Austria’s Simon Bucher Hits 51.20 100 Fly, GBR’s Tom Dean Takes 100 Free In Edinburgh

2023 EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET

• Friday, March 10th – Sunday, March 12th
• Royal Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh, Scotland
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Entries
• Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2023 Edinburgh International Swim Meet concluded tonight with Tom Dean capturing another freestyle victory.

After earning gold in the 200m free earlier in the competition, 22-year-old Dean clocked a time of 49.10 to reap the top spot in the 100m sprint. He led Loughborough’s Jacob Whittle who touched in 49.86 as the only other sub-50 second swimmer of the field.

Of note, multi-Olympic medalist Duncan Scott was also in the race, placing 4th in a final result of 50.45.

Sweden’s Louise Hansson of Loughborough continued her sprint dominance, winning the women’s 50m fly in the only sub-26 mark of the pack.

Hansson touched in 25.94 to fall just .02 shy of her season-best 25.92 put up at last month’s Lausanne Swim Cup.

22-year-old Simon Bucher of Austria fell just short of matching his own national record in tonight’s men’s 100m fly.

Bucher punched a result of 51.20, a time which sits only .02 outside the 51.18 he delivered in the heats of the event at last year’s World Championships. There in Budapest, Bucher ultimately clocked a time of 51.28 to place 6th.

Bath teammates James Guy and Jacob Peters also landed on the 1fly podium this evening, with the former earning silver in 52.69 and the latter hitting 52.81 for bronze.

And, just like that, Bucher ranks #2 in the world this season, sitting only behind Amerian Shaine Casas’ time of 50.80 from the Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last weekend.

The women’s 100m free saw Anna Hopkin crank out the speed, touching the wall in a swift 54.10. That was enough to hold off American Catie DeLoof who was also under 55 seconds, snagging silver in 54.47 while Denmark’s Signe Bro bagged bronze in 54.51.

54.10 represents a new season-best for Loughborough’s Hopkin, now ranking her 9th in the season’s world rankings. DeLoof has already been as quick as 54.17, a result she logged en route to capturing gold at the BUCS Long Course Championships.

Additional Winners

• Alisee Pisane of Belgium fired off a new national record in the women’s 1500m freestyle, earning gold in 16:22.18. Look for a subsequent post on Pisane’s swim.
• Freya Colbert got it done for gold in the 200m back in a time of 2:11.55.
• Commonwealth Games champion Brodie Williams was tonight’s 200m backstroke victor for the men in a time of 1:59.55. That got the edge over Israeli athlete David Gerchik who touched just .10 later in 1:59.66 while Olympic bronze medalist in the event Luke Greenbank rounded out the top 3 in 2:00.27.
• The women’s 200m breast saw Lily Booker top the podium for Loughborough in a time of 2:27.01. That held a healthy advantage over Olympian Abbie Wood who settled for silver in 2:28.86.
• Austria’s Bernard Reitshammer scored the men’s 50m breast victory in a mark of 27.57. Of note, world champion Adam Peaty raced in the morning heats, earning the 3rd seed in 28.09 before dropping the final.
• Felix Auboeck produced a time of 3:49.12 to take the men’s 400m free over on-fire Irishman Daniel Wiffen. Wiffen put up 3:50.81 for silver while Luke Turley was tonight’s bronze medalist in 3:42.65. Auboeck now ranks 10th in the world on the season.
• Katie Shanahan logged a winning result of 2:12.12 in the 200m IM to get to the wall ahead of Irish ace Ellen Walshe who snagged silver in 2:12.79. For Walshe, her time tonight came within striking distance of her own national record of 2:12.02 from June of 2021. Shanahan was also within range of her personal best of 2:11.63 from this year’s BUCS Long Course Championships.