JERSEY teenager Daniel Halksworth won a silver medal in the 400m individual medley in the national youth championships at Ponds Forge swimming pool in Sheffield yesterday.
According to AIB Tigers’ coach Paul du Feu, he was never going to win gold, against Euan Dale, an older swimmer who is also a full England international from Millfield, but both his preliminary and then final swims saw him take a full three seconds off his personal best.
‘Dan’s just been getting better and better,’ said du Feu this morning.
‘He’s now within three seconds of the qualifying time for the Commonwealth Games.
That must be his next ambition.’ Halksworth wasn’t the only Jersey swimmer in action yesterday or this morning.
Rosie Barrett finished 11th in the 400m individual medley in her 16-17 year age group with a new PB; Victoria Rebours also had a PB in the 400m individual medley (14-15 year age group) and, despite being a year younger than most of the other girls, finished 13th in the 200m breaststroke, while 16-year-old Amy Pallot and 15-year-old Ashley Cope both had PBs in the 200m butterfly and 800m freestyle, respectively.
After Ashley finished second in her heat this morning she was waiting to find out if she had made her first final of the nationals.
‘For all of them to finish in the first 20 at national level is an incredible achievement,’ said du Feu.
‘They’ve worked harder, skipped longer, run further and, on average, swum over 40km a week for the last year.
Rosie’s metreage in the pool, for example, has been 45.7m a week.
‘In terms of sheer hard work, no-one’s skived.
They’ve made the effort, and they deserve their success.
They are up there with the best swimmers, at national level, in Britain.’
Article posted on 3rd August, 2004 - 12.00am
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