MARTIN Bleaken booked his ticket to this summer’s national youth championships after storming into a final at the British University and College Championships (BUCS) in Sheffield.
The Bournemouth University student first came 10th in the men’s 100m butterfly heats in a long-course time of 57.15sec to claim the last place in the 10-lane final at Ponds Forge.
Then he improved to 57.03 to finish seventh in the final and qualify for the 19/o category at the youth competition in the same pool in July.
He also came 13th in the 200m butterfly in 2:16.07.
Bleaken was one of a record 12 Bournemouth University students in the championships, rubbing shoulders with Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington, world champion Liam Tancock and many other top GB swimmers, who were using the meet as a warm-up for next month’s Olympic trials.
Bleaken, Liam Cosgrove, Jack Johnson and Luan Swanepoel also came second and third in the B finals of the men’s 4x100m freestyle and medley relays, improving their freestyle ranking from 17th to 12th.
The women’s squad of Danielle Hannan, Elisa Robbins, Mary Gilbert, Tamara Hall and Joanne Ball came 25th and 31st in the freestyle and medley relays respectively.
S8 disability swimmer Jordan Clarke won two golds and a silver in the multi-disability 50m freestyle and breaststroke and 100m freestyle.
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