British Summer Nationals Day 5 – World’s Top-10 1500 for Daniel Jervis

The penultimate day of competition of the British Summer Nationals at Ponds Forge in Sheffield featured excellent racing although, for once, no age group records were broken. In a week that has otherwise seen an assault on the British Age Group Records, Saturday was just a bit calmer.

The men’s 1500 got things started on Saturday. In the 17-18 division, Tom Derbyshire from Royal Wolverhampton School won handily with 15:24.72, although a couple of seconds off his entry time. Swansea’s Daniel Jervis, who set the British Age Group Record for 17-year-olds (15:16.46) in April, 2014, posted the 7th-fastest time in the world so far this year to win the 19-and-over division with 14:58.98.

Nearly every men’s 200 breast final involved a photo-finish, beginning with the 13-14 boys, where James Bilbao of City of Hereford came back from a 2-second deficit at the 100 to beat Oliver Taverner of Mt Kelly, 2:28.46 to 2:28.73. Callum Smart (Oxford) won the 15s with 2:22.69, while Joshua Lawson (Millfield) beat George Clough (Warrender), 2:21.51 to 2:21.89, to claim the 16s. 17-year-old Edward Baxter (Cockermouth) claimed the title in the 17-18 division in 2:15.97, and James Wilby (Loughboro University) was just .04 off his world-top 25 time winning the 19-and-over in 2:10.91.

There were several exciting finishes in the women’s 400 IM races. Ciara Schlosshan from City of Leeds and Sophia Wilson of Guildford City battled for control of the 13-14 race, trading leads. Schlosshan was up by 2.3 seconds after the fly; Wilson narrowed the lead to 2 seconds on the backstroke leg, then took over after breaststroke and was up by 7/10 heading into the freestyle. The two traded stroke-for-stroke but ultimately Schlosshan prevailed, 4:56.21 to 4:56.25. Tazmin Pugh of Ellesmere College added another gold medal to her haul, winning the 15s handily, with 4:51.70. Leeds’ Georgia Coates went 4:46.86 to take the 16s in clean water, but it was a hard-fought victory for Lucy McKenzie (Stockport Metro) in the 17-18s; she prevailed over Amber Keegan (NOVA Centurion), 4:45.22 to 4:45.33. Alexandra Kaye (Bath University) won the 19-and-overs in 4:50.65.

In the men’s 100 back, 14-year-old Leighton Mayers (Ellesmere) came in with a seed time of 1:02.80 and ended up winning the boys’ 13-14 age group with 59.73. James Eddy (15) and James McFadzen (16), both of Wycombe, won their respective age divisions with new PBs, while Joe Elwood (Loughboro University) broke 55 seconds with his winning time of 54.77 in the 19-and-over age category. Kathleen Dawson of Warrington was the only sub-29 in the 50 back, claiming the women’s 17-18 title in 28.73.

Follow the action from Ponds Forge, Sheffield as the British Summer Nationals continues tomorrow.