26 July 2009

Be Number 1’s Jo Jackson claimed Britain’s first medal in the swimming pool at the World Championships in Rome today when she finished second in the women’s 400m freestyle event.

It was a fine swim by Jackson, whose time of 4:00.60 was a personal best and thereby quicker than her time in Sheffield in March, when she broke the world record. But even she had to doff her swimming cap to Federica Pellegrini, the local Italian favourite, who became the first woman to break the four-minute barrier in the event when she touched home in 3:59.15. That said, it should not be overlooked that seven of the eight swimmers in today’s final were wearing 100 per cent polyurethane suits, which will be banned from 1 January 2010.

The exception was Becky Adlington, Jackson’s British colleague, who donned the same part-textile suit she wore while winning the discipline at the Beijing Olympics last year. Adlington, who has likened the polyurethane suits to taking performance-enhancing drugs, had to settle for bronze after a sluggish morning heat forced her to start in lane eight, though her time in the final of 4:00.79 was also a personal best and more than two seconds quicker than her Olympic time

Jackson, the Olympic bronze medallist, led the field after 50m, but Pellegrini had edged ahead by the halfway mark and stayed in control thereafter, much to the conspicuous delight of a packed crowd at Foro Italico.

Jackson said: “I tried to stay with her [Pellegrini]. When she went, I was just kicking so hard, but she swum an amazing time to break the four-minute barrier. It’s an amazing thing for her to do – and to be part of that race. I’m just glad to have come away with a medal. Obviously, I would love to break that four-minute mark, but I’ve got to be happy with that.

“It seemed like the whole of Italy was out there cheering on Federica and it pushed us all to the finish. It helps when there are two of us in a race like that, but Federica was in a class of her own. So was her suit.”

Meanwhile, David Davies, the Be Number 1 swimmer who won Olympic bronze in 2004 in the 1,500m freestyle before augmenting it with a silver medal in the 10km open-water event at the Beijing Games last year, finished eighth in the men’s 400m freestyle final.