Emma Secures Place at World Youth Championships
Monday, 14 March 2011
Bolton School Swimmer Emma Saunders has secured her place in the World Youth Championships this summer by putting in a strong performance at the British Gas Championships in Manchester over the last week.
Emma took on a gruelling schedule for the Championships - choosing to compete in six events after qualifying for eight. She took part in her main events the 200m and 100m freestyle, along with the 200m individual medley, the 100m backstroke, the 50m backstroke and the 50m freestyle. In the 50m backstroke Emma was the fastest qualifier in the heats and went on to take the silver medal in the final with a personal best of 28.80. She also met with success in the 100m freestyle where she gained 5th place in a time of 56.10 and in the 200m Individual Medley where she took 6th place. Although she soared through the 200m freestyle heats, Emma met with disappointment in the semi final, yet she finished off the week by touching home seventh in the 50m freestyle final.
Emma said: "The week overall has been one of the best I have done. I have swum PBs in most of my races so I am obviously really pleased by that. I have qualified for the World Youths as well which was another aim for the week so I am happy to have the pressure off for that. I will now train towards that and I am really looking forward to it - it should be really good. I will swim the 100m back, 100 free, 200m free, and 200m IM so it will be a pretty busy week! This week has been pretty challenging. That was my 16th race so it has been long but I am really pleased with it overall."
But despite a trip to Peru pencilled in to the diary for August, it is now back to her Sixth Form studies as usual for Emma!
See Emma's profile here
http://www.swimming.org/britishswimming/swimming/womens-profiles/emma-saunders/7256/
