THREE British records were set in successive races as Gregor Tait, James Goddard and Liam Tancock all lowered the national mark in the 200m individual medley at the Olympic swimming trials in Sheffield.
Tait, who had already qualified for Beijing in the 100m backstroke yesterday morning, set the first record when he lowered Tancock’s mark set in Chiba last August to one minute 59.15 seconds.
In the next heat Goddard improved that to 1:58.43secs, a new Commonwealth record.
Goddard had little chance to savour his achievement as Tancock recorded a time of 1:57.79s, making him the fourth fastest of all time behind Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and European record holder Laszlo Cseh.
But their emotions were in total contrast to those of former 100m freestyle British record holder Mel Marshall.
She saw her chances of qualifying for the Great Britain Olympic squad hit after she was excluded from the final at the trials for failing to report for the race on time.
The 26-year-old was waiting outside the call room – where swimmers are required to report before their race – rather than inside it and was deemed to have not registered.
As a result, a reserve was drafted in and Marshall, part of the British 4x200m relay squad that recently claimed European silver in a Commonwealth record time, was excluded from the race, which was won by Caitlin McClatchey.
