Amelia's a Commonweath Games contender (From Bournemouth Echo)

Amelia's a Commonweath Games contender

11:32pm Wednesday 11th August 2010 in

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SHE'S not old enough to take her GCSEs or even swim in the European Junior Championships but Amelia Maughan is now a serious contender for England’s Commonwealth Games team.

At the ASA National Youth Championships in Sheffield, the 14-year-old put together an extraordinary series of swims which left national records in tatters and took her within striking distance of Britain’s best adult swimmers.

The first clue to her form came in the 100m freestyle heats as she smashed world silver medallist Fran Halsall’s 14yrs British age group record with a time of 56.51.

After winning her semi-final in 56.66, the reigning European Youth Olympics champion then knocked another half-a-second off her day-old record to win the 14-15yrs gold in 56.09.

That time made her the second fastest 14-year-old in the world this year behind a Chinese girl and the third fastest Englishwoman behind Halsall and Amy Smith, who this week made up 50 per cent of Britain’s silver-winning freestyle relay team at the European Championships in Budapest.

With England selectors able to pick up to three swimmers for each individual event and four for relays, a similar performance at next week’s senior ASA Championships in Sunderland would see Maughan contesting a seat on the plane to Delhi.

Maughan, now based at British Swimming’s intensive training centre in Bath but still a member of Bournemouth Dolphins, also won silver in the 14-15yrs 50m freestyle in 26.41, another PB.

But her best was yet to come.

In the 200m freestyle final, she knocked over two seconds off Rebecca Turner’s British age group record with a time of 2:00.82, which was also the world’s fastest swim of 2010 by a 14-year-old and one of the fastest of all time.

It took her to fifth in the England rankings behind the likes of Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson, Olympic gold and bronze medallists.

Amazingly, though, it wasn’t enough to win her the gold medal in the 14-15yrs age group.

She was beaten by just 0.03secs by Leicester’s Sophie Smith, who is almost two years her senior and was the star of last month’s European Junior Championships, where she won two gold and two silver medals.

Maughan, who is not 15 until next May, said: “It’s nerve-racking. I’d love to go to the Commonwealth Games but there’s a lot of competition. We’ll have to see what happens next week.”

Maughan’s former Dolphins team-mate Joe Poynter, 15, swimming for Millfield, grabbed a bronze medal in the boys’ 15-16yrs 400m individual medley in 4:31.24.

Martin Littlefair, 17, swimming for Dolphins but now training with former Bournemouth coach Graham Bassi in Swansea, twice broke his Dorset senior record with times of 1:54.00 and 1:53.94 in the 17-18yrs 200m freestyle.

He finished ninth in that and was also 13th in both the 100 and 400m freestyle.

Zoe Watson (Dolphins) and her former Ferndown team-mate Fiona Hardie both reached semi-finals in the 16-17 age group, Watson coming 16th in the 100m freestyle (59.31), Hardie 15th in the 50m freestyle (27.83).

Ferndown’s Jay Olenicz was also a semi-finalist, coming 15th in the 15-16yrs 100m backstroke.

Other results – Poole: Courtney Rowan, 14, 14-15yrs 61st 50m free 28.10, 70th 100m free 1:00.10, 100th 100m fly 1:07.08.

Dolphins: Tess Carter, 14, 80th 14-17yrs 200m fly 2:26.40, 126th 100m fly 1:07.72. Lottie McRae, 15, 14-17yrs 53rd 200m fly 2:26.91, 75th 200m medley 2:29.36, 94th 100m fly 1:06.84, 117th 200m back 2:30.89.

Ferndown: Lucy Kirkham, 14, 130th 14-17yrs 50m freestyle 29.14. Naomi Vides, 15, 14-17yrs 39th 200m breast 2:43.09, 40th 100m breast 1:16.03, 91st 200m medley 2:30.39. Jay Olenicz, 15, 15-16yrs 97th 50m free 25.76, 132nd 200m back 2:21.02.