Lauren Quigley is eyeing another personal best when she leads Britain’s World Championship charge in the 50m backstroke final alongside teammate Georgia Davies.
Quigley touched home in a new lifetime best of 28.02seconds in the semi-finals while Davies was just three hundredths of a second slower to also qualify for the medal showdown.
However 18-year-old Quigley is adamant that she can go even quicker still when she returns to Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi as Britain’s swimmers seek a first medal.
“I wanted to go under 28seconds, but I’ve always got the final to do that,” said Quigley, who is making her World Championship debut in Barcelona.
“I want to step up my game and go a bit quicker. I was a bit nervous beforehand but I think that’s normal.”
Meanwhile London 2012 Olympian Davies, who made a tearful exit in the heats of the 100m backstroke earlier in the week, claims having Quigley is keeping her on her toes.
“It is great that we are both in the final,” she said. “There is a rivalry there and we want to push each other on.
“And it is so good to have the standard of sprinting in Britain so high. We’ve got such a young squad here and I’m one of the oldest which is a bit weird for me.”
Adam Brown also recorded a new personal best of 48.48 in the 100m freestyle semi-finals but that wasn’t quite enough for him to follow Quigley and Davies into a final.
However Brown, who broke Mark Foster’s five-year-old national 50m freestyle record at the British trials last month, posting 21.92, gets underway over half the distance on Friday.
“I gave it my best shot,” said Brown, who finished ninth, just one place and two hundredths of a second away from making it into the 100m freestyle final.
“I’m really pleased with the time, so I can’t complain. I’ve just got to make sure I swim fast in the 50m now.”
Elsewhere, Jemma Lowe and Roberto Pavoni made semi-finals exits in the 200m butterfly and 200m individual medley respectively.
Lowe finished 13th in 2:08.53minutes in her semi-final while Pavoni placed 11th in his after clocking 1:59.44.
“The plan was to go out much faster, I felt like my stroke rate was too slow this morning so I decided just to go for it and try and hold on but it wasn’t quite good enough,” said Lowe.
“I gave it my best shot but it wasn’t good enough. This year has been a really tough year after the Olympics last year.”
© Sportsbeat 2013