Munro looks to go up a gear at Sheffield showdown
TWO Barracudas swimming stars have been selected to compete at the upcoming British Summer Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
Miles Munro and Tatiana Tostevin proudly represented Guernsey at Gold Coast in April and are outside medal prospects in the prestigious long-course championship event, which begins on 24 July.
Munro has topped Guernsey’s senior ranks for several years now and will represent Bath University in the men’s open category as he looks to improve his qualifying marks of 22.94 and 50.80sec. in the 50 and 100 metre freestyle disciplines.
Both of these qualifiers were somewhere outside the freestyle talent’s own island records of 22.58 and 49.65 but still worthy of national top-10 status, putting him in a favourable position if he is to reach top form again for the championships.
Meanwhile, 15-year-old backstroke specialist Tostevin had a stellar Gold Coast campaign, setting island records of 30.19 and 1-04.90 in the 50 and 100m backstroke respectively.
The Millfield School affiliate is ranked third in her age group in the former and fifth in the latter, which certainly stands her in good stead as she will contest both in the championships, but will also take part in the 200m backstroke and 50m freestyle after reaching the national top 20s in those disciplines too.
Barracudas director Alison Frankland was pleased to see the duo reaching the championships following a tough selection period earlier this year.
‘It’s quite an achievement for them to be selected for the events as they had to work really hard and place in the top 24 in their age groups to do so,’ she said.
‘Miles has a good chance at reaching the final; he has medalled on previous occasions and has a good shot if he’s in good form.
‘There’s a big difference in open versus age group competition and I think Tatiana would probably be looking at a medal position.’
Those two are not the only swimmers taking part in high-level swimming competition at the Ponds Forge site in July, as 17-year-old Orla Rabey will compete at the following week’s Swim England Summer Meet after making the English top 30 with a 100m butterfly time of 1-05.02.
Rabey is a debutant at this level of competition but appeared alongside Tostevin at last year’s Youth Commonwealths and will be in good company among other high-level swimmers in the event, which begins on 31 July.
