UPDATE: Ben Proud Will Arrive in Rome in Time for the 50 Free

2022 EUROPEAN AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Update: James Gibson says that Ben Proud will arrive in time for the 50 Free

Day one of the 2022 European Aquatics Championships saw a significant scratch in the men’s 50m fly as Great Britain’s Ben Proud was absent from the heats.

The 27-year-old speedster is coming off of a successful summer that saw the Briton take gold in the men’s 50m freestyle at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, as well as gold in the 50m free and 50m fly at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

While he was entered in the 50m fly and the 50m free as the top-seeded man in each here in Rome, Proud is right now training Turkey at the Gloria Sports Arena under the tutelage of James Gibson.

Proud does intend to arrive later in the meet, though, including plans to race in the 50 free, his only other individual event of the meet. That race runs over the last two days of the meet, with prelims and semi-finals coming on Tuesday and the finals on Wednesday. Proud will be the top seed in that event.

Gibson tells SwimSwam that the decision to arrive late for the meet is about managing emotions in Proud’s third big meet of the summer. He won the 50 free at both the World Championships and Commonwealth Games, and also won the 50 fly at the Commonwealth Games.

Without Proud in the mix, Dutch speedster Nyls Korstanje has taken the top seed heading into Friday night’s 50m fly final, having established a new national record of 22.88 in tonight’s semi-final.

In This Story

4
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

4 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Success Leaves Clues
1 year ago

Ben Proud is coaching himself in Turkey and will arrive later. Gibson is banned from Turkey as Energy Standard owe them waaaaaaay too much money…. He hasn’t been poolside with him since Energy Standard group disbanded. Nice bit of PR though – ‘coaching by stealth’ and taking all the credit….

Coco
Reply to  Success Leaves Clues
1 year ago

James Gibson was in Turkey just 1 month ago and was given an award by the Turkish government for his work so that’s a lie

Coco
1 year ago

His Instagram said he’s “ready to continue the summer season” and given this is his last meet left of the summer I imagine he’ll still compete, the 50 free is in 5 days still so maybe he’s just getting some training in with his coach at his home base and then coming out to Italy in a few days

MastersSwimmer
1 year ago

Andy Jameson commentating on BBC Sport website’s coverage today said that Proud was competing in the free.

About Retta Race

Retta Race

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

Read More »