2019 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, April 16th – Sunday, April 21st
- Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow, Scotland
- Prelims at 10am local (5am Eastern)/Finals at 6:30pm local (1:30pm Eastern)
- Live Results
Swimming on Saturday at the 2019 British Swimming Championships, 22-year old Duncan Scott, who has been breaking personal bests all meet long, put up the most eye-catching swim of his meet so far in the final of the 200 IM.
He swam a 1:56.65 in the open final, which missed the British Record of 1:56.64 set in 2017 by Max Litchfield by just .01 seconds. It also surpasses Shun Wang’s 1:56.66 from March as the world leader by the same margin.
Litchfield was just 5th in Saturday’s final in 1:59.73.
2018-2019 LCM MEN 200 IM
LARKIN
1.55.72
2 | Daiya SETO | JPN | 1.56.14 | 07/25 |
3 | Jeremy DESPLANCHES | SUI | 1.56.56 | 07/25 |
4 | Duncan Scott | GBR | 1.56.65 | 04/20 |
5 | Shun WANG | CHN | 1.56.66 | 03/28 |
The swim cracked Dan Wallace‘s Scottish Record of 1:57.59 that was set in 2015 and is Scott’s 3rd Scottish Record of the meet (after the 100 free in 47.84 and the 100 fly in 52.25).
While Scott is best-known as a freestyler, his butterfly and IM races as of late have really developed into world-class specialties as well. Specifically this IM swim was over a second faster than his previous best of 1:57.86.
The notable development is in Scott’s breaststroke split. On Saturday, he split a 32.89 on that leg of his IM. In his previous best time, done at last year’s Commonwealth Games, that split was just 34.66, and only American Chase Kalisz, the defending World Champion, split faster in Budapest at Worlds in 2017 (32.63).
A big comparative splits table:
Fly | Back | Breast | Free | Total Time | ||
Duncan Scott | Old Personal Best | 25.55 | 30.32 | 34.66 | 27.33 | 1:57.86 |
Duncan Scott | New Scottish Record | 24.95 | 30.61 | 32.85 | 28.24 | 1:56.65 |
Dan Wallace | Old Scottish Record | 25.32 | 30.4 | 33.21 | 28.66 | 1:57.59 |
Max Litchfield | Current British Record | 25.4 | 29.14 | 34.23 | 27.87 | 1:56.64 |
Chase Kalisz | 2017 World Title | 25.27 | 29.19 | 32.63 | 28.47 | 1:55.56 |
With arguably his best event, the 200 free, yet to come, Scott has built huge anticipation for Sunday’s swims. He’s the defending European Champion nin the event and has a lifetime best of 1:45.16 from 2017. James Guy (who will also be swimming that race) holds the British Record in 1:45.14. Only 11 swimmers have ever been under 1:45 in the race.
Prediction time: MA and Scott both final in this event in Tokyo
32.8 is a world class split
half a second slower would still be world class
1:56 is so fast, we’ve really taken it for granted since Phelps and Lochte have been going that since 2003.
I always try to remember the WR was 1:58 before Phelps. That puts it in serious perspective.
And everyone (Larkin, Scott, others) are seeing it as a wide open event in the post-Phelps/prime Lochte era.