Selected to swim under the GBR flag for the second time sixteen year old Tazmin Pugh having competed in Canada before Christmas faced her stiffest test yet when flying out to Texas, USA to compete in the Austin leg of the 'Arena Pro Swim Grand Prix' series. This was followed the very next week to fly back to Antwerp in Belgium for the 'Flanders Cup'.
Some of the top swimming talent from around the world especially were in the USA comprising a plethora of world record holders and Olympic Gold medallists being Missy Franklin (USA), Katie Ledecky (USA), Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden), Katinka Hosszu (Hungary), Ryan Lochte (USA), Michael Phelps (USA) to name but a few.
Tazmins first event was the 100m butterfly where her entry time seeded her 31st out of a field of 140 and did not make any of the four finals. In the 200m backstroke Pugh managed to make it through to the 'C' Finals finishing 6th (22nd overall & 5th 16/under).
With a few more training session in the USA it was then time to fly direct to Antwerp in Belgium for the 'Flanders Cup' where they were joined by a further twenty two of the GBR squad from around the UK. World Record Holders and Olympians James Guy, Liam Tancock, Fran Halsall led the British squad as part of their preparations towards the British Championships in April where qualification to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games could be earned.
Tazmin had saved possibly her best performance over the two weekends for her very last event, when qualifying for the 'A' finals as first reserve and then finding herself with a top 8 Finals place when Fran Halsall withdrew. Tazmin used her good fortune by excelling beating her heats time by 1.5 seconds down to 1:01.07 and climbing to 5th placed overall and top placed once again from the 16 and under competitors and presently rises to 1st in the European rankings (17/u).
2nd February 2016 Back to News