Holden in at the deep end but happy with debut

Polly Holden declared herself satisfied with a job well done after claiming an impressive 13th-place finish on her open water senior debut yesterday.

The 18-year-old was representing Great Britain in the 5km event at these European Championships in Glasgow and finished in a time of 58:20.9 minutes at Loch Lomond.

The race was won by Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands – the Olympic champion over 10km – in 56:01.00 while Germany’s Leonie Antonia Beck was second with Italy’s Olympic silver medallist Rachele Bruni settling for bronze.

But Holden – who started open water swimming at the suggestion of her coach after struggling with her turns in the pool – did not look out of place amongst the senior stars. And just weeks after her junior debut in the Great North Swim and subsequent outings in Barcelona and Malta – Holden was pleased with her day’s work.

“I’m really happy with that performance,” she said. “It’s quite warm in the water in Loch Lomond. It’s really warm for a wetsuit, I’ve come out boiling.”

Holden is no slouch in the pool either, she won the 1,500m at the British Summer Championships while juggling her biology studies at Nottingham University. She will now look to the open water relay event at Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park this weekend.

The individual 10km events take place today with another British convert from the pool Jazz Carlin set to make her debut.

The two time Olympic silver medallist will be aiming to unseat van Rouwendaal who is bidding for double glory.

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