2017 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, April 18th – Sunday, April 23rd
- Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield
- LCM
- Qualifying Times Analysis (for this meet)
- Qualifying Times Analysis (for 2017 World Championships GBR squad)
- Meet Site
- Psych Sheets
- Live Stream
- Live Results
- Day 3 finals recap
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.
