Based on their performances at the 2019 British Swimming Championships, a 25-strong squad has been selected to represent Great Britain at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, Korea this summer. Below is the break-down of the different tiers of selection, but look for follow-up posts giving more insight into the team members.
Of the line-up, 5 swimmers were automatically qualified based on their gold medal-winning performances that dipped under the stiff British selection time. Those names include Adam Peaty, Daniel Jervis, Max Litchfield, Duncan Scott and James Wilby.
An additional 12 swimmers achieved the British Swimming-dictated consideration time in their respective events and have also been selected to compete at Worlds this summer. Those in this category include the likes of Ross Murdoch, Ben Proud and Aimee Willmott.
Finally, the remaining 8 slots were discretionarily picked by British Swimming brain trust Chris Spice and Bill Furniss. University of Stirling’s Scott McLay was handpicked due to his promising time drops over the course of the championships, while Laura Stephens produced a lifetime best in the 200m fly.
Additional athletes, such as 2016 Olympian Cameron Kurle, were added for relay members.
Commenting on the selections for the 2019 edition, British Swimming National Performance Director, Spice, said:
“We had another great British Championships in Glasgow where we saw some exceptional individual performances from our established group of senior swimmers. In particular Duncan Scott, Adam Peaty, James Wilby, Max Litchfield and Ross Murdoch continued to show their class. And of course, who could forget the brilliant 1500m Freestyle swim from Dan Jervis that had everybody on their feet and really set the Championships alight.
“The selectors were also pleased to see that some younger athletes have grabbed the opportunity that we gave them at last year’s Europeans to step up and make this team. We saw superb lifetime bests from Luke Greenbank, Tom Dean, Anna Hopkin and Jess Fullalove, that really built on those performances from last year. As we look towards Tokyo, the challenge now for the whole team is to move this on in the summer and swim a season’s best under the spotlights in Gwangju.”
With a top 12 finish in relay events securing a spot at next summer’s Olympic Games, Spice added:
“In terms of our discretionary selections, this year a key consideration was the need to qualify our relays for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, whilst resting those relay athletes that could have large schedules in Gwangju. Having said that, the stand out swim from this category was Laura Stephens in the 200m Butterfly, who just missed the World’s individual consideration time by 0.05%, so she fully deserves her inclusion.
“Now that the team is finalised we will head to a team preparation camp in June, with all athletes and staff getting together for two legs of the Mare Nostrum series in Canet and Barcelona. We have also been fortunate to secure our pre-World’s holding camp in Yokohama this year, which will also form a dress rehearsal for our preparations for Tokyo 2020.”
As an example of what discretionary selection means, McLay stated:
“I’m over the moon! This was one of my targets at the beginning of the season and the fact I’ve been able to achieve that shows that my hard work in the pool has paid off. I’m looking forward to going even faster at Worlds now and it gives me the confidence that the work I’m doing will carry forward to next year, which has always been the target.”
The British Swimming team for the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju:
Adam Peaty, England, National Centre Loughborough
Dan Jervis, Wales, Swansea University
Max Litchfield, England, National Centre Loughborough
Duncan Scott, Scotland, University of Stirling
James Wilby, England, National Centre Loughborough
The athletes above gained selection after they won their event and achieved the qualification standard at the British Championships 2019 as per Table 1 of the selection policy.
Ben Proud, England, Plymouth Leander
Ross Murdoch, Scotland, University of Stirling
Luke Greenbank, England, National Centre Loughborough
James Guy, England, National Centre Bath
Georgia Davies, Wales, Loughborough University
Alys Thomas, Wales, Swansea University
Molly Renshaw, England, National Centre Loughborough
Freya Anderson, England, Ellesmere College
Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, England, National Centre Bath
Aimee Willmott, England, University of Stirling
Tom Dean, England, National Centre Bath
Calum Jarvis, Wales, National Centre Bath
The athletes above gained selection after they achieved the consideration time as per Table 2 of the selection policy (individual and relay).
Cameron Kurle, England, National Centre Bath
Nick Pyle, England, Newcastle
Holly Hibbott, England, Stockport Metro
Georgia Coates, England, National Centre Bath
Scott McLay, Scotland, University of Stirling
Jess Fullalove, England, National Centre Bath
Anna Hopkin, England, Ealing
Laura Stephens, England, Plymouth Leander
The athletes above gained selection at the discretion of the GB Head Coach and National Performance Director. The criteria for these decisions included the need to qualify relay teams for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games; provision of relay cover and alternates to rest key athletes that have large schedules; potential to make the Tokyo 2020 Olympic team; individual performances over the last 12 months and performances at the 2019 British Swimming Championships.
Coaches selected to the British team for the 2019 World Championships:
Euan Dale, Millfield School
Jol Finck, National Centre Bath
Dave Hemmings, National Centre Loughborough
Mel Marshall, National Centre Loughborough
David McNulty, National Centre Bath
Steven Tigg, University of Stirling
wpDiscuz
With Scott, Guy, Jervis, Litchfield, Dean and Jarvis all options for 4×2, I would ask the need for Kurle to be going over someone like Jocelyn Ulyett or Charlotte Atkinson who could race individually as well as medley relay prelims
It will be because BS see the potential to go all the way to the top of the Podium with the men’s 4×200 in Tokyo. It not only allows them to rest Guy and Scott for the final, but gives them the chance to develop as many athletes as they can at the highest level for an event where they are quite likely to medal and capable of winning gold.
Jervis is not a serious option for the 4x200m
He isn’t, but resting both Guy & Scott in prelims is also not a serious option. With the greatest of respect to the swimmers, but a team of Dean/Jarvis/Kurle/Litchfield might scrape into the final, but by no means would it be assured. Perhaps they won’t use Max…
I think Scott will have to be rested because he could have quite a heavy schedule at worlds. I would say a team of Jarvis/Kurle/Dean/Guy should qualify
I suppose Top 12 in the relay is the first hurdle (for Olympic Qualification)….I can’t work out the British or French attitudes to relay qualification for 2020.
Said they’d take Kurle for the relay 😛. Also, they clearly like Pyle as someone to develop for the future, but I wonder whether they are purely taking him for experience or whether they intend to swim him on prelims for one of the two relays, which gives them the choice of Greenbank, Pyle or Davies for the mixed medley relay. You’d have thought they could have taken Joe Litchfield given his improvements in backstroke and performance in the IM (and the fact he’s clearly got the swimming genes), but then again there were other people who you could argue could have gained a spot like Cumberlidge and Hopkin, but you can see where BS priorities lie. Positives from this… Read more »
My bad, just seen they are taking Hopkin.
Prelims relay would be Litchfield, Kurle, Dean and Jarvis?
Hopefully not – Although BS have history throwing away medals by resting people.
I don’t think that line up is weak enough to miss top 8?
In 2017 it took a 7:10:5 to make the final (Poland in 8th). In fact the US barely made it, qualifying in 7th with a 7:09. On paper, Litchfield, Kurle, Dean and Jarvis should certainly be capable of a 7:09 or better*, which should be enough to make the final. But that’s two “should”s, so is it too much risk?
*At trials, their times combined to roughly 7:10, so throw in relay starts, and the fact that they will all be fresher than they were at Trials, and I reckon 7:09 or better is a reasonable guess.
I guess it will be a bit faster this year for some reasons: 1) This year will define who are the top 12 who will have an automatic spot on OG 2) China and Brazil will come strong (Brazil add up to 7:07:4 without counting Altamir open relay leg of 1:46:7 and a subpar Scheffer on Trials) and China adds up to 7:08:07 3) Hungary went 7:11 on 2017, they already add up to 7:10 4) we still have to See Germany situation. But they went 7:09 on Europeans Only on this we have 4 teams who were not top 8 that will come strong 5) JPN is a question mark yet and I Don´t think France will be a… Read more »
Well France don’t have a team, so we can discount them. Agree also on Japan being a question mark. You should definitely add Brazil to the mix though, they’ll make the final comfortably you’d expect, and won’t be too far off the medals IMO. Less sure about the likes of China and Hungary, since guys like Milak and Sun Yang may well not swim the relays (prelims at least), and that weakens them considerably. My gut feeling is it will be a bit faster, but perhaps not all that much. I’d still expect a 7:09-low to be enough to make finals. Still, I am more leaning towards the idea of having Guy anchoring in prelims, with the possibility that he… Read more »
And we have to see how they will seed the teams.. No one can take it easy on a slow heat.
Brazil might probably rest one guy (Breno for Leo Santos due to Breno having 100 free, same situation of Scott) but except US and Russia can´t see anyone resting 2 or more.
Litchfield likely swimming at least as much as Guy, so not sure that makes much sense.
Better swimming Jimmy last as a safety net, then if we’re looking good anyway he can always come off the gas a bit.
Yeah, I would say put Guy or Scott in there in prelims as anchor just in case. That way they can either put on the gas if needed or pull up if they’re killing it. That’s the nice thing about the 4×200 relay as opposed to the others – more margin for error.
If someone who just misses the consideration time “fully deserves her inclusion”, would it not make sense to set the qualifying times at the level deemed to “fully deserve inclusion”?
Because the athletes competing could have got the distinct impression that only those hitting automatic inclusion times “fully deserved inclusion”.
I think in BS coach language “fully deserved inclusion” means very little (although I agree with their selections, it seems unfair there isn’t a common, objective system put in place). To use Pyle as an example once again, there were people in front of him in both the events he swam, and in both the 50 and 100 the person directly above him in the results isn’t on the plane yet he is. I know i bang on about it a lot, but it simply comes down to the fact he is 18 and they are in their 20s; BS have a fascination with taking younger people with marginally worse results than their older rivals in the interest of future… Read more »
It’s no different to the years when they consistently didn’t take Elizabeth Simmonds despite her producing faster times than anyone produced last week, simply because she wasn’t the right age. I understand about building a strong future, but I don’t really get why this should be at the expense of faster current swimmers.
Interesting comparison looking at Pyle & Stephens selections. Pyle had not great trials but selected over swimmers ahead of him based on past swims/times whereas Stephens selected ahead swimmers with significantly faster previous swims (and better relay possibilities) as she beat them at trials? Only consistency would seem to be younger swimmer selected in both cases although those not taken are hardly old.
Whatever it is, it’s better than the French are doing…!