British Swimming has posted the start lists for the first day of the 2014 British Swimming Championships, and while Olympic silver medalist Michael Jamieson is entered into the 200 breaststroke, many of Scotland’s best swimmers are skipping out on their best events on the meet’s first day in Glasgow.
Scotland held their Nationals last week, which they used as a selection meet for their Commonwealth Games team. That made up “Phase 1” of their selection procedures (which can be seen here), along with this week’s British Nationals.
But it appears as though much of Scotland’s elites had their focus on last week’s meet. While Scotland has a separate team for the Commonwealth Games, they’ll also be a part of the broader British team for the European Championships – and that squad has a four-leg selection procedure: Scottish Nationals, British Nationals, the Mare Nostrum Series, and the British Gas International in June.
The moral of the story is that Hannah Miley and Robbie Renwick have each scratched their best events on the first day of British Nationals for Thursday. Miley is out of the 400 IM: an event in which she placed 5th at last year’s World Championships and in which she’s the defending Commonwealth Games Champion.
Renwick dropped the 400 free, an event in which he placed 9th at the 2013 World Championships. He actually placed higher in the 200 free at Worlds, but the 400 free is still probably his better event.
Miley swam a 4:35.48, and Renwick swam a 3:48.34 to win the 400 free at Scottish Nationals, both of which were winning times, and both of which are unlikely to be knocked out of qualifying for the Commonwealth Games or European Championships.
However, both were initially entered in the program for the events. With the British Championships back in Glasgow, like the Scottish Championship are, there will surely be some local fans disappointed to not see their country’s top swimmers compete, however as two of the more grueling events on the schedule, it’s understandable as to why Miley and Renwick would make the decisions that they have.
