Jazz Carlin recorded the fastest 800m freestyle time in the world this year as she stormed to victory on the penultimate day of the 2014 British Gas Swimming Championships in Glasgow.
Carlin, who picked up 200m freestyle silver earlier in the meet, led from the front to post a time of 8:18.36minutes and finish ahead of Eleanor Faulkner and Jessica Thielmann in second and third respectively.
The time was enough to see Carlin break her own Welsh record with the 23-year-old admitting afterward that the time had come as a shock to herself.
“I’m really surprised with how that went. I knew it was going to be a tough race and to come away with a new PB is great,” she said.
“Last year it was about pushing the 8.18s and now it’s about making sure I can compete with the top of the world which last year was 8.13.
“I didn't expect that time today, but it's a massive confidence boost.”
There were further records in the pool as Sophie Taylor set a new British record on the way to 100m breaststroke gold.
With the 50m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke titles already in the bag, Monday night’s 100m final, which saw her lower her own record by 0.28secs, clocking a time of 1:07.08, made it a hat-trick of wins for Taylor in Glasgow.
“I can’t believe I’ve won all three British breaststroke titles. I didn’t expect it at all, especially the 200m, but it’s absolutely amazing,” said Taylor, who finished ahead of Corrie Scott and Molly Renshaw.
"It was a tough time to make, especially after a hard week, but I am just so glad to make it.
"I've been training hard and focusing for the past three months because I had an operation in January and I have had to focus so much and put in a lot of hard work."
Meanwhile James Guy also claimed his third gold of the event, knocking 0.8 seconds off his 100m butterfly personal best with a time of 52.55 to add to his 200m and 400m freestyle victories while Fran Halsall also collected her third win by retaining the 100m freestyle title with a time of 54.12.
There were also wins for Adam Peaty, who edged out Ross Murdoch by 0.02 seconds to take the 100m breaststroke title.
While Aimee Willmott set a new English 400m individual medley record time of 2:07.97 on the way to gold and Charlie Boldison landed his first British title with 200m backstroke gold.
© Sportsbeat 2014