Swimmers Kick Start the Year at Preparation Meet Loughborough swimmers opened their 2009 account with some impressive performances at British Swimming’s Preparation Meet which was held at the University Pool. Olympians Joanne Jackson, Lizzie Simonds, Fran Halsall, Melanie Nocher and David Davies put on early season displays which showed they will be forces to be reckoned with as the year unfolds.  Joanne Jackson (left) Olympic bronze medallist, raised a few eyebrows with her winning swim of 1:58.62 in the 200m freestyle; she went on to place 2nd in the 100m freestyle in 56.78 and take gold in the 100m butterfly with 1:02.56.
Lizzie Simmonds posted a world class time of 1:00.43 to take the 100m backstroke title while Fran Halsall sprinted to 24.94 and 55.64 to take the 50m & 100m freestyles respectively. Irish Olympian, Melanie Nocher, posted a fine 2:14.99 to take the 200m backstroke; she went on to place 2nd in the 400m freestyle with 4:23.55. Olympic Medallist David Davies took the 400m freestyle ahead of teammate Daniel Fogg while former World Record Holder, Liam Tancock, raced to victory in the 100m butterfly with Matt Bowe taking silver and Tom Laxton bronze. Ross Davenport, Olympic finalist, took the 200m freestyle in 1:49.47 while Senior Internationals Joe Roebuck & Chris Watkinson were also in golden form; Roebuck winning the 200m butterfly and Watkinson (right) the 100m breaststroke. Loughborough swimmers will be back in action this weekend at the Burns Meet in Sheffield. All results are now on the British Swimming website; session 1 & session 2 | 
