wycombe District’s James McFadzen, dug deep to win bronze.

The 18-year old, who set a PB 2:02.36 to qualify fastest for the final, came home in 2:02.67 in lane four. He narrowly held off the attention of Hungary’s Balazs Hollo and Italy’s Alberto Razzetti, tied for fourth on 2:02.96.

Promising relay performances on day three

Although there were no more medals for GB on day three, there were some very promising relay results.

The Women’s 4x100m Medley relay team secured a fourth place finish. Lily Boseley, Layla Black, Ciara Scholsshan and Laura McNab finished just over half a second shy of a podium place. They touched in 4:09.37.

The Men’s 4x200m Freestyle quartet finished in eighth place. Jakob Goodman, Luke Robins, Kieran Bird and Harry Constantine touched in 7:31.32.