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Aitken snatches silver at Spanish Nationals

Kiera Aitken

Olympian Kiera Aitken appears to be hitting form in the build-up to this year’s London Games.At the Spanish Nationals over the weekend, she grabbed a silver medal while shattering her own 50 metres backstroke record.Her lifetime best of 29.3 seconds was followed by another good time of 1:03 in the 100 backstroke heat which took her into the final where she failed to medal with a slower time.Aitken resides in Spain and will continue training in Europe.Meanwhile, three of Bermuda’s best continued to rub shoulders with some of America’s top swimmers at the Indianapolis Grand Prix.Olympic hopeful Lisa Blackburn added another national record to her collection in the 100 metres breaststroke in which she clocked one minute 12.20 seconds which left her 15th overall.Earlier in the meet, the veteran swimmer slashed four seconds off her 200 metres national record.Roy-Allan Burch, swimming in the 50 metres freestyle, placed seventh in the ‘A’ final, hitting the wall one hundredth of a second slower than his qualifying time.Julian Fletcher also had a strong swim in the 100 metres breaststroke, finishing in 1:04:8 good enough to place 23rd overall.Both Fletcher and Blackburn will now turn their attention to the Charlotte Ultra Swim in May.“Roy was in a strong heat but showed no mercy by winning convincingly,” said national coach Ben Smith. “He seemed to rectify the slow start from London by getting off the blocks fast and not letting anyone catch him.“He was able to beat team-mate Cullen Jones in the morning and would be up against him again in the finals.“The goal for Julian was to swim fast without the rest and drop his times at the Charlotte Ultra-swim in May.“They (Julian and Lisa) were both disappointed not to improve their times (in the final) but were already thinking of the work ahead for their preparation for the Charlotte meet.”