Lily Booker powers to huge personal best with dominant display in Manchester

Lily Booker sealed a huge new 400m Individual Medley personal best as she put on a dominant display in the day two finals of the Manchester International Swim Meet.

The Millfield School swimmer touched home in 4:44.73 after a strong swim in the second half of the race to pull clear of Nova Centurion’s Freya Colbert at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Twenty-year-old Booker was 5.70 seconds ahead of Colbert (4:50.43) as she shaved 5.68 seconds off her previous best of 4:50.41 that she set at the 2019 British Championships.

Loughborough University’s Alice Dearing (4:59.57) just touched home ahead of City of Leeds’ Isabelle Goodwin (4:59.72) to take third spot.

Abbie Wood also set a new personal best after leading from start to finish to snatch the Women’s 200m Freestyle crown by 0.04 seconds in a thrilling race for the wall with Freya Anderson.

The Loughborough National Centre swimmer shattered her previous best by 1.70 seconds to win the race in 1:57.96, with Anderson narrowly behind in 1:58.00.

Anderson’s Bath team-mate, Holly Hibbott, claimed third place in 2:00.15.

Bath National Centre’s Jonathon Adam was victorious in the Men’s 50m Backstroke in a time of 26.30.

That was 0.23 clear of City of Sheffield’s Charlie Brown (26.53), with Bath National Centre’s Jacob Peters third in 27.41.

In the Men’s MC 50m Backstroke, Jordan Catchpole was only three-tenths outside the British record as he clocked 28.94 to win with 802 points.

The Team Waveney S14 swimmer, who broke the British 50m Freestyle record twice on day one, was 1.24 seconds ahead of Swansea University’s Rhys Davies, whose time of 30.18 secured 707 points.

S5 swimmer Lyndon Longhorne (Derwentside) scored 177 points for his time of 58.04.

Catchpole at the double

Catchpole was victorious again in the Men’s MC 200m Individual Medley in a close race for the wall with Torfaen’s Dylan Broom.

His time of 2:19.24 was worth 779 points and 0.61 seconds ahead of Broom’s 2:19.85 which scored 769.

Cockermouth’s S9 swimmer Jacob Leach finished third in 2:29.59 for 712 points.

Greece’s Andreas Vazaios held off a late challenge from Joe Litchfield to win the Men’s 200m Individual medley final.

Vazaios, who swims out of Loughborough, clocked 2:01.54 to beat the Loughborough University duo of Litchfield and Luke Greenbank to the top spot.

Litchfield was 0.09 seconds adrift of Vazaios in 2:01.63, while backstroke specialist Greenbank, who led at the halfway stage, was more than a second further back in 2:02.69.

Swansea University’s Georgia Davies triumphed in the Women’s 100m Backstroke in a time of 1:01.96 – 0.22 seconds in front of Plymouth Leander’s Honey Osrin (1:02.18) and 0.52 seconds ahead of City of Manchester Aquatics’ Chloe Golding (1:02.48).

In the Women’s MC 100m Backstroke final, Manchester Aquatics’ S12 swimmer Hannah Russell finished in 1:10.49 for 823 points, with Wycombe District’s Katie Crowhurst (S13) clocking 1:17.66 for 607 points.

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