2024 CITY OF SHEFFIELD PREMIER MEET
- Friday, March 8th – Sunday, March 10th
- Ponds Forge International Swim Center, Sheffield, England
- LCM (50m)
- Results
With the British Swimming Championships (Olympic Trials) heading our way next month, the nation’s swimmers are capturing tune-up opportunities before the main event.
One such opportunity took place at Ponds Forge in the form of the 2024 City of Sheffield Premier Meet, giving us a glimpse into athletes’ form at this point in their preparation.
28-year-old Tobias Robinson of Loughborough put up a solid 1500m freestyle, stopping the clock in 15:27.97 as the top performer.
Robinson of Loughborough owns a lifetime best of 15:01.35, a time he posted in 2021 to insert himself as the 8th-best British performer of all time.
Teammate Tyler Melbourne-Smith followed suit in the men’s 800m free, capturing gold in a result of 8:03.08. That represents a new best-ever time for the 19-year-old, slicing about a second off his previous PB of 8:04.06 from BUCS just last month. He now enters the all-time British performers list as the 23rd-best in history.
Honey Osrin looked in form as the women’s 200m backstroke victor. Although she posted a time of 2:11.34 to take the gold, her swiftest time came in the heats where the 21-year-old touched in 2:10.12.
Opening in 1:04.08 and closing in 1:06.04, Osrin of Loughborough registered the 2nd-best time of her career. She still owns a PB of 2:09.08 from last year’s British Summer Championships, however, her effort here positions her just outside the top 25 performers worldwide on the season.
The men’s 50m and 100m free saw Loughborough’s Alexander Cohoon capture the crowd’s attention.
22-year-old Cohoon hit a time of 22.26 in the 50m free to reap the top prize, turning in the 5th-swiftest outing of his career in the process. Cohoon was within striking distance of his PB of 22.07, a mark he achieved en route to placing 4th at the inaugural U23 Championships last year.
Cohoon was also impressive in the 100om sprint where he logged a time of 48.79 as the sole competitor in the field under the 50-second threshold.
Splitting 23.20/25.59, Cohoon established a new lifetime best with his performance, delving under the 49-second barrier for the first time. Entering this competition, his PB sat at the 49.10 again notched at the U23 Championships. There in Dublin, he was slightly slower in the final but bagged bronze in 49.16.
Cohoon now ties Calum Jarvis to become GBR’s 12th-best 100m freestyle performer of all time.
Finally, in the women’s 100m free, Repton’s Eva Okaro busted out the quickest result of her career en route to topping the podium.
18-year-old Okaro turned in a result of 54.64 to destroy her previous best-ever 55.30 from January’s Luxembourg Euro Meet.
Okaro opened in 26.33 and closed in 28.31 to crack the list of top 10 British performers as now the 9th best in history. She ranks 17th in the world right now and her time would have placed 8th at this year’s World Championships.
Great seeing Okaro breaking through. With Anderson, Wood and Hopkin looking right back to their best after their performances at Otopeni and Doha, and now a 17YO breaking through, the W 4×1 Free could have an outside shot of a medal in Paris.
Wait what’s Anderson done?
But yes this is good news!
Oh short course, with you
didn’t Honey Osrin go 2:08:48 at BUCS?
Yep
Decent back half by Cohoon, especially for someone who’s built like Ben Proud, hopefully by taper time that front half will pop
You think BS will select him for Paris if he goes let’s say a 48.3 at trials but is only 6th?
I can see BS going with the exact same 4 in the heats of the 4×1 as the final (Richards, Whittle, Scott, Dean) given how inconsistent Burras has been in general plus performing so badly on relays, plus J Litchfield finished 5th at the 2021 trials and then had that terrible performance in the heats to stop us from qualifying, makes me think if they can have confidence in a James Guy to do a job if they really want to rest someone or rely on an Ed Mildred to qualify in the Fly and use him they’d just go with that. They don’t want to be in a position where they’re forced to use a guy they’ll know will… Read more »
If he is top 4, and sub 48.00 they probably have to take him, no?
Cannot see past Richards to win, then for second to 5/6th is anyones guess. Scott maybe slightly shading it of late.
Someone very good isn’t making the 100 or 200 final – Richards, burras, Scott, guy, whittle, dean, j Litchfield, McMillan, cohoon, Mildred in the 100… m litchfield, bird, jones, turley Melbourne in the 200 minus burras and cohoon , as well as the obligatory surprise like painter, fry or g smith…but the favourites will still end up in the top 5 I’m sure
The qualifying for the 200 final, in particular is going to be tough, very tough, as they all fancy a piece of that relay. Very exciting prospect to watch.
There’s always the chance Cohoon finishes in the top 2 in the 50 free with a ‘British swimming’ QT…it’s his primary event and he already has the FINA B Paris standard. That could make either him or burras the 4×1 heats reserve . Anyway, so many coming into form, good to see…
what’s up with Burras? noticed he hadn’t been in print, recently
He went 48.1 at the arena national League.
*49.1, surely…
Yes. 49.19