2017 British Swimming Championships
- Tuesday, April 18th – Sunday, April 23rd, 2017
- Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield, UK
- Meet Site
- Competition Schedule
The month of April is just days away and carries with it the 2017 British Swimming Championships meet, GBR’s qualification competition for the 2017 World Championships in Budapest. Entries are still open, therefore, psych sheets are a couple of weeks away, but one person we know will be racing is up-and-comer Max Litchfield of Sheffield.
Litchfield has been on the international swimming scene for while, but has skyrocketed into the foreground after a monster 400m IM appearance at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. After claiming the British national title and earning his way onto the Olympic roster, Litchfield made the most of his opportunity, racing to a personal best time of 4:11.62 to claim 4th place in a stacked Olympic field.
Amazingly, at the Commonwealth Games back in 2014, Litchfield placed 12th overall in a time of 4:25.08, meaning the Sheffield Hallum athlete had dropped well over 12 seconds in just 2 years. The 21-year-old didn’t rest on his laurels after Rio, either, notching a silver medal at the 2016 World Short Course Championships in Windsor. He earned 2nd place in the 400m IM in a new British record-setting time of 4:00.66.
In the vignette produced by British Swimming below, Litchfield recounts how 2016 was ‘a fantastic year’ for the swimmer, whose aim is to register a sub-4:10 400 IM in 2017. He’ll have several domestic and international competitors to overtake en route to a possible new best time, however, including his younger brother Joe (18). Of the brotherly duel, elder Litchfield says that Joe “pushes me on” and “it’s great to have that to and fro.”
