Tom's up for the record, not for the World Cup

TOM HOLLINGSWORTH turned his back on the World Cup and produced the outstanding swim at the 50-metre sprint gala. All told, 13 gala records, one island mark and one all-comers' pool record were broken in the event that involved swimmers from Beau Sejour Barracudas and the Guernsey Swimming Club.

But Hollingsworth's butterfly swim stood out, the Barracuda claiming the all-comers' pool record from Jersey's Simon Le Couilliard, who set it at the Guernsey Island Games in 2003.

By just one hundredth of a second, Hollingsworth swam into the record books with 26.09. This was also a new island record and he set a new gala record of 31.98 in the breaststroke.

Most senior men skipped the meet to watch England against Paraguay, but not Hollingsworth, whose performance pleased his coach, Alison Frankland.

'He's going really well at the moment as he's in serious training for the nationals in August.

'It shows he's on target.'

In the youngest age group, Kristina Neves of the Barracudas set new marks in all four events.

Displacing three of Gail Strobridge's records, Neves smashed the backstroke by three seconds as well as slicing two seconds off the butterfly and freestyle.

In the breaststroke, Neves recorded 44.95 to erase Christine Hume's mark of 46.15.

In the 10-year group, GSC's Ellie Ogier set a new record in the butterfly, with team-mates Nicole Hewlett and Luke Bourgaize swimming well, setting new records in the breaststroke.

Barracuda Katherine Jensen set a new backstroke mark of 39.61, a personal best.

Eleven-year-old Joe Ogier had his eye on Ben Lowndes' butterfly record set back in 1997 and he beat it, posting an excellent time of 34.48.

Further records went to Barracudas' Victoria Parfit in a well-controlled swim in the backstroke for 13 year-olds and Edward Dickinson in the 14 year-olds who swam out of his skin to take the record previously held by Jeremy Osborne.

Swimmers placing in the top six in each event in their age group accumulated from six points down to one, with awards being presented to the top three in each section.

The presentations were made by Gasa president Brian Allen.