2024 AQUATICS GB SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (OLYMPIC TRIALS)
- Tuesday, April 2nd – Sunday, April 7th
- Prelims at 10 am local (5 am EDT), Finals at 7 pm local (2 pm EDT)
- London Aquatics Centre
- LCM (50m)
- British Swimming Olympic Selection Policy
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Entries
- Prelims: Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Finals: Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap
- Results
- Livestream: Channel 4 Youtube coverage
After a thrilling night of racing which saw Max Litchfield break the men’s 400m IM record and 3 men dip under the 48-second barrier in the 100m free, this morning’s heats set up additional battles across the board.
James Guy and Jacob Peters were the ones to watch in the first event of the men’s 100m butterfly.
The former owns the British national record with his lifetime best of 50.67 from 2017 while the latter is GBR’s #2 performer with a PB of 51.16 from last year. That 51.16 gave Peters the gold over Guy’s 51.63 at the 2023 British Championships.
It was 23-year-old Peters who wasted no time staking his claim on a potential title in today’s prelims, ripping a result of 51.56 to land lane 4 for tonight’s main event.
Peters split 23.58/27.98 to post the sole sub-52-second result of the field and the 4th-swiftest mark of his career. His 51.56 equals the Aquatics GB Olympic selection standard exactly but he’ll need to repeat that caliber of performance in the final to add his name to the Paris roster.
Bath teammate Ed Mildred was the next-closest competitor, clocking a time of 52.11 followed by Manchester’s Jamie Ingram who touched in 52.23.
Ingram took bronze at this competition last year with a result of 51.98 while Mildred has been as quick as 51.79 to rank as the nation’s 4th-fastest man in history.
Guy lurks as the 4th seed after a controlled swim of 52.26 this morning, joining the chase for gold and the qualification time. The 28-year-old qualified for last night’s 100m free in a new personal best of 48.68 but dropped that final.
Men’s 100m Fly Top 8:
- Jacob Peters (Bath) – 51.56
- Ed Mildred (Bath) – 52.11
- Jamie Ingram (Manchester) – 52.23
- James Guy (Millfield) – 52.26
- Joe Litchfield (Loughborough) – 52.28
- Joshua Gammon (Bath) – 52.56
- Lewis Fraser (Swansea) – 52.64
- Thomas Carswell (Edinburgh) – 53.03
As with the men’s 200m fly yesterday the women’s 400m free is wide open and ripe for someone to step up and make it happen.
This morning’s heats rendered the top 5 separated by just about 2 seconds, led by Bath swimmer Leah Crisp.
22-year-old Crisp clocked a time of 4:15.16 to hold a .21 advantage over 14-year-old rising star Amelie Blocksidge of Salford.
Blocksidge posted 4:15.37 as a follow-up to her 1500m free title already at these championships.
Wycombe District’s Lucy Fox and Holly Hibbott of Bath are also right in the mix with efforts of 4:16.43 and 4:16.54, respectively.
Crisp owns a lifetime best of 4:12.26 in this 4free while Blocksidge has been as quick as 4:12.95 in her young career so they have a big ask ahead of them to meet the Aquatics GB-mandated Olympic selection standard of 4:04.98.
24-year-old Hibbott’s PB of 4:05.01 has been within striking distance of the standard but that was registered back in 2018. Her most recent result was the 4:16.00 from January’s Flanders Swimming Cup.
Women’s 400m Free Top 8:
- Leah Crisp (Bath) – 4:15.16
- Amelie Blocksidge (Salford) – 4:15.37
- Lucy Fox (Wycombe) – 4:16.43
- Holly Hibbott (Bath) – 4:16.54
- Michaella Glenister (Stirling) – 4:17.28
- Megan Barnes (Mt Kelly) – 4:17.38
- Fleur Lewis (Loughborough) – 4:17.51
- Jemima Hall (Bath) – 4:19.52
Aquatics GB has set the women’s 200m back Olympic qualifying standard at a stiff 2:08.91, a threshold under which only 8 British women have ever been.
Two of those women, Honey Osrin and Kathleen Dawson, appeared in this morning’s heats, successfully securing their spots for the final
21-year-old Osrin of Loughborough stopped the clock at 2:10.25 to lead the field by nearly 2 seconds. Her outing represents the 5th-best time of her career, one which boasts a recent lifetime best of 2:08.48 from February’s BUCS Championships.
Osrin’s performance is on par with her 100m back time notched on day 2 here in London. She posted 1:00.58 to knock over a second off her previous PB of 1:01.64 put on the books in 2021.
Olympian Kathleen Dawson is seeking a 2nd gold at these championships, however. Dawson already qualified for Paris in the 100m back and slotted herself as the 4th seed in the longer distance with a mark of 2:13.07.
She’s been as swift as 2:08.14 in this event but that was from 2021. She’ll need to dig deep to get back to that level, but her sub-minute result in the 100m sprint was encouraging.
Another strong contender headed to the final is Katie Shanahan. The Scot scored the 3rd seed in 2:12.30 and carries a 2022 European Championships silver medal on her resume.
Shanahan is GBR’s #3 performer in history, owning a personal benchmark of 2:07.45 from the 2023 World Championships where she bagged 4th place.
Women’s 200m Back Top 8:
- Honey Osrin (Loughborough) – 2:10.25
- Holly McGill (Stirling) – 2:12.12
- Katie Shanahan (Stirling) – 2:12.30
- Kathleen Dawson (Stirling) – 2:13.07
- Pia Murray (Leyland) – 2:13.88
- Alicia Wilson (Guildford) – 2:14.37
- Rachel Anderson (Loughborough) – 2:14.68
- Martyna Karabacz (Chelsea & West) – 2:14.87
4 of the top 9 best-ever British performers are in the men’s 200m IM field including Duncan Scott, Tom Dean, Max Litchfield and Mark Szaranek.
For the most part, the key competitors kept their cards close to their chest, with only Scott dipping under the 2:00 threshold.
Scott is the reigning Olympic silver medalist in this event from the 2020 Games in Tokyo and earned silver last year at the World Championships. The former performance brought about his national record of 1:55.28 and the 26-year-old remains the sole British swimmer to ever get under 1:56.
Last night’s 400m IM victor Max Litchfield was next in line this morning, punching 2:00.07.
Litchfield took down Scott’s British benchmark en route to qualifying for Paris in the longer IM. He owns a 2IM lifetime best of 1:56.64 from 2017. Although that PB is long in the tooth, Litchfield’s 4IM time last night was his best since that same year.
23-year-old Dean posted 2:00.72 as the 4th seed in a follow-up to his 3rd place in the men’s 100m free last night. He shared the Fukuoka podium with Scott, earning 2IM bronze.
Mainstay Szaranek sits 5th for tonight’s final and Evan Jones of Stirling checked in with a shiny new PB of 2:00.69 to rank 3rd for the main event.
Men’s 200m IM Top 8:
- Duncan Scott (Stirling) – 1:58.88
- Max Litchfield (Loughborough) – 2:00.07
- Evan Jones (Stirling) – 2:00.69
- Tom Dean (Bath) – 2:00.72
- Mark Szaranek (Carnegie) – 2:00.86
- Matthew Ward (Bath) – 2:01.43
- Charlie Hutchison (Loughborough) – 2:01.56
- William Ryley (Cardiff) – 2:03.81
Tokyo, Fukuoka, it’s all Japan 😉
Low key session after yesterday’s fireworks.
Scott and Dean obviously the big names swimming this morning and looked very comfortable although it’s possible that Litchfield could play gooseberry and challenge Dean. Scott has looked more like himself this week for the first time really since his illness. It’s not inconceivable that, come the end of the week, Dean could ultimately be squeezed out of an individual berth. Still plenty of swimming to go though.
Guy and Peters look to have the fly sewn up and the biggest question is probably how competitive they can make the medley relays.
Women’s 400m is probably the weakest event in the UK right now which is a shame given that we have… Read more »
When Litchfield set his previous 400IM PB he swam 1:56.6 in the 200. I think Scott should qualify easily enough, but there is every chance that Tom Dean could miss out.
Himmy Guys going 49 tonight LFGGGG
This meet has been pretty great so far. More things to look forward to tonight: Jimmy Guy’s 100 fly is the only remaining question mark for GB’s medley relay, as the rest of the legs seem to be sorted (with swimmers to spare). What will Amelie Blocksidge’s time will be in the final, and can she win again? How close is Scott to his Tokyo form – the 200IM is somewhat more informative in this respect than the 100 free, seeing as he didn’t race the latter individually. Is an Olympic medal in the 200IM a realistic goal for Dean?
Honestly after the clusterf*ck that was last year’s British Trials, it’s good to see that there is just great… Read more »
Mostly pretty dozy prelims, except perhaps the men’s 100 fly where there was some decent depth. Peters looked good, but certainly attacked it harder than Guy, who looked like he was about to fall asleep on the first 50. Women’s 400 free predictably slow with no Colbert. The 200s weren’t fast, but more a case of top contenders holding back.
Big opportunity for Bath to add some more swimmers to the team later tonight, but it looks like Jimmy Guy will have a say in that. Could play out similar to mens 100Fr last night however, tight , deep but not earth shatteringly fast!
Womens 200Bk will be great race between Shanahan and Osrin, both should get under the nomination time. Real shame Harris won’t be in there amongst them.
200IM men will be a tussle, Litchfield could be a real threat to Dean and Scott. But they may just have enough.
Duncan Scott is no joke