Dawson and Wild Hit 100 BK British Qualifying Time During Day 2 Prelims

2021 BRITISH SWIMMING SELECTION TRIALS

The 2021 British Swimming Selection Trials continue in London with the second morning preliminaries session in the books and Thursday’s finals session just hours away. During yesterday’s opening finals session, five Brits swam under the nation’s stiff qualifying standards and moved one step closer to punching their ticket to Tokyo. A reminder that Great Britain hand-picks their Olympic athletes in contrast to most nations that just require FINA’s Olympic A cut standards.

Day Two Prelims Highlights

Both swimming under the British Olympic standard (1:00.23) in the women’s 100 back were Stirling teammates Kathleen Dawson (59.16) and Cassie Wild (59.88). If selected, this will be Dawson and Wild’s first Olympic Games. At last month’s Manchester meet, Dawson became the No. 2 Brit all-time in this event at 58.65. Wild owns a lifetime best of 59.65 from last month’s domestic Manchester meet, which ranks 5th all-time in British history. Hitting fourth this morning was World medalist Swansea’s Georgia Davies at 1:01.34, who has been under a minute numerous times in the event.

Kicking off the morning was Bath NC’s James Guy in the men’s 200 fly, putting up an effort of 1:57.82. Also swimming under two minutes was Sheffield’s Jay Lelliott at 1:58.37. Guy and Elliott would need to swim faster than 1:55.45 in order to be considered for the 2021 Olympics. At the 2020 Edinburgh meet, before the pandemic hit, Guy hit 1:56.62 in the 200 fly. He owns a lifetime best of 1:55.91 all the way from the 2017 British Championships.

After hitting the British standard in the men’s 200 IM behind British record-breaker Duncan Scott, Loughborough’s Joe Litchfield will have the potential to qualify for another event in the 100 back today. Litchfield swam 54.06 to grab lane four in tonight’s championship final, just off the 53.85 minimum time for Tokyo. Loughborough teammate and pre-selected Olympian Luke Greenbank placed second at 54.36, just ahead of Bath NC’s Brodie Williams (54.42) and Loughborough training-mate Elliot Clogg (54.48).

Putting up a swift 2:23.91 AM effort in the women’s 200 breast was 2016 Olympian Molly Renshaw, who tied the national record of 2:22.08 at February’s Manchester International meet. Placing second was Abbie Wood (2:24.03) while Jocelyn Ulyett (2:26.11) rounded out the top three. All three swimmers train at Loughborough. Ulyett also co-holds the national record of 2:22.08 from her performance at the 2017 British Championships. The Olympic qualifying standard is set at 2:23.37, which only four Brits have ever swum faster than in history including the Loughborough trio and Chloe Tutton (2:22.34).

Tonight’s finals will begin at 7pm local time/11am Pacific/1pm Central/2pm Eastern, kicking off with the fastest heats of the women’s and men’s 800 free timed finals.

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Thomas Selig
2 years ago

Solid showings from the bigger names.

Wild looked really smooth. Could see a decent PB from her tonight, and bodes well for her 200 back.

Greenbank’s sprained ankle is unfortunate (and looks painful), but he looked OK in the water. Fancy Litchfield to beat him tonight, hopefully hitting the CT. Could be a potential headache if Greenbank finished third or below and the top two hit the CT, but I would think that unlikely.

Wood and Renshaw should hit the CT fairly comfortably. It would be good if they could push each other on to the 2:21 range.

Togger
Reply to  Thomas Selig
2 years ago

Can they not take the two top qualifiers for the individual hundred, Greenbank in the 200 and put him on the relay anyway if he looks hot in Tokyo?

Kind of like the US with Regan in 2019 but not as fast.

Stirlo
Reply to  Togger
2 years ago

Yeah, I don’t see an issue there. Greenbank is pre-selected on the basis of his 200.

Stirlo
2 years ago

I don’t understand where these consideration standards come from, they seem very uneven. The men’s 200 fly time for instance would have qualified top 5 at the last worlds. The women’s 100 back time would barely have gotten you out of the first round.

whever
2 years ago

What happened to Nick Pyle? 56 in the heat?

Sheesh
Reply to  whever
2 years ago

2018 was his prime

Togger
Reply to  whever
2 years ago

If you were Nick Pyle would you bother tapering for a trials?

So far as the selectors are concerned the only reason he’s after Peaty on the team sheet is alphabetical.

Sapnu puas
2 years ago

Greenbank must be feeling thankful he’s been preselected because that sprained ankle still looked pretty badly swollen

Togger
2 years ago

Hopeful that Joe Litchfield can do something special in the 100 back. He’s probably the first British swimmer since Tancock with the underwaters to match the Americans.

Troll in the Dungeon
Reply to  Togger
2 years ago

Even if he just drops 0.3 tonight he’ll effectively have got onto Greenbank’s level, so it would be good to have two men who could potentially cut off a few more tenths over the months heading into Tokyo.

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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