After an extremely dominate performance on day one of the Flanders Speedo Cup in Antwerp the British team returned to the pool to once again take control of the day’s results. They matched their win total from yesterday, taking 12 events, but missed the total number of events where they owned the podium, sweeping 10 on day one and six on day two. Those events included the men’s 1500 freestyle, men’s 200 breaststroke, women’s 400 freestyle, women’s 100 freestyle, men’s 50 breaststroke and women’s 100 backstroke.
The second day of competition saw six event records go down. Nicholas Grainger put up a 15:10.60 to beat Gergely Gyurta‘s 2011 record of 15:17.77, Jazz Carlin broke her second meet record winning the 400 freestyle in a time of 4:06.68 taking down Lotte Friis 2012 record of 4:08.32, Lauren Quigley bettered her own meet mark of 1:01.05 from 2013 in the 100 backstroke posting a time of 1:00.53, Adam Peaty put up a 27.80 to beat Daniel Gyurta‘s 2013 record of 27.96, David Plummer won the 50 backstroke in a time of 25.24 breaking the mark of 25.64 set by Aschwin Wildeboer in 2012 and Aimee Willmott, who had another spectacular day, beating Sophie Allen‘s 2012 record of 2:13.23 in the 200 IM, winning the event in a time of 2:10.87.
After winning the 400 IM in a lifetime best time on day one Willmott once again provided a great deal of excitement on the second day of the competition, beating the reigning world champion in the 200 IM by one tenth of a second. Willmott destroyed her lifetime best time of 2:12.73, posting a 2:10.87, while Katinka Hosszu finished second in a time of 2:10.97.
Carlin put up another very strong performance in the 400 freestyle winning the event by over three seconds. Carlin was not far off her lifetime best of 4:04.03, a time she recorded at the World Championships in Barcelona. She swept the women’s distance events in Antwerp, taking the 800 freestyle on the first day, recording a time of 8:26.12.
Molly Renshaw set a new British age record in the 17 year old category in the 200 breaststroke winning the event n a lifetime best of 2:26.38, beating her previous best of 2:26.81. Renshaw’s time breaks her own British age group record time of 2:27.71.
In November Britain published the swimmers selected for both the podium and potential podium programmes, the top three young swimmers, all teenagers, in today’s men’s 1500 freestyle were included in the list of athletes who earned their way into the potential podium program. Nicholas Grainger won the event in a time of 15:10.60 beating his previous lifetime best by more than 14 seconds, Stephen Milne posted a 15:16.19, tying his lifetime best, to finish second while Caleb Hughes finished third in a time of 15:46.59.
Ross Murdoch, who took the 100 breaststroke on day one, looked to beat Olympic silver medalist Michael Jamieson in the 200 breaststroke on day two. Although Murdoch improved on his lifetime best of 2:13.62 it was not enough to take down Jamieson.
Jamieson won the event in a time of 2:12.59 followed by Murdoch who hit the wall in second recording a time of 2:13.25.
Fran Halsall took the women’s 100 freestyle to sweep the women’s sprint freestyle events at the competition posting a 54.76, finishing just ahead of Amy Smith who recorded a 55.05. Jessica Lloyd finished third in a time of 55.32.
Halsall also won the women’s 50 butterfly in an extremely close race with Kimberly Buys of Belgium. Halsall won the event in a time of 25.25 followed by Buys, who touched in a time of 25.35.
Luke Greenbak won the men’s 200 backstroke in a time of 2:00.06 just ahead of Belgian Lander Hendrickx who recorded a time of 2:00.86.
Joe Roebuck eked out a victory in the men’s 100 butterfly posting a time of 53.52 finishing six one-hundredths of a second ahead of Egon Van Der Straeten of Belgium, who recorded a time of 53.58.
Danielle Lowe took the 50 breaststroke in a time of 32.29 just ahead of Belgian Kim Janssens, who finished in a time of 32.39.
Laszlo Cseh won his second event of the competition taking the men’s 400 IM in a time of 4:19.80, Pieters Timmers took the men’s 100 freestyle in a time of 49.04 while Rachel Kelly won the women’s 100 butterfly in a time of 58.78.
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Well done Timmers !!! 49.04 is pretty good for a belgian sprinter . He is 6’8 like Grevers this guy . David Plummer is stilll in good shape ….
Luke Greenbank also set a new British age group record (16yrs), over 1.5 seconds faster than the old record. Very impressive time this early in the year, and he has another 9 months as a 16yo, It will be interesting to see if he can take much more off the record at British Nationals, or perhaps more likely, British Age Group Championships, which always tend to see fast times.