2025 AQUATICS GB SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, April 15th – Sunday, April 20th
- Prelims at 9:30am local (4:30am ET)/Finals at 7pm local (2pm ET)
- London Aquatics Centre
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- Aquatics GB World Championships Selection Criteria
- SwimSwam Preview
- Draft Entries
- Live Results
- Livestream
The 2025 Aquatics GB Swimming Championships kicked off today from the London Aquatics Centre, site of swimming action at the 2012 Olympic Games.
This competition represents the sole qualifying opportunity for British stars to add their names to the nation’s roster for this year’s World Championships, although qualification for numerous junior teams, including the World and European Junior Swimming Championships, U23 European Swimming Championships and European Youth Olympic Festival, is also on the line.
As in the past, Aquatics GB has set some tough qualification standards, which are outlined in the selection criteria and preview bullets above. Also, as in the past, the British coaching brain trust will reserve ‘discretionary’ selections so there is a chance athletes can still make the team if they miss the QT.
We began this morning’s prelims session with the women’s 50m breaststroke, with Scottish national record holder Kara Hanlon leading the field in a solid outing of 31.10.
That was just over half a second off her lifetime best, the 30.50 27-year-old Hanlon logged at the 2023 edition of this competition.
The 2nd seed went to Edinburgh’s Anna Morgan who hit 31.50 while Mount Kelly’s Amelia Riggott snagged the 3rd seed in 31.61.
Lurking as the 4th-seeded swimmer is Theodora Taylor, the rising European Junior Championships two-time medalist. She produced 31.76 to be in the mix for a potential medal this evening.
Angharad Evans, one of the top breaststrokers in the world right now, withdrew from this morning’s race.
Of note, Aquatics GB does not dictate an outright qualification time for what they originally called ‘non-Olympic events’, which included 50s of breast, fly, and back. Swimmers may be discretionarily selected for these events, which have since been added to the LA 2028 Olympic program, or potentially have the 50 added to their lineup if they’ve already qualified for the 100m distance later in the competition.
After having sworn off the 400m freestyle after the 2018 Commonwealth Games, 29-year-old James Guy has returned to the event which garnered him the silver medal at the 2015 World Championships.
Manchester Performance Centre’s Guy topped this morning’s pack with a time of 3:50.28, leading the University of Stirling’s fellow Olympian Jack McMillan.
McMillan collected a time of 3:51.19 and Bath’s Kieran Bird rounded out the top 3 performers in 3:51.50.
The men will be chasing a qualification time of 3:45.43, a supremely stiff standard only Guy and David Davies have ever been under.
Veteran Guy is the national record holder, courtesy of the 3:43.75 he notched during that 2015 Worlds race. Bird is GBR’s #3 man in history, carrying a career-quickest effort of 3:45.63.
Guy has swum the 4free multiple times this year, owning a season-best outing of 3:48.78 from last month’s Edinburgh International Swim Meet.
University of Stirling’s Keanna MacInnes produced a time of 2:10.15 to claim the #1 seed of the women’s 200m fly.
That’s about 3 seconds off her best-ever performance of 2:07.24 from last year’s edition of the meet, a time which rendered the 23-year-old Great Britain’s 6th-swiftest in history.
MacInnes was the women’s 100m and 200m butterfly gold medalist at the inaugural U23 Championships in 2023.
Emily Richards (nee Large) and Laura Stephens will flank MacInnes for tonight’s main event. The former touched in 2:10.27 to the latter’s 2:10.69.
Stephens placed 8th in the 2fly at the 2024 Olympic Games, posting a time of 2:08.82 despite logging a quicker semi-final result of 2:07.53.
MacInnes also contested this event last year in Paris but missed making the final, finishing 9th in a mark of 2:08.04.
A benchmark of 2:07.96 has been set by Aquatics GB, which is a tough ask for these women, although the top trio have all been under that barrier in their careers.
The best British men’s breaststroker in history, Adam Peaty, is not racing at this competition, which leaves the door wide open for an up-and-comer to try to put his mark on the 100m sprint.
The contenders wasted no time putting their hats in the ring, as Loughborough’s Greg Butler produced a time of 1:00.23 for the top seed, just .20 outside his best-ever.
Archie Goodburn continues to inspire by continuing to race at an elite level despite revealing in June of last year that he was diagnosed with three inoperable brain tumors. 23-year-old Goodburn clocked 1:00.56 to solidify his spot in the final. He ties Butler with a PB of 1:00.03 to both rank as GBR’s 10th-fastest performers of all time.
Filip Nowacki of Millfield was also under the 1:01 barrier in 1:00.68 for the 3rd seed and Max Morgan followed suit in 1:00.86.
Nowacki is just 17 years of age and in 2023 he became the first athlete from Jersey to win three Commonwealth Youth Games medals and also claimed silver at the European Youth Olympics.
As for Morgan, he’s also a young gun at just 17 years old. He owns the British Age Records for 16-year-olds across all three breaststroke distances, logging impressive times of 27.52 in the 50m, 1:00.10 in the 100m and 2:12.24 in the 200m breast last year.
Finally, the women’s 200m free saw 2024 400m IM world champion Freya Colbert clinch the #1 seed with a casual 1:58.68, representing just one of three swimmers to have delved under the 2:00 barrier this morning.
Joining her was Lucy Hope who nabbed a time of 1:59.37 while Erin Little produced 1:59.65.
Colbert has been as speedy as 1:55.95 in her career from last summer in Paris and Hope’s PB rests at the 1:57.65 notched at the 2021 Olympic Trials.
19-year-old Little just busted out the best time of her young career, easily overtaking her previous best performance of 2:01.05 from the 2024 Aquatics GB Championships.
Abbie Wood will also be in tonight’s final, courtesy of her 2:00.03 outing.
Surprisingly, Bath’s Freya Anderson missed the mark, finishing 9th in 2:00.47. She’ll need to rely on a scratch in order to make into the final, which also means she may not be a member of the 4x200m free relay should GBR qualify one. The QT stands at 1:56.65 and, of the top 8, only Wood has been beneath in her career.
British Swimming Selection policies don’t allow swimmers to be chosen for either relays or individuals out of the B Final, though there is a coach for “discretion of the GB Head Coach.”
Para World Record
Faye Rogers, who swims in the S10 Classification, was the 21st-best swimmer in prelims out of 81 entries. She finished in 2:18.93, which crushes her own World Record of 2:22.77 set in March by almost four seconds.
Rogers, who turns 23 this year, has a lifetime best of 2:18.83 that she swam in March 2020. She competed in the 2021 British Olympic Trials as an able-bodied swimmer, but a car crash resulted in a fused elbow, limiting her motion in the joint. In spite of the injury, she is now just a tenth of a second away from her pre-crash best time.
Jimmy Guy vs Sun Yang in and out of the pool is one of the most underrated greatest rivalries in swimming. Just 2 dudes who are really good at swimming that won’t be having a candlelit dinner anytime soon
Petr Zhikharev’s technique is so weird
Also he fell off he was 50.88 in 2023
Chalmers another 21.xx
21.95
Lukas Märtens 7:39,10 in Stockholm
Lukas Martens throwing his hat into the ring for the 800m world title this summer: 7:39.10 NR. Florian Wellbrock with a 7:41.10 for second in the world this year ahead of Wiffen.
Andrei Minakov 50.82 NR
Where is Imogen Clark. Thought she’d be here, especially given the announcement of stroke 50s at LA28???
Entries closed before that announcement. She is training based on her insta so I suspect she has the summer meets (e.g. Mare Nostrum/Sette Colli) in mind given there was at the time (and for this year realistically still is) no prospect of going to worlds.
also Faye Rogers set a new S10 WR in the 200 fly, dropping from 2:22 to 2:18