16-Yr-Old Theodora Taylor Clocks 24.98 50 Free British Age Record

2025 AQUATICS GB NEXT GEN CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Saturday, July 19th – Friday, July 25th
• Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield, England
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entries
• SwimSwam Preview
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
• Live Results

We entered day four of the 2025 Aquatics GB Next Gen Championships, the seven-day competition formerly known as the British Summer Championships.

Tonight in Sheffield, reigning European Junior Championships gold medalist Amelie Blocksidge put her freestyle prowess on display, reaping gold in the girls’ 16-year-old 400m race.

The teen stopped the clock at a mark of 4:13.19 to beat the field by 3 seconds, with Wirral Metro swimmer Abbie Roscoe snagging silver in 4:16.20.

Fellow European Junior Championships podium topper Amalie Smith bagged the bronze in 4:18.50.

City of Salford’s Blocksidge owns a lifetime best of 4:12.09 in this 4free event, a time she put on the books at the 2024 Aquatics GB Olympic Trials to rank as GBR’s 27th-speediest performer.

This year in Slovakia, Blocksidge finished 6th in a time of 4:15.51 while she earned 800m free bronze and 1500m free gold.

Theodora Taylor, a 4-time medalist at this year’s European Junior Championships, was too quick to catch in the girls’ 50m freestyle for 16-year-olds.

Taylor punched a result of 24.98 as the winner by over half a second, clearing the 25-second barrier for the first time in her young career.

Entering this meet, Taylor’s lifetime best rested at the 25.12 she produced for silver in Slovakia. That former mark represented a British Age Record; however, her new PB this evening now takes that down to a new benchmark as she becomes GBR’s 8th-fastest female of all time.

Top 10 British Female LCM 50 Freestyle Performers All-Time

1. Francesca Halsall – 23.96, 2014
2. Anna Hopkin – 24.34, 2019
3. Eva Okaro – 24.48, 2025
4. Alison Sheppard – 24.68, 2002
5. Amy Roebuck – 24.80, 2012
6. Freya Anderson – 24.88, 2020
7. Emily Barclay – 24.94, 2018
8. Theodora Taylor – 24.98, 2025
9. Rebecca Guy – 25.02, 2025
10. Darcy Revitt – 25.06, 2025

The men’s 100m freestyle was also on tonight’s agenda with Olympian Alex Cohoon taking top honors, courtesy of his time of 49.25.

That held off Leeds’ Jordan Cooley who secured silver less than .10 behind in 49.34, although the 26-year-old put up a faster mark of 48.94 to take the top seed in the morning. That swifter result matched his PB logged at last year’s Olympic Trials.

Aiden Symons-Brown also landed on the podium in 49.75, good enough for bronze.

Additional Winners

• Lucy Fox of Loughborough already won the women’s 19&O 200m fly here and she doubled up with a victory in the 400m. She touched in 4:11.61 to beat the pack by just over 4 seconds.
• The women’s open 50m free saw Sheffield’s Kate Clifton get the job done in 25.24.
• George Smith of Stirling turned in a time of 4:18.26 to lead the men’s open 400m IM, a time within striking distance of his best-ever 4:16.60 from the 2024 Sette Colli competition.