Guy & Wood Put On A Show During Glasgow Morning Finals

2021 BRITISH SWIMMING GLASGOW MEET

• Thursday, June 3rd – Sunday, June 6th
• Prelims at 5:30 pm local night before/Finals at 10:00 am local
• Tollcross International Swimming Centre
• LCM (50m)
• Last Chance Olympic Qualifier
• SwimSwam Preview
• Start Lists – DRAFT
• Day 1 Prelims
• Live Results
• Livestream

With the prelims taking place in the evening and finals happening in the morning, we just saw our first medal-contending races conclude here at Tollcross at the British Swimming Glasgow Meet.

Among the top performances was James Guy‘s impressive result in the men’s 100m fly. After posting a night prelim time of 52.04, Guy ripped a final effort of 51.16. Splitting 23.54/27.62, Guy’s performance here not only beat the field by over one and a half seconds but it also laid waste to the time it took for him to qualify for the Olympic Games, which was marked by the 51.44 posted at the British Olympic Selection Trials in April.

Of his 51.16 clocking this morning, Guy said, “Considering we’ve just driven 450 miles to get to Glasgow, what a great swim! That was very unexpected, since Europeans we’ve been straight back into work with the eye on the bigger prize of Tokyo – but what a great swim to start the meet off.

“We came back from Budapest, we had one aerobic session and since then we’ve been in the middle of work. This meet here is a prep meet, trying new things before Tokyo, and obviously morning finals is a big part of that. So to do that time in the morning is a good time. 

“I’m in a great place, I feel really confident with what I’m doing. I feel happy at home, and I think having that balance between swimming and lifestyle at home is really important. Everything is coming together quite nicely.”

Tokyo Olympian Abbie Wood was another stellar swimmer this morning, making the most of her 200m IM event appearance. She topped the podium in a super quick mark of 2:09.24, which sits a mere .01 off of her lifetime best of 2:09.23 produced at the British Trials. That performance rendered her qualified for this summer’s Games.

Wood said post-race, “I think it was tough for everyone to get up, my only goal was just to go faster than last night – I did that and so it’s putting good practice in for Tokyo. You can’t have excuses because everyone’s in the same boat, it’s about who has prepared the best – and British Swimming putting on morning finals is preparing the team really well,” said the former Derventio Excel swimmer.

“By the time I got to the 200m IM final in Budapest, it was my ninth race. I love stepping up for the team, but I’ve not had chance to do the 200m IM at the start of a meet yet, which is probably why that was a bit quicker. It’s nice to see where I am when I’m not done in by lots of races like I had done at Europeans. It’s set the meet off in a nice way.”

Duncan Scott blew away the field in the men’s 200m IM at Trials, posting a new British record of 1:55.90. Here this morning, the University of Stirling ace still put up a solid effort, stopping the clock in 1:57.28.

“Time wise it was good but I guess you can’t really look into a time. I’m not here to focus on the time, I’m learning things for morning finals. I’ve done quite a lot of preparation for that,” said Scott.

“From a British Swimming point we’re all looking at different things here.  People are trying out different things and I think it’s quite a good idea to have this meet on. It’s a good exercise to trial and really improve on what we can do in the morning before we have finals.”

European champion in the women’s 100m backstroke, Kathleen Dawson, delivered a high-quality result in the 200m back this morning. The Stirling star finished the longer event in a time of 2:08.85. That sits within a second of the 2:08.14 she logged en route to taking the Trials title and checks-in as the 2nd best performance of her young career.

Additional Swims

• Daniel Jervis struck gold in the men’s 1500m free, producing a time of 15:16.69.
• Harriet Jones topped Keanna Macinnes in the women’s 100m fly with the former getting to the wall in 59.27 to the latter’s 59.57.
• World Championships and European Championships medalist Luke Greenbank coasted to 200m back victory in a time of 1:58.12.
• Although Anna Hopkin was near a personal best last night in the 50m free prelims with 24.67, the former Arkansas Razorback added slightly to check-in at 24.83 for the gold.
• Ben Proud won the men’s 50m free in 21.93 but you can read about the event more here, including Matt Richards’ Welsh record.
• The women’s 50m breast saw Sarah Vasey take control in 31.00 while the men’s edition was dominated by Adam Peaty‘s podium-topping 26.86.