A bronze medallist in the event at last month’s NatWest Island Games, Pollard stormed through the morning heats at Ponds Forge with a new personal best time of 29.01s, and the 2015 Youth Commonwealth Games hopeful went even faster in last night’s session – clocking 28.94s to claim fourth in the 16/17-year-old final. Already holding the short-course record, Pollard beat Emma Hirst’s 2002 LC time of 29.09.
Beckie Scaife, who finished ahead of Pollard in the Castle to Harbour swim earlier in the month, finished 14th overall in the heats of the same event with a time of 30.26s, while junior Lillie Godden missed out on the 14-year-old 200m freestyle final by half a second following a 2 min 17.83 sec swim.
‘It was a very good swim by Olivia in both the heats and final,’ said Walkers Tigers Swimming Club coach Nathan Jégou. ‘It’s the first time she has raced at this level, and that showed because she made a slight mistake in the last 15 metres which most likely cost her a medal. Having said that she swam a PB and it is a learning process.’
