Davies Boosts Budapest Hopes With Welsh Record

Georgia Davies boosted her hopes of being named in the World Championships team after breaking her Welsh 100m Backstroke record in Sheffield.

The 26-year-old clocked 59.34 secs to win the British title having dominated the race from the start.

Davies, who competed in Rio last August, has a good chance of being named in the squad for the worlds in Budapest this summer.

“I’m really pleased with that,” Davies said. “I’m really pleased I could pull that kind of swim out here when it mattered and hopefully get selected for the World Championships.

“I took a slightly longer break than normal after Rio because I wanted to fully recover and make a decision about what I wanted to do next but I couldn’t retire while I still love what I am doing.”

Olympic silver medallist Jazz Carlin continued her British Championships campaign by retaining her title in the 800m Freestyle.

Carlin, who was third in the 200m freestyle on Tuesday, was pushed throughout the race by Stockport Metro’s Holly Hibbott.

But the Bath-based star used her experience to seal the victory in the final 100m of the race in 8:30.56.

Carlin said: “After yesterday I didn’t feel too great and it was really just about coming in and putting in a good race today.

“When you aren’t feeling great the 800m is a sore one but it’s obviously great to come away with the win and it’s great to race the best in Britain.

“After the highs of Rio it’s always tough to get back into the swing of it. It has been a tough few months but it’s nice to come here and race and the crowd are really getting behind the athletes.

“Rio  was in my mind for so long and when that’s done it like ‘oh what’s next’ and Tokyo will come and fly by so I’m really looking forward to getting stuck back into training now.”

Chloe Tutton – who made her breakthrough at these championships last year when she broke the British 200m breaststroke record – had to settle for third this time.

The City of Cardiff swimmer who went on to compete in Rio saw Loughborough University’s Jocelyn Ulyett set a new British record of 2:22.08.

Tutton went into the lead in the first half of the race but Ulyett brought it back in the second 100m to set the record and achieve the qualifying standard for the World Championships.

Molly Renshaw (National Centre Loughborough) was second with Tutton stopping the clock in 2:24.28.