Jack Utting may have narrowly missed out on a personal best on the opening day of the British Swimming Championships, but the UEA City of Norwich Swimming Club star insists there is more to come.

The 18-year-old, from Caister, placed 12th for his age group in the 100m backstroke at the London Aquatics Centre yesterday, finishing his heat in a time of 58.94 seconds.

That result was not enough to see him into this evening's final, although with an appearance in the 200m backstroke event to come tomorrow, there is still time to reach a showpiece finale.

'The first 50m was very strong for me – I've never used the new starting footrail before, but it felt great and helped with a quick start,' Utting said. I was half a second faster over the first 25m than I was in the warm up, so that is certainly something to be really happy about.

'I think I was 0.2 off my personal best in the end, that's just one of those things I suppose, but apart from that I felt really strong. I have got the 200m on Thursday, so fingers crossed for that and hopefully I should do pretty well and can come away with a good PB in that one.'

One of the reasons behind Utting's positivity ahead of his second event later this week is his preparation for this year's event at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, with the avoidance of injuries an important factor.

'Over Christmas I had a really good time of it, I have been stuck hard in training and I haven't had an injury this year,' he added. 'For the last year or two I've had a few of issues like that, but it has been really good recently.

'I had a good two-week taper leading up to the British Championships and I am feeling really good in the pool at the moment, which is obviously massively important.'

Nathan Wells of West Norfolk SC was also in action yesterday. The 17-year-old placed 14th for his age group in his 400m freestyle heat in 4:05.66mins.

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