By Tom Degun

April 2 - Rebecca Adlington (pictured) continued her stunning form at the British Gas Swimming Championships as the double Olympic champion picked up her third gold medal of the meeting on the penultimate day of the meeting at Ponds Forge in Sheffield.



In front of a rapturous sold-out crowd, Adlington powered to victory in the 400 metres freestyle to claim her third title of the week following her gold medal success in the 200m and 800m freestyle events earlier this week.
 
Adlington touched the wall in 4min 05.50sec to record the fastest in the world this year.

She was already top of the world rankings for the 800m.

Jazmin Carlin claimed silver in 4:09.41 to take her third medal of Championships while Sasha Matthews took bronze to the post in a personal best of 4:12.20.

Adlington said: "It's great to have so many fans here supporting us and cheering us on, it makes such a difference."

The 21-year-old from Mansfield claimed that she was especially pleased with her performance as she was out in front on her own but still did not relax.

She said: "It’s so hard when you haven’t got that person pushing you so I'm really pleased with how I raced."

In another of the night’s hotly anticipated finals, world champion Liam Tancock (pictured) stormed to gold in the 100m backstroke as he touched in 52.85sec to record the fastest time in the world this year. 

Silver went to Chris Walker-Hebborn in 54.78 with bronze going to Ryan Bennett in 55.93.

Tancock said: "We’re two years away from the Olympic Games so I’m just trying to keep it fun at the moment."

The final of the men’s 100m butterfly saw a close race as Michael Rock claimed his second title of the Championship by seeing off Anthony James and Ian Hulme.

Amongst the other gold medal winners on a busy evening in Sheffield were 16-year-old rising star Achieng Ajulu-Bushell, who won the 100m breaststroke final in a personal best 1:08.51 and Elizabeth Simmonds who won her second gold of the meet after narrowly seeing off world champion Gemma Spofforth in the 200m backstroke. 

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