Women's Breaststroke

Britain's Kirsty Balfour failed to make the final of the 200m breastroke in Athens, but raised her profile with medal performances in 2006.

Form

Scotland's Kirsty Balfour set a new British record of 2 minutes 24.04 seconds to take silver in the women's 200m breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games. She then went onto secure Britains only individual Gold at the European Championships, when she won Gold in the 200m breaststroke and bronze in the shorter event.

Events	Women's A	Women's B	Competitor	2006 World Rank	2006 Ranking Time	Championship Medal
100 m Breaststroke	1:09.01	1:11.43	Kirsty Balfour	9	1:07.83	Bronze @ European Championship
200 m Breaststroke	2:28.21	2:33.40	Kirsty Balfour	3	2:24.04	Gold @ European Championships

Qualification

The A and B qualification times are shown in the table above for the specific events. The qualification period is from 15 March 2007 until 15 July 2008. Balfour has reached the 'A' standard in both backstroke events during 2006.

What to watch

Currently, it would appear that Balfour has a good chance of making both breaststroke finals, with a medal chance in the longer event. She was ranked number three in the World in the 200m for 2006, so we will be looking hopefully at her performance in the World Championships later this month.