Amelia poised to make British debut (From Bournemouth Echo)

Amelia poised to make British debut

7:00am Thursday 26th March 2009

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SWIMMING prodigy Amelia Maughan is on course to make her international debut this summer after putting together a sensational series of swims at the British Gas Championships in Sheffield.

The Bournemouth Dolphins 12-year-old rounded off an extraordinary week by reaching the semi-finals of the women’s 100m freestyle with a long-course time of 57.69sec.

The youngest of the 49 competitors, who was making her first appearance at Britain’s senior national championships, then improved to 57.57 in the semis to finish equal 14th in Britain.

Those ahead of her included Olympic medallist Jo Jackson, British record holder Fran Halsall and two other members of Britain’s Beijing team.

Most if not all the other nine above her also have international experience.

Maughan’s brace of 57-second swims means she is now: the fastest 12-year-old in the world this year; one of the top ten 12-year-olds in the world of all time n 141st in the 2009 world rankings for female freestylers of all ages; the fastest 12-year-old on the British all-time list by 1.5 seconds; the holder of three Dorset junior records with more than three years to spare In fact, her 100m freestyle time slashed 1.25sec off the Dorset junior record, set in 2002 by Alex Savage, now one of her senior team-mates at Bournemouth.

Savage was 16 then, already a national youth champion and in the early stages of an international career which the following year took her to a relay final at the World Championships in Barcelona.

Maughan, who has previously broken records held by Fran Halsall and Karen Legg, who both went on to swim in Olympic finals, clocked an equally impressive 26.86 in the 50m freestyle at Sheffield.

She is also top of the British all-time list for her age group for that event and second on the list for the 200m freestyle thanks to the 2:07.32 she recorded last week.

Maughan is now awaiting the decision by British selectors for the European Youth Olympic Festival in Finland in July.

A maximum of 16 swimmers can be selected and she is younger than the majority of her rivals for places in the team.

But Dolphins’ head coach Graham Bassi said: “I’m confident she will have made the team.

“She is ranked third for the eight automatic selections so unless there is a complication somewhere, she should be in the team.

“I would then expect her to swim the 50 and 100m freestyle and the relay.”

Maughan said: “It was a good experience and probably the best competition I have been to.

“I swam as hard as I could and hopefully it will be enough to make the team. But I think I can go faster in the future.”

As a direct result of last week’s swims, Maughan and Bassi were yesterday (Wednesday) selected for a 10-day England talent development camp in Greece next month.

At 5ft 10in tall and with size 9 feet, Maughan is certainly built for swimming.

She also has sporting genes on her side – her mother, Sisse, played basketball for Denmark while her father, Jon, played tennis for the University of Miami.

They are 6ft and 6ft 2in tall respectively.

Dolphins’ 16-year-old Martin Littlefair is unlikely to make the team despite extending his run of PBs at Sheffield with a time of 53.58 in the 100m freestyle, which placed him 38th overall.

In the 200 and 400m freestyle, he maintained his steep improvement curve by rising from 16th to sixth in the national rankings for his age group.

Ferndown’s Chris Campbell, 17, sliced 0.33sec off his Dorset senior record as he came 33rd in the men’s 100m butterfly in 57.59.

Team-mate Fran Hughes was 20th overall and eighth junior in the women’s 200m breaststroke (2:39.03).

DUO'S GRAND SPONSORSHIP

Bournemouth Dolphins record-breakers Martin Littlefair and Joe Poynter have received another £1,000 in sponsorship from the Charlie Smith Memorial Trust to help with their training and competition fees.

Littlefair, 16, and 14-year-old Poynter, who currently hold 15 Dorset senior and junior records between them, received the cheque at Littledown from trustees Simon Heaps and Tony Smith.

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