Tom Dean Rips 1:46.03 200 Free To Become 4th Fastest Brit Ever

2020 EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET

A host of SwimSwam’s 5 races to watch took place on day 1 here of this Edinburgh International Swim Meet, with the men’s 200m freestyle among them.

As we expected, the men’s final saw a furious battle among Duncan Scott, James Guy, Tom Dean and more, with the latter pulling out the win in a statement-making lifetime best of 1:46.03.

The big players played it cool this morning, letting Cesar Valle take the top seed in 1:49.04. Guy clocked 1:49.35, Scott 1:49.56 and Dean also 1:49.56 to represent the sub-1:50 swimmers of the heats.

During tonight’s final, however, Scott took the first 100 out quick in a 51.84 opener, before Dean surged to the lead and hit the wall first in that 1:46.03. That gave him over a half-second advantage over the 2015 World Champion in this event, James Guy, who touched in 1:46.79 for runner-up. Scott rounded out the top 3 in 1:47.39.

As for Dean, the man’s previous personal best rested at the 1:46.86 he produced at the 2019 British Swimming Championships, a time which rendered the 19-year-old Bath swimmer as Great Britain’s 9th fastest performer all-time.

By dropping .83 with his in-season swim here, Dean now rockets himself to become the 4th fastest performer ever for Great Britain.

1 Duncan Scott UniOfStirl 97 The 18th FINA World Championships Gwangju, South Korea 1 26/07/19 1:44.91
2 James Guy Millfield 95 World Championships 2015 Kazan 1 04/08/15 1:45.14
3 Robert Renwick UniOfStirl 88 13th Fina World Champs2009 Rome 1 31/07/09 1:45.99
4 Tom Dean Bath Edinburgh Int’l Swim Meet Edinburgh 1 13/03/20 1:46.03

Guy’s time was super solid as well, representing the 24-year-old’s best-ever in-season time.

Dean, Guy and Scott were combined with Calum Jarvis on the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay at teh 2019 World Championships, where they finished an uncharacteristic 4th. Splits on that 7:02.04 relay from Gwangju included 1:44.91 (British NR) for Scott, 1:45.58 for Jarvis, 1:46.10 for Dean and 1:45.45 for Guy.

With Dean bumping up his individual performance here, that bodes well for the nation to boost its medal-contention capabilities come Tokyo.

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Definitely Not Sun Yang
4 years ago

DO NOT WORSHIP THE FALSE DEAN

Stirlo
4 years ago

Scottish record 22.29 from Callum Bain in the 50 free this morning. PB of 22.45 for Duncan Scott

Stirlo
4 years ago

Scottish record from Callum Bain in the 50 free this morning. 22.29. Scott second in pb of 22.45.

Dee
Reply to  Stirlo
4 years ago

Calum is from Northern Ireland.

Jeff
Reply to  Dee
4 years ago

That means that Scott has tied the 50 free Scottish record then and could bring it down tonight.

USAUSAUSA
4 years ago

But muh American gold medal!!

John
4 years ago

Fastest time for James guy this time in the season since 2016, He’s coming back.

Jeff
Reply to  John
4 years ago

Changed coaches. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him back at 1:45 form.

Dee
4 years ago

Dean looked sublime tonight, a full second PB in his first race of 2020 would indicate plenty left to come too – Exciting swimmer. Also, how nice to see Cesar Castro Valle swimming well again – Big talent, hopefully he can fulfil his potential now. He set a Spanish record (1.47.45) in fourth.

gator
4 years ago

Can’t wait to see these guys in the 4×200 Free Relay!!

Jeff
Reply to  gator
4 years ago

People seem to be looking at Australia and United States as the main threats but I think Great Britain will challenge for the gold as well.

Andy Guy
Reply to  gator
4 years ago

They only going to get faster watch out GB coming !!

About Retta Race

Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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