2023 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, April 4th – Sunday, April 9th
- Prelims at 9:30 am local (4:30 am EDT)/Finals at 6:00 pm local (1:00 pm EDT)
- Ponds Forge, Sheffield
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
- World Championships Original Selection Criteria
- Revised Selection Criteria
- Draft Entries
- Day 1 Finals Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap/Day 3 Finals Recap/Day 4 Finals Recap/Day 5 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream
The number of qualifiers grew by two on day 5 of the 2023 British Swimming Championships as Abbie Wood and Katie Shanahan hit the British Swimming time standards in the 200 IM. What may have been more notable, however, is the fact that both the defending World Champion in the men’s 50 freestyle and the 2021 Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 200 IM both missed their cuts.
Ben Proud won the men’s 50 freestyle with a 21.71 to trail the qualifying standard of 21.57 as well as his British record of 21.11 from 2018.
Duncan Scott, who placed second at Tokyo 2020, and Tom Dean were the top two finishers in the men’s 200 IM, hitting a 1:56.72 and 1:56.65, respectively. Those times were marginally slower than the Worlds cut of 1:56.22.
That means that three of the most successful swimming in recent British history were within seconds of their best times (with Dean actually hitting a new best time), but they will still need to rely on the discretionary selections in order to get a spot on the team.
Scott and Dean will both have one more shot at qualifying for the World Championships team in the 200 freestyle on day 6 of the meet. They both medalled in the 200 free at Tokyo 2020 as Dean took gold with 1:44.22 and Scott took silver in a 1:44.26. The qualification cut in the men’s 200 freestyle is a 1:45.01.
While Proud, Scott, and Dean all swam slower than the cuts, the top two women in the 200 IM both swam faster than the 2:10.22 qualifying time. Katie Shanahan won the event with a new best time of 2:09.40 and Abbie Wood was second with a 2:09.46. They became the 4th and 5th* swimmers under the Worlds selection standards joining Daniel Jervis, Freya Colbert, and Laura Stephens.
Technically, those standards only apply to event winners, but it does seem likely that Wood will be selected using other discretionary clauses of the procedures, which were revised mid-meet
2023 World Championships Qualifiers – Great Britain
Women
- Freya Colbert – 400 IM
- Laura Stephens – 200 butterfly
- Katie Shanahan – 200 IM
- Abbie Wood – 200 IM (TBC)
Men
- Daniel Jervis – 1500 freestyle
The final day of the competition, Sunday, April 8th, will feature the women’s 1500 freestyle, the men’s 50 butterfly, the women’s 100 breaststroke, the men’s 200 backstroke, the women’s 100 butterfly, and the men’s 200 freestyle.
Starting to understand why we wrote an Declaration of Independence
There’s a simple explanation: Team GB qualifying standards are set based on the length of tenure of the most recent Prime Minister. We don’t want a bunch of heads of lettuce swimming at the World Champs!
Let me get this straight Ben Proud the defending LC world champ who also swim the #1 time in world in 21.7 Doesnt automatically qualify for the meet because British swimming made the qualifying times for the bronze medal winning time from worlds? Something’s not adding up here.
Sorry Ben. You swam the best time in the world without shaving but it isn’t fast enough for automatic qualification.
Thank you for giving us former colonials this opportunity to better understand what it was like living in the British Empire.
those cuts are too high British Swimming, next time put them at the WR mark
Nah they really should be far ahead of every WR in theory should get everyone going faster. It’s either all world records or nothing by BS standards.
I have an idea. To cancel any cuts for 50 and 100free for all Nations and Fina. First and second places are allowed automatically regardless of time. This is for 50 and 100 free only.
The 50 Free Olympic heats are already such a pain to sit through with all the universality places. Imagine if literally every country sent two swimmers for both the 50 and 100 heats. It would be hours for one event.
British Swimming can’t help to put themselves in shambles