BRITISH CHAMPS: Watkin and Walker book IPC European places

LOUISE Watkin and Matthew Walker claimed 50m freestyle gold at the British Gas Swimming Championship to book their tickets to the IPC Europeans in Berlin.

World champion Watkin, who competes in the S9 class, stormed to victory with 913 points to finish ahead of Kate Grey, Stephanie Millward and Ellie Simmonds, who all made their respective classification qualification times for this summer's major championship.

"I'm pleased with how that went," said Watkin. "I do think I could've gone faster but I'll take that for now."

Walker edged out Simon Miller and 11-time Paralympic champion David Roberts to take gold.

"I've been doing this a long time but I am really enjoying it at the moment. I've had a difficult couple of months but it is great to come here and win," he said.

"I'm disappointed with the time because I wanted to go faster but I got the qualification time for Berlin and hopefully that will go up and up."