2019 British Swimming Championships: Day 2 Prelims Recap

2019 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

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Men’s 50m Breast – Prelims

  • British National Record – 25.95, Adam Peaty, 2017

Open Top 8:

Place Name AaD Club Time R.T. FINA Pt
1. Adam Peaty 25 Loughboro NC 26.51 + 0.52 937
2. James Wilby 26 Loughboro NC 27.10 + 0.63 878
3. Ross Murdoch 25 UniOfStirl 27.43 + 0.49 846
4. Craig Benson 25 UniOfStirl 27.69 + 0.56 823
5. Zak Aitchison 21 UniOfStirl 27.71 + 0.48 821
6. David Murphy 21 Co Oxford 28.11 + 0.55 786
7. David Bloomfield 20 Loughboro Un 28.21 + 0.52 778
8. Lawrence Palmer 27 Putteridge 28.30 + 0.46 770

Tying his 26.51 time from the 2015 World Championships, 24-year-old Adam Peaty took the top seed of the men’s 50m breast this morning with ease. The Olympic champion led a 1-2 Loughborough punch, with his 100m breast partner in crime from last night, James Wilby, taking the 2nd seed this morning in 27.10.

For Peaty, he already opened his 100m breast prelim yesterday in 26.90, then followed that up with an opening 50m of 26.63 during last night’s blistering 57.87 winning effort, so we knew his 50m would be on-fire. Plus, Peaty says he’s been working on his start with the help of sports scientists, so he’s getting of the blocks more quickly and efficiently, which was his only relative weakness in the past.

But Wilby’s time this morning is not to be ignored in its own right, as his 27.10 morning swim now checks-in as a personal best, making him the 2nd fastest British swimmer of all-time in the event. His time overtook Ross Murdoch‘s mark of 27.25 from the 2016 European Championships for that distinction.

Murdoch and University of Stirling teammate Craig Benson are in the medal mix, sitting as the 3rd and 4th seeds now in morning swims of 27.43 and 27.69.

Women’s 50m Fly – Prelims

  • British National Record – 25.20, Fran Halsall, 2014
Place Name AaD Club Time R.T. FINA Pt
1. Anna Hopkin 23 Ealing 26.69 + 0.53 766
2. Harriet Jones 22 Co Cardiff 26.79 + 0.52 758
3. Charlotte Atkinson 23 Loughboro Un 26.98 + 0.58 742
4. Emily Large 18 Newcastle 27.15 + 0.54 728
5. Laura Stephens 20 Plymouth Lea 27.37 + 0.60 711
6. Emily Horne 22 Co Glasgow 27.38 + 0.60 710
6. Jessica Calderbank 22 Oldham Aqua 27.38 + 0.54 710
8. Sophie Yendell 17 Co Derby 27.41 + 0.55 708

Multiple NCAA finalist Anna Hopkin of the University of Arkansas is representing her British club Ealing at these British Championships and is carrying her stateside success back home.

The 23-year-old nabbed the top seeded time of 26.69 in the women’s 50m fly heats to hold a .10 advantage over Cardiff’s Harriet Jones. Jones hit the wall in 26.79, while Loughborough’s Charlotte Atkinson from the Isle of Man was also under 27 in a morning effort of 26.98.

Hopkin’s swim this morning already destroys her previous personal best of 27.22 from the 2018 Sette Colli Trophy. That mark tied the late Tazmin Pugh to give them the rank of 30th fastest Brit on the all-time list.

Flash forward to this morning, however, and Hopkin’s 26.69 now rockets her into the 10th slot on the British all-time performers list. But, don’t sleep on Jones as the 2nd seed tonight. The 22-year-old holds a PB in this event of 26.63 and is the reigning British Champion.

Men’s 200m Fly – Prelims

  • Selection Time #1 – 1:54.63, Selection Time #2 – 1:55.42
  • British National Record – 1:54.58, Michael Rock, 2009

Open Top 8:

Place Name AaD Club Time R.T. FINA Pt 50 100 150
1. Jacob Peters 19 Poole 1:58.88 + 0.63 825 25.73 55.47 1:26.80
2. Duncan Scott 22 UniOfStirl 1:59.57 + 0.70 811 26.32 56.77 1:28.21
3. Michael Gunning 25 Stockport Mo 1:59.60 + 0.67 810 26.96 57.17 1:28.13
4. James Guy 24 Bath NC 2:00.39 + 0.70 794 26.38 56.65 1:27.78
5. Jay Lelliott 24 Co Sheffield 2:01.05 + 0.65 781 26.83 57.57 1:28.61
6. Edward Mildred 16 Northampton 2:01.65 + 0.71 770 26.53 57.08 1:28.32
7. Thomas Beeley 20 Plymouth Lea 2:01.71 + 0.60 769 26.88 57.74 1:29.73
8. James Woodward 19 Hatfield 2:01.73 + 0.64 768 26.70 57.34 1:29.86

Staking his claim on this men’s 200m fly event early is 19-year-old Jacob Peters of Poole. The 19-year-old raced his way to one of just 3 sub-2:00 times on the morning, leading the pack in a solid 1:58.88.

Peters competed in this event at the 2018 European Championships where he logged 2:00.40 to finish 24th. He did wind up medaling at those championships in the form of the men’s 4x100m medley relay as a heats swimmer, so the man has experience performing under pressure. But his PB of 1:57.16 will need to be obliterated in order for Peters to qualify for Worlds.

The most decorated Scottish swimmer ever at a Commonwealth Games, Duncan Scott, performed well this morning and did what he took to claim the 2nd seed in 1:59.57. Scott holds a personal best time of 1:56.60 from the 2018 Commonwealth Games where the versatile Stirling stud took bronze.

But eyes will be on the reigning national champion in this event, James Guy, as the 24-year-old Bath swimmer tries to earn his World Championships bid with a possible title defense this evening. Guy won last year in a modest 1:58.05 and wound up scratching this event at teh 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Since then, however, Guy put up a 1:57.81 at the Edinburgh Intentional earlier this year. It will take better than his PB of 1:55.91 from 2017 to make Gwangju.

Women’s 100m Back – Prelims

  • Selection Time #1 – 59.12, Selection Time #2 – 59.47
  • British National Record – 58.12, Gemma Spofforth, 2009

Open Top 8:

Place Name AaD Club Time R.T. FINA Pt 50
1. Jessica Fullalove 23 Bath NC 1:00.48 + 0.55 881 29.38
2. Georgia Davies 29 Loughboro Un 1:00.75 + 0.58 870 29.33
3. Cassie Wild 19 UniOfStirl 1:01.46 + 0.63 840 29.31
4. Kathleen Dawson 22 UniOfStirl 1:01.87 + 0.61 823 30.03
5. Alicia Wilson 19 Guildford Ct 1:02.23 + 0.58 809 30.05
6. Lauren Cox 18 Co Coventry 1:02.24 + 0.66 809 30.12
7. Charlotte Evans 22 Loughboro Un 1:02.34 + 0.60 805 30.80
8. Lily Boseley 18 Co Sheffield 1:02.43 + 0.53 801 30.36

The women’s 100m backstroke was without a sub-minute swimmer this morning, which makes spectators a tad nervous if they’ll see a World Championships qualifier or not.

Bath’s Jessica Fullalove produced the top seed in 1:00.48, while Loughborough’s Georgia Davies was less than half a second behind in 1:00.75. Beyond that, however, and swimmers will need to drop at last 2-3 seconds tonight to come close to even the 2nd selection time of 59.47.

But, that’s the sign of the times in British women’s backstroke right now. Stirling’s Kathleen Dawson holds a PB of 59.58, but hasn’t been consistently back at that 2016 time.

Davies, too, holds a PB of 59.34 from 2017, but produced a 1:00.17 for 5th at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She did throw down a silver medal winning 59.36 at the 2018 European Championships, so that’s a positive sign that the veteran could potentially produce something more along those lines tonight.

Anything can happen in tonight’s final and we’ve seen some big time drops from some of the younger swimmers on day 1.

Men’s 100m Back – Prelims

  • Selection Time #1 – 52.66, Selection Time #2 – 53.32
  • British National Record – 52.73, Liam Tancock, 2009

Open Top 8:

Place Name AaD Club Time R.T. FINA Pt 50
1. Luke Greenbank 22 Loughboro NC 54.15 + 0.55 877 26.32
2. Brodie Williams 20 Millfield 54.95 + 0.56 840 26.72
3. Joe Litchfield 21 Loughboro NC 55.15 + 0.51 831 27.09
4. Craig McNally 27 UniOfStirl 55.19 + 0.64 829 27.74
5. Martyn Walton 22 UniOfStirl 55.42 + 0.55 818 26.93
6. Elliot Clogg 20 Co Sheffield 55.58 + 0.60 811 27.05
7. Nicholas Pyle 19 Newcastle 55.80 + 0.53 802 27.10
8. Xavier Castelli 29 Co Cardiff 55.83 + 0.59 801 27.07

Loughborough’s Luke Greenbank led the way for the men’s 100m backstroke this morning, clocking a heats swim of 54.15 in the final heat. The 22-year-old looked pleased with his AM effort, as he should be with a lifetime best, and holds an .8 lead over Millfield’s Brodie Williams‘ time of 54.95.

Both men were the only sub-55 second swimmers in the heats, with Loughborough’s Joe Litchfield lurking as the 3rd seed in 55.15 and Stirling boys Craig McNally and Martyn Walton also making the final in respective 4th and 5th seeded times of 55.19 and 55.42.

Going back to Greenbank, the now 22-year-old has been racing on the elite international scene for some time now, collecting double 100 and 200m backstroke gold at the 2015 European Games and 200m back bronze at the Youth Olympic Games the year before that.

In this 100m back event, Greenbank held a PB of 54.37 from the 2018 Commonwealth Games and he followed that up with 54.65 in Glasgow in the European Championships final. He’ll need to have the swim of his life, as will all the men in this final, to make it to Gwangju.

He’s on the right start with a new lifetime best this morning. His 54.15 now makes Greenbank the 5th fastest British performer in history.

Women’s 200m Breast – Prelims

  • Selection Time #1 – 2:22.22, Selection Time #2 – 2:23.95
  • British National Record – 2:22.08, Jocelyn Ulyett, 2017

Open Top 8:

Place Name AaD Club Time R.T. FINA Pt 50 100 150
1. Molly Renshaw 23 Loughboro NC 2:26.29 + 0.71 859 34.40 1:11.15 1:48.66
2. Abbie Wood 20 Loughboro NC 2:27.68 + 0.71 835 34.22 1:11.59 1:49.53
3. Katie Matts 21 Stockport Mo 2:27.90 + 0.73 832 33.22 1:10.13 1:48.27
4. Jocelyn Ulyett 24 Loughboro Un 2:28.33 + 0.66 824 33.51 1:11.12 1:49.25
5. Rosanna Arnold 19 Guildford Ct 2:29.56 + 0.83 804 33.94 1:11.51 1:49.88
6. Georgia Coates 20 Bath NC 2:30.13 + 0.72 795 33.87 1:11.86 1:50.38
7. Lily Booker 18 Millfield 2:30.59 + 0.70 788 34.69 1:12.95 1:52.00
8. Hannah Miley 30 Aberdeen Per 2:31.24 + 0.69 778 34.38 1:12.91 1:51.75

The usual suspects compose tonight’s final for the women’s open 200m breaststroke, led by one-time British National Record holder Molly Renshaw.

23-year-old Renshaw registered a morning swim of 2:26.29 to land lane 4 by over a second ahead of teammate Abbie Wood. Wood already has one medal here with her silver medal-winning performance in last night’s women’s 400m IM.

Also in that women’s 400m IM was Scottish legend Hannah Miley. Just months after ankle surgery, the 3-time Olympian Miley took bronze in that 4IM and enters tonight’s 2breast final as the 8th seeded swimmer in 2:31.24.

Renshaw has been on a tear in this event as of late, snagging Commonwealth Games silver in 2:23.28 and European Championships bronze in 2:23.43. She’ll need to be in that range to make it onto the World Championships roster.

Katie Matts of Stockport Metro holds a personal best time of 2:25.06 and clocked the 3rd fastest time of the morning in 2:27.90, while reigning British National Record holder Jocelyn Ulyett is right there in the mix in 2:28.33 for the 4th seed.

Women’s 800m Free – Prelims

  • Selection Time #1 – 8:20.53, Selection Time #2 – 8:24.38
  • British National Record – 8:14.10, Rebecca Adlington, 2008

The women’s 800m free will be recapped with day 2 finals recap.

 

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Snarky
5 years ago

The Brits cant seem to learn from their mistakes. Their ridiculous selection times havent worked, still dont work, and will not work to improve performance. Instead, they add another layer of stress and suck the will out of the athletes. Some of the selection times are faster than national records or would have won medals at Olympic and world games. Just plain foolishness. Brexit.

Admin
Reply to  Snarky
5 years ago

I think you’ve missed the point. By setting selection times this way, the coaches just get to choose who they want for the meet under the further clauses in selection.

Would never fly in the US, but seems to be how they like it in the UK.

Dee
Reply to  Braden Keith
5 years ago

I think it’s the US depth. Whoever finish top 2 at US trials is good enough to go to Worlds and medal, or at least final, in any given event. It stinks to high heaven, but I think it’s an extra layer of protection to the few swimmers we have who can turn up at Worlds with medal chances.

Thomas Selig
5 years ago

Well Greenbank looked very good I thought, and seemed to have a bit left over. Would be good to finally see someone break the 54 barrier again. Slightly disappointed with Pyle, who doesn’t seem to be having great championships.

On the women’s side I think Davies will go sub-60, but not sure she gets to the CT. Fullalove looked quite comfortable too. It’s a shame Dawson has never really kicked on from 2016, a difficult couple of years for her.

Ulyett looked more like her 2017 version too, and hopefully her and Renshaw can push each other to at least the CT this evening. Katie Matts looked quite strong too, and after a good 50 yesterday I think she should… Read more »

Iain
Reply to  Thomas Selig
5 years ago

Dawson had ACL operation in earlier in year, missed whole SC season and not raced much LC…

Swimmer
Reply to  Thomas Selig
5 years ago

Is Chloe Tutton still swimming? I didn’t think I had seen anything about her retirement or an injury, but odd that she’s not racing.

Jeff
5 years ago

Luke Greenbank could be good for the relay. His time this morning was quicker than Walker Hebborn’s lead off leg in 2017.

Lille
5 years ago

The reaction times seems a bit off…

Buster
Reply to  Lille
5 years ago

Yes those reaction times for the 50s look odd … again … at the same pool where we had problem with Peaty’s 100 breaststroke. Lawrence Palmer 0.46? Really?
Edit: There was 0.37 in the women’s 50 breaststroke yesterday!!!

Buster
Reply to  Buster
5 years ago

Men’s 100 breaststroke and women’s 200 free heats yesterday. Everyone who swam in lane 2 had an RT of 0.49 … Possibly other events too

Lille
Reply to  Buster
5 years ago

THIS IS SICK!!!

Togger
5 years ago

It is just a sample size of one, but it’s worrying that after 3 years at British Swimming’s number 2 ITC, Anna Hopkin has dropped loads of time after one year at the 8th best swimming school in its conference.

After years of focus on Bath and Loughborough, are they doing the best with the breadth of talent at their disposal? There are examples like Wilby of kids going there and getting a lot faster, but there’s plenty of others who seem to get there and plateau. Compare that to a Texas or a Cal, where most swimmers turn up elite, but still get faster.

Tim
Reply to  Togger
5 years ago

This is a good comment. I don’t know the answer but I wonder if the UK approach is too concentrated. At this level it can’t be one size fits all can it?

Togger
Reply to  Tim
5 years ago

Certainly possible. There’s plenty of 50m pools in or near unis (many swimmers are still students) which don’t currently have international swimmers.

Off the top of my head: UEA, Birmingham, Cardiff, Sheffield, Liverpool, Surrey, Manchester, Nottingham. Getting some bright young coaches in to those environments and allowing funded swimmers to train with them seems worth a try.

5wimmer
Reply to  Togger
5 years ago

She actually swam with the uni squad, not the ITC team. The uni squad has been in decline now for a few years and has not been managed well

Dee
Reply to  Togger
5 years ago

She was Bath Uni, not Bath ITC, and she dropped 2.5s at University – 27.5 when she joined Bath, 25.0 when she went to Arkansas. They perhaps didnt do everything right, but she improved massively and was studying full-time, she now only has 8hrs of classes a week.

Togger
Reply to  Dee
5 years ago

I didn’t realise she’d had those time drops, so perhaps it is just the continuation of being a later developer. It just seems odd to me that Arkansas (hardly a titan of collegiate swimming), can develop a swimmer coming from Bath (one of the premier swimming unis in Britain). In the reverse, no one would expect a swimmer coming from a top 10-15 US programme to keep developing at a mid-tier UK uni (the only real life example I can think of is Tarwater, but he chose not to train much at Oxford).

It might be changing, Greenbank is one I always thought of as an example of this effect and he just went a PB, but for years… Read more »

CoachStod
Reply to  Togger
5 years ago

I fully agree with this, and quite honestly, I’ve no idea why its not a bigger question mark. How many others could have done the same? Whilst not many take the plunge into American swimming, I wish more did tbh.

Something fundamentally different is happening. Whether it be the setups, training, wear and tear, team attitudes,
One of the best things Swim Swam has opened me up to over time, as a coach, is just the massive difference between workouts and attitudes here (in Britain) and America. It inspires me, but also scares me. Sessions, quality, swimmer mindsets/attitude, coach interactions, the inventive thinking, variation, team mentality.

Year on year, trails make me ask the question if talent retention… Read more »

5wimmer
Reply to  CoachStod
5 years ago

I wish I had looked into going to america. Uni swimming was not what I expected it to be and I ended up walking away from competitive swimming mainly because of the set up (which was generally awful).

Admin
Reply to  CoachStod
5 years ago

The “Transitional” thing isn’t dropping a ton of swimmers out. I haven’t done detailed research, but as I’m writing up finals scratches now, I notice that the transitional final is 9-16 in prelims of the women’s 100 back (AKA, they’re all 23and under). 2 swimmers (Willmott and Orla Adams) get the boot in the 200 breast, I’m not sure though if Willmott would’ve swum the B final anyway. Thomas Paine in the 200 fly. Just a small handful of swimmers impacted.

Dee
5 years ago

Little bit of hope for the mens backstroke – Greenbank with a nice PB and very close to sub 54 with his first swim of the week.

JM90
Reply to  Dee
5 years ago

CWH leaving a big old hole for us in the backstrokes eh?! Our kingdom for a 52. Backstroker!

Ol' Longhorn
Reply to  JM90
5 years ago

We’ll trade you Grevers for Peaty.

Friuti
Reply to  Ol' Longhorn
5 years ago

And the Brits would still have a better breaststroker than the US

Admin
Reply to  Friuti
5 years ago

I mean…I get what you’re going at, that Wilby is better than any current US swimmer, but after the trade, the US would have Peaty, so…

13 % Chinese person
5 years ago

Yikes , the selection times ard ridiculous .

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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