2022 SWIM ENGLAND WINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Friday, December 2nd – Sunday, December 4th
- Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield, England
- SCM (25m)
- Live Results
The 2022 Swim England Winter Championships kicked off from Ponds Forge International Sports Center, with the likes of Matt Richards, Laura Stephens and Medi Harris taking to the pool.
For Olympic gold medalist Richards, the 19-year-old topped the men’s 50m free podium. Richards produced a time of 21.11 to win the event by well over half a second.
His effort this evening checks in as a new personal best, slicing .27 off of the 21.38 he logged nearly 3 years ago. In doing so, Richards bumps himself up the all-time British performers’ list from slot #5 to now slot #2. Only Ben Proud has been quicker with his national record of 20.45 from last year’s FINA Short Course World Championships.
As for backstroke ace Medi Harris, the Swansea star raced in the women’s 50m sprint of the discipline tonight. She stopped the clock in a time of 26.49 to grab the gold, rewriting a big-time personal best in the process.
Entering this meet, Harris had been as fast as 27.30, a time she put up at the 2021 BUCS Short Course Championships. However, with her first sub-27 outing here, Harris now checks in as GBR’s 7th fastest performer in history.
Loughborough’s Stephens also made some waves by winning the women’s 200m fly. 23-year-old Stephens touched the wall in 2:05.91 to hold a healthy advantage over runner-up Emily Large.
Large settled for silver in 2:06.67 with both women representing the only racers of the field to delve under the 2:07 territory.
For Stephens, she owns a lifetime best of 2:04.94 from 2018 while Large’s career-quickest is marked by the 2:05.45 she hit 3 years ago.
Additional Highlights
- Loughborough’s Freya Colbert logged a time of 8:28.58 to claim 800m free gold, posting the only sub-8:30 time of the field.
- Charlie Brown was the fastest men’s 200m backstroke, with the 21-year-old Loughborough swimmer touching in 1:53.24.
- City of Manchester’s Jamie Ingram topped the men’s 100m fly field in 50.31, a nice new personal best for the 24-year-old. His time tonight hacked .67 off of his previous PB of 50.98, now rendering him the 5th fastest performer all time.
- A time of 4:10.62 gave Charlie Hutchison the victory in the men’s 400om IM, while Abbie Wood secured gold in the women’s 100m free in 53.76.
45.9 from Richards in the 100 heats this morning, which I’m fairly sure is a sizeable PB. Good signs.
Emily Large’s 2:06.67 is her fastest time since 2019 when she was an 18yo, hopefully this is a sign that the she’s finally starting to reach the potential we’ve known she has had since she won Gold at the 2017 junior world championships.
Abbie Wood also went a 2:05.49 in the 200IM which is just 0.72 off her PB of 2:04.77 and puts her #3 in the world this year, she’s a serious contender for the 200IM at Worlds in 2 weeks.
13 year old Theodara Taylor (b.2009) went a really impressive 1:09.17 in the 100 Breaststroke junior final, exciting prospect for the future.
She blasted a 25.5 50 free a few weeks ago too – Looks a talent.
Looks like she might have a good 100IM in her with that kind of versatility.
The change certainly seems to be working – Matt’s stroke looked fantastic today.
Amelie Blocksidge (b 2009) missed out on a 31 year old national age group record in the 800fr by less than a second, finishing in 8.36. Perhaps a glimmer of hope for the future of British female distance swimming after a few disastrous years.