London 2012: Michael Jamieson and Andew Willis impress en route to swimming semi-finals
It was a terrific morning in the pool for University of Bath students Michael Jamieson and Andrew Willis at the London 2012 Olympics Games.
Michael, a Sports Performance student, set a 200m breaststroke British record in his heat to qualify for tonight’s semis – the first British record in the pool of these Olympic Games.
And Chemical Engineering student Andrew equalled his own English record to win his heat and book a berth in the semis.
The pair, who train at the British Swimming Bath Intensive Training Centre at the University, qualified for the semis with the second and third fastest times respectively.
Michael, who set a British record of 2:08.98, said “It’s easy to swim when you have some confidence. It’s so amazing to be here and I’m really happy with that. I think I have another gear so I am looking forward to tonight.”
Andrew, who clocked 2:09.33 said: “The heat’s were very quick so I had to do everything to make it. I just want to go out tonight, do my best and get into the final.”
And their performances impressed Adrian Moorhouse, Olympic swimming gold medallist and BBC expert. He said Andrew had swam ‘the race of his life’ and added of Jamieson: “He can’t do much better than that can he? Morning swim and he gets up and breaks the British record.”
Michael goes in the first semi tonight with Andrew in the second. They get underway at 20.20, with the final following tomorrow (Wednesday) night.
In rowing Victoria Thornley, who used to train at the University, helped the GB eight to fourth in the repechage, which means they progress to Thursday’s final.
But there was disappointment on the judo mat for Gemma Howell, who is due to start studying for a degree in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Bath shortly.
She had the misfortune of drawing France’s reigning world and European champion Gevrise Emane in the opening round of the under-63kg and lost the contest by disqualification late on.
