Siobhan-Marie O’Connor admitted she had to dig deep to secure her second gold of the British Gas Swimming Championships in her favoured 200m medley in Glasgow.
O’Connor, who made her Olympic debut aged just 16 at London 2012, added the 200m medley title to the 200m freestyle crown she had earlier won in the Commonwealth pool in Scotland.
She led from the start to post a new English record of 2:09.71minutes, good enough for consideration for this summer’s Commonwealth Games, but insisted it wasn’t easy.
“I’m very happy with my win. The 200 medley is my favourite event and I’m thrilled to have set a new English record and got under the consideration time,” she said.
“I felt good during the first 100m but it’s such a strong field that I knew they would come back if I didn’t push myself. I didn’t have a lot left in the last 25m but I dug really deep and am really happy with the time.”
Elsewhere Lauren Quigley stripped two-time Olympian Lizzie Simmonds of her 200m backstroke crown in the final ten metres while Adam Brown retained his 100m freestyle title.
Chris Walker-Hebborn took 50m backstroke gold while Fran Halsall followed Brown’s lead in defending her 50m butterfly title but admits she still isn’t swimming how she should be.
That was Halsall’s second gold after victory in the 50m freestyle and she said: “I haven’t been swimming that fast this week and didn’t have a great end to the race so I’m really pleased to have kept my title.”
© Sportsbeat 2014