Swimming: Gibson sets British record to maintain Barcelona momentum

James Gibson, the newly crowned world champion, began his Olympic preparations in earnest on the first day of the British Short Course Championships yesterday, celebrating his return to the domestic scene with a British and Commonwealth record in the 100 metres breaststroke.

The 23-year-old Loughborough University student continued the form that made him Britain's first world champion for 28 years in Barcelona two weeks ago, lowering Chris Cook's record by 0.64sec in last night's semi-finals to set a new standard of 58.27sec.

Edinburgh's Gregor Tait set a second British record in the 200m backstroke, beating Stephen Parry's 2002 mark by over a second to win in 1min 52.52sec, with Parry second and the Commonwealth champion, James Goddard, taking bronze.

The world record holder, Mark Foster, made a successful defence of his 50m freestyle crown, clocking an impressive 21.41sec, while Graham Smith set a new Scottish record to win a closely contested 400m freestyle final in 3min 45.27sec.

Less than two-tenths of a second covered the top four in the men's 200m individual medley, with Robin Francis touching home first in 1:58.31, just 0.15 and 0.16sec in front of Ian Edmond and Adrian Turner respectively.