The British girls took the opening day of the 2011 European Short Course
Championships by storm as Jemma Lowe, Hannah Miley and Jess Dickons all
reached the podium in Poland.

Lowe is rapidly developing into one of the most reliable performers in
the British Gas GBR Swimming team and underlined her class by taking
200m Butterfly silver.

Having qualified third fastest from the morning heats, the British Gas
ITC Swansea swimmer was just 0.1 second shy of her British record as she
stormed to silver in 2:04.04.

The 21-year old is no stranger to the short course podium, having won
bronze at the 2008 Europeans and silver at the World Championships in
Dubai over the same distance 12 months ago.

And Lowe admitted the result had boosted her confidence further ahead of
the all-important Olympic year.

"I'm really pleased with that. I was confident going into tonight's
final after a good swim in the heats," said Lowe. "There are a lot of
good Fly swimmers Britain at the moment so it drives us all to go
faster.

"This meet is part of our preparations for British Gas Swimming Champs
in March and then hopefully onto the Olympics."

Spain's world short course champion Mireia Belmonte Garcia won gold in
2:03.37 while Dickons took bronze in a desperate dash to the wall.

The British Gas ITC Bath swimmer has re-found her form since lifting
200m Butterfly gold at this summer's World University Games and broke
her own English record to claim her medal in 2:04.80.

"It's been three years since I broke my personal best (PB) and I have
done it a few times now, last week in Eindhoven and then today," said
Dickons, who broke her long course 200m Butterfly PB in Eindhoven last
week.

"I haven't really been in the picture in the past few years and I just
wanted to swim well in the final here. I knew it would be a tough field
so I'm so happy."

Hannah Miley kicked off her busy schedule in Poland on a high note,
winning 200m Individual Medley bronze.

The Scottish swimmer insisted she had come to the meet with relatively
low expectations but clocked her fastest time in two years to take
bronze in 2:08.34.

"I'm so pleased with that, that's the fastest time I've done in a
textile suit," said Miley, who is due to compete on every day of the
Championships.

"I'm not usually a speed demon and I have been working on that. What a
great start to the week."

Having set a personal best 52.67 in the heats, Amy Smith was the fastest
qualifier for tomorrow's 100m Freestyle final after clocking 52.75 to
win her semi. Rebecca Turner also reached the final after

setting her second personal best of the day, 53.69, to qualify eighth
fastest.

Welsh swimmer Georgia Davies progressed third fastest from the 100m
Backstroke semis, breaking her own national record in the process.

Davies had broken her record with her heat time of 58.29 but went faster
again, winning her semi final in 57.72.

Finally, Stacey Tadd's personal best of 32.01 was good enough for 19th
in the 50m Breaststroke