2016 BRITISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS/OLYMPIC TRIALS
- Tuesday, April 12th – Sunday, April 17th
- Tollcross International Swimming Center, Glasgow, Scotland
- Prelims at 10am local/6am EDT; Finals at 6:30pm local/1:30pm EDT
- British Swimming 2016 Olympic Games Selection Policy
- Live Streaming
- DRAFT Psych Sheet
- Start Lists/Results
University of Stirling cheered on its young star, 18-year-old Duncan Scott, as he roared to the wall en route to winning the men’s 100m freestyle national title in Glasgow.
Scott had already earned a new Scottish National Record in the morning, clocking a time of 48.81, but bettered that by over a tenth with his gold medal-winning mark of 48.66. That outing also proved enough to hold off Britain’s fastest swimmer in the event this season, Plymouth Leander’s Ben Proud.
Scott appears positively giddy in his interview, with wolds like “amazing” and “unbelievable” exiting his mouth when describing his experience in front of a Scottish home crowd tonight.
MEN’S 100 FREESTYLE – FINAL
- British National Record – Simon Burnett – 48.20
- British OLY Standard – 48.16
- 2% Consideration – 48.60
- The Podium –
- Duncan Scott, 48.66
- Ben Proud, 48.72
- Adam Barnett, 49.07
A thrilling race ensued in the men’s 100m freestyle, which rendered a mild upset in the form of Scottish swimmer Duncan Scott stealing the gold out from under Plymouth Leander’s Ben Proud in the last 10 meters.
After a swift .58 reaction time of the blocks, Proud took the sprint out in a solid 23.23 and turned first with Scott right on his side. The two were fairly even until 18-year-old Scott made his moved and touched out Proud right at the end.
Proud’s best time heading into the meet was the 48.52 from Edinburgh from from a couple of months ago, so he was slightly off his game tonight with a mark of 48.72. Scott took advantage, winning the race with a mighty 48.66, improving upon his own Scottish National Record he earned this morning with his prelim swim of 48.81. For Scott, today represents the only 2 outings in which he’s ever ventured into sub-49-second territory.
Of note, both swimmers fall outside of the 2% consideration standard of 48.60, so they’d need to rely on a ‘save’ from the British Swimming High Performance Director in order to notch a spot on the British roster for Rio.
If you’re wondering where Scott’s teammate, Robbie Renwick from the University of Stirling went, the 3rd qualifier into this event from prelims scratched the event earlier today.
The 400 free relay time, compiled of the top four finishers for finals, to be considered is a 3:14.55 at a minimum. Britain technically has a spot locked down in that event for the Olympics via their 10th-place finish at Worlds in 3:15.70, but weren’t faster than 3:14.55 even with relay starts, so British Swimming could very-well choose to leave this relay home.
The prelims aggregate was 3:16.30 and finals aggregate is 3:15.96.
I understand needing to meet the FINA “A” standard, otherwise there would be too many entrants (? – guessing), but these ridiculous British standards – do they simply have the effect of crushing Olympic dreams? If you place in the top 2 in your nation and are under the FINA “A” cut, why shouldn’t you be allowed to represent your country?
He is very likely to go to Rio.
For every country with standards that prevent swimmers in the World top 16 from qualifying for their teams, I hope they have provisions to reduce the administrative and coaching slots proportionately; they won’t have as many athletes to look after..
But then he realized his nations Olympic standard was below their national record. Truly a shame