Max Litchfield Breaks British Record in 400 IM in Front of Home Crowd

2017 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

22-year old Max Litchfield has broken the British Record in the men’s 400 IM, making the 3rd British Record to go down in as many days this week in Sheffield.

Litchfield swam a 4:10.63 to win the 400 IM by almost 5 seconds ahead of Mark Szaranek. In the process, he broke Dan Wallace‘s 2014 record-setting 4:11.04 at the Commonwealth Games. He’s racing this week in his home pool this week, and almost fulfilled his stated desire to go sub-4:10 in the race.

Needing a personal best to make the team (his 4:11.62 from Rio was the automatic qualifying standard), Litchfield knocked a full second off his own personal record in the national-record setting swim.

Comparative Splits
Swim Fly Back Breast Free Total
Litchfield – Rio 57.37 1:04.49 1:11.48 58.28 4:11.62
Litchfield – Sheffield 56.45 1:03.99 1:11.91 58.28 4:10.63
Wallace – Glasgow 56.45 1:05.20 1:09.43 59.96 4:11.04

Litchfield’s biggest improvement has been a much more aggressive front-half to his swim, and it didn’t really cost him much at the end. In fact, his split on the freestyle leg of 58.28 was identical to the one he had in his own personal best time, which placed him 4th at the Olympics last summer.

As for Wallace, who doesn’t have the race on his schedule this week, he says that he is just taking a temporary break from the event, but plans to train again for it shortly.

That swim by Litchfield moves him into 18th-place in the all-time rankings by performer, just ahead of Italy’s Alessio Boggiatto and behind Ous Mellouli.

Max’s younger brother Joe Litchfield placed 3rd in the race in 4:19.18.

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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