2025 Aquatics GB Championships, Day 6 Prelims: Another Men’s 200 Free Battle Is Brewing

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
• Live Recaps
  • Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5
  • Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5

The final day of the 2025 Aquatics GB Championships is underway, with the morning prelims now complete. Five events were featured in this session: the men’s 50m butterfly, men’s 200m backstroke, women’s 100m breaststroke, women’s 100m freestyle, and men’s 200m freestyle.

As a reminder, this meet is the only selection opportunity for British swimmers aiming to qualify for the World Championships this July in Singapore. To earn a spot at the World Championships in Singapore (27 July – 3 August), a swimmer must win their event and meet the qualifying time required. Those who place 2nd and also achieve the standard may be considered for selection, with the final team capped at 30 athletes.

In the men’s 50 fly, Bath’s Jacob Peters secured the top seed for tonight’s final with a time of 23.27. The 24-year-old holds a lifetime best of 22.84 from the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, where he narrowly missed the podium, finishing 4th—just 0.02 seconds outside of bronze.

Ben Proud, who placed 5th in that same 2023 final, advanced in 5th position this morning with a 23.89. He remains the British record holder, thanks to his 22.75 from the 2017 World Championships in Budapest, where he claimed gold.

Since 2017, Proud has largely concentrated on the 50 free, in which he owns a personal best of 21.11. However, now that the 50 fly is an Olympic event, there’s a strong chance we’ll see him reignite his focus on the stroke in the coming seasons. He captured the 50 free title here on Saturday in 21.67—despite racing unshaven—and also captured silver at the recent Paris Olympics.

Another swimmer to watch in tonight’s final is Plymouth’s Jack Brown. The 17-year-old rising star posted a time of 23.95 to qualify 6th overall.

The top four finishers in the men’s 200 back prelims dipped under the two-minute mark, with Olympic medalist Luke Greenbank leading the way. The 27-year-old, who earned bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and owns a lifetime best of 1:54.43, touched in 1:57.92 this morning—leading the field by over a second.

Birmingham University’s Oliver Morgan, who owns a PB of 1:56.27, will be aiming to complete a sweep of the backstroke events with a win in the 200. He clocked 1:59.33 to qualify as the joint 2nd seed. Earlier in the meet, he broke the British record in the 100 back with a 52.12, a time that ranks him #2 in the world this year behind Russian Olympic medalist Kliment Kolesnikov. Morgan also won the 50 back this week with a personal-best 24.43.

Also qualifying 2nd was Florida Gator Jonny Marshall, who represented Great Britain in the 100 back at the Paris Olympics last summer, finishing 14th. He narrowly missed the qualifying standard in that event earlier this week by just 0.01.

Swimmers will need to hit 1:57.28 or faster in tonight’s final to meet the qualifying standard.

After clocking the fastest time of the morning by over two seconds, Stirling’s Angharad Evans will be the one to watch in the women’s 100 breast final. She touched in 1:06.22—the sixth-fastest 100 breast ever by a British woman—to lead the field ahead of Edinburgh’s Kara Hanlon, who qualified 2nd in 1:08.38.

Evans has already booked her ticket to Singapore, thanks to a world-leading 2:21.86 in the 200 breast earlier in the competition—a mark that was recently surpassed by world record holder Evgeniia Chikunova, who went 2:20.36 a day later to steal the global lead.

Evans dropped almost a full second from her previous PB in the 200, so keep an eye on her 1:05.54 British record in tonight’s 100 final, as well as the world-leading time of 1:05.82 from Italy’s Anita Bottazzo.

As for Hanlon, her 2023 best of 1:06.36 is just shy of the qualifying standard of 1:06.31. If she can shave off a few hundredths, she has a real shot at joining Evans on the Worlds roster. Hanlon was slightly off her personal best in the 50 breast, where she won gold, but did drop half a second to earn silver in the 200.

The women’s 100 free prelims featured a bounce-back performance from Freya Anderson, who led all qualifiers with a time of 54.37 after missing the ‘A’ final in the 200 free earlier this week. She’ll be closely challenged in tonight’s final by rising star Eva Okaro, who advanced 2nd in 54.95—making her the only other swimmer under the 55-second barrier this morning.

Okaro has already had a standout meet, winning both the 50 free and 50 fly, along with a bronze in the 100 fly. She’ll be chasing the 54-second barrier tonight, having set a personal best of 54.43 just last month. Okaro has already secured her place for Singapore with a 24.43 qualifying time in the 50 free.

The qualifying standard in the women’s 100 free is 53.55, and Anderson is the only swimmer in the final who has previously gone under that mark, with a personal best of 53.31.

In the men’s 200 free prelims, 2015 World Champion James Guy led the field with the only sub-1:47 swim, clocking 1:46.85. The 29-year-old has contested two events at this competition already, winning the 400 free and earning bronze in the 200 fly. He showed particularly strong opening speed in the 400 free, hitting the halfway turn in 1:49.16, which bodes well for this shorter event.

Guy is already pre-qualified for Worlds in the 4×200 free relay following Great Britain’s gold-medal performance in Paris last summer. He owns a personal best of 1:45.04 in this event from his relay lead-off leg at those Games.

Matt Richards, who is also pre-qualified for both the relay and this individual event thanks to his silver medal in Paris, swam 1:48.12 to qualify 6th this morning. Earlier in the meet, he claimed the 100 free title with a season-best 47.92 on day three.

With Richards’ pre-qualification, that just leaves one opening for the final individual spot, and Duncan Scott looks well-positioned to take it. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medalist in this event touched in 1:47.31 to qualify 2nd this morning. He has looked sharp all week, dominating the 200 fly (1:54.89) and 200 IM (1:56.41), and is a strong contender to challenge the 1:45 barrier—or even dip below it—in tonight’s final. His lifetime best stands at 1:44.26.

Scott and Guy are the clear front-runners, on paper, to add the individual event to their schedules for Singapore.

Also worth watching are Jack McMillan and Alexander Painter, who sit in 7th and 8th, respectively.

Painter, in particular, is coming off his freshman season at the University of Florida and is known to rise to the occasion in finals. He nearly earned a Worlds spot on the 4×100 free relay earlier in the competition, finishing 5th with a 48.47—just 0.02 behind Jacob Whittle’s 48.45 for 4th.

McMillan is an Olympic gold medalist for his prelims contribution to the 4×200 relay in Paris.

As a reminder, 2020 Olympic champion Tom Dean is forgoing the 200 free at this meet. He is already on the Singapore roster for the 4×200 relay, just like Guy and Scott.

Dean finished 3rd in the 100 free (48.40) on Thursday—his only event of the meet.