Commonwealth Champion Hannah Miley won silver in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley to claim Britain’s first swimming medal of the LEN European Aquatics Championships in London.
On day one of the swimming events Miley finished in 4:35.27 behind Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu, who swam a Championship Record to take gold, while bronze went to Zsuzsanna Jakabos also of Hungary.
Miley said, “It’s always going to be a big race when you go up against Katinka. If you try to stick as close as possible then you know you’re going to deliver a good time. It was never going to be my fastest tonight but for me it’s important to focus on making sure my fastest comes in the summer and that is what I’m working towards.
“The atmosphere in the venue was great. You can really hear and feel it as you’re swimming, and I would like to thank UK Sport and the Lottery for helping to bring the event to London. It’s so lively and you can’t help but enjoy swimming here.”
Francesca Halsall took the touch in the opening semi-final of the Women’s 50m Butterfly to book herself into tomorrow evening’s final as fastest qualifier.
“I’m really surprised, I’ve come into this event in the middle of a hard block of training so to get that time is really encouraging,” said Halsall. “The fact that it’s a home crowd, a home event just makes you a bit more excited. Having the LEN European Aquatics Championships on home soil has been a massive boost and really helped me kick start the Olympic cycle for me. I’m really looking forward to stepping it up a gear tomorrow; getting gold is going to be a challenge but I’m certainly up for it.”
World Champion and World Record holder Adam Peaty qualified fastest to secure lane four in tomorrow’s Men’s 100m Breaststroke final.
“It’s great to have that home crowd behind you, it always helps me when I’m racing,” said Peaty after winning his semi-final. “I’m pleased to get into the final, I felt good and hopefully I can go quicker again.”
Peaty will be joined by British teammate Ross Murdoch who finished second fastest overall after he claimed victory in the first semi-final.
Stephen Milne was the first Brit to take to the pool for finals and he finished eighth in the Men’s 400m Freestyle. The session was rounded off with the Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay and the team of Robbie Renwick, Duncan Scott, Ieuan Lloyd and Ben Proud finished seventh.
Full results for the LEN European Aquatics Championships 2016 are available here: http://london2016.microplustiming.com/Elite/indexLondonElite2016_web.php?sport=Swimming
Tickets for the LEN European Aquatics Championships are still available both on the door and via http://www.theticketfactory.com/euroaquatics/online - come and support the British team in London.