Updated with video on March 17
SHEFFIELD, England, March 16. IN what proved to be a barn-burner between Joanne Jackson and Rebecca Adlington, Jackson came out on top in a world-record effort in the women's 400 free at the British Long Course Championships.
Jackson rocketed to a time of 4:00.66, while Adlington placed second in 4:00.89. Both swims cleared the world record of 4:01.53 set by Italy's Federica Pellegrini last March.
Comparative splits:
Jackson: 28.25, 58.49 (30.24), 1:29.33 (30.84), 2:00.35 (31.02), 2:30.54 (30.19), 3:00.93 (30.39), 3:31.17 (30.24), 4:00.66 (29.49)
Adlington: 28.49, 58.71 (30.22), 1:29.59 (30.88), 2:00.50 (30.91), 2:31.11 (30.61), 3:01.43 (30.32), 3:31.80 (30.37), 4:00.89 (29.09)
Pellegrini: 28.84, 59.01 (30.17), 1:29.22 (30.21), 1:59.60 (30.38), 2:29.92 (30.32), 3:00.41 (30.49), 3:31.16 (30.75), 4:01.53 (30.37)
In other action, David Davies set a British record in the men's 400 free with a time of 3:45.24. The performance not only gave him the title, but cleared the previous record of 3:47.17 set by David Carry at the Beijing Olympics.
In semifinal rounds, Ellen Gandy (58.66) and Francesca Halsall (58.97) earned the top two seeds in the women's 100 fly. Meanwhile, Liam Tancock (54.36), Marco Loughran (54.83) and Chris Walker-Hebborn (54.89) are favored for the men's 100 back.
In the women's 200 IM, national-record holder Hannah Miley posted a 2:12.21 to lead qualifying, while Michael Rock topped the men's 200 fly semis in 1:56.68.
With national-record holder Gemma Spofforth in the States representing Florida at NCAAs, Elizabeth Simmonds (1:01.06) and Georgia Davies (1:01.16) look to be favored in finals for the women's 100 back title.
Meanwhile, another favorite fell victim to a disqualification as Simon Burnett missed out during finals of the men's 50 free. Adam Brown (22.39) made the most of the opening to get lane four in finals.
Additionally, Halsall nearly clipped the national record in the women's 50 free with a top semifinal time of 24.75. Alison Shepard's 24.68 set back in 2002 definitely looks prime for the taking during finals.
Video of World Record