Swimming: Golden display from gutsy Hickman

Swimming

Golden display from gutsy Hickman

James Hickman produced one of the greatest performances of his career to capture his second gold medal of the European Short Course Championships in Sheffield yesterday. The Leeds-based swimmer beat the reigning world long course champion Marcel Wouda, of Holland, to add the 200m individual medley title to his 200m butterfly gold. Hickman had qualified third fastest from the heats, but conjured up a gutsy display to edge out Wouda. The 22-year-old's win was the highlight in another encouraging day for British swimmers at the championships which saw silvers for Mark Foster, Adam Ruckwood and Vicki Horner. Foster broke the world record in the 50m butterfly, but still missed out on gold. He clocked a British record 23.34sec but saw Croatia's Milos Milosevic win with a blistering 23.30sec to pocket the pounds 7,500 bonus. Ruckwood broke the British 200m backstroke record as he was just edged out of the gold by Iceland's Orn Arnarson while Horner's silver came in the 400m freestyle with Karen Legg taking the bronze. Newcastle's Sue Rolph broke the British record in the 50m freestyle, set by Scotland's Alison Sheppard only yesterday, as she finished third with Holland's Inge De Bruijn taking gold