13-Year-Old British Distance Freestyle Ace Blocksidge Entered In Swedish Grand Prix

2023 SWEDISH GRAND PRIX

• Friday, March 10th – Sunday, March 12th
• Kungsbacka, Sweden
• LCM (50m)
• Entries/Results

The 2023 Swedish Grand Prix is set to kick off on Friday From Kungsbacka. Not only are several high-profile domestic swimmers ready to race, but they’ll be joined by visiting athletes from England, the Netherlands and beyond over the course of the 3-day competition.

Hailing from England, 13-year-old Amelie Blocksidge looks to build upon her head-turning performance in the 1500m freestyle put up last month.

Competing at the Lancashire County Age Group Championships, Blocksidge ripped a huge lifetime best of 16:35.65, her career-best by over 30 seconds. Her time established a new British Age Record for 13-year-olds but also would beat out the record for British 14- and 15-year-olds as well.

Blocksidge enters this Swedish Grand Prix as the top-seeded 1500m swimmer while the teen will also take on the 400m and 800m freestyle races.

Domestic athlete Sophie Hansson is entered in this meet as well, taking on the 3 distances of her bread-and-butter breaststroke discipline.

The 24-year-old European champion has already raced this year, putting up a 50m breaststroke time of 30.69 and 100m breaststroke mark of 1:06.95 at the Luxembourg Euro Meet in January. Those performances rank her as the 6th and 10th fastest performer in the world this season.

The men’s breaststroke events will see 22-year-old Erik Persson put his talent on display. The Swede is set to contest the 100m and 200m breast as well as the men’s 200m IM.

Persson is coming off a successful 2022 which saw him take silver in the 200m breast at the World Championships in Budapest.

Additional competitors on which to keep an eye in Sweden this weekend include England’s Leah Schlosshan, Norway’s Markus Lie, England’s Robbie Hemmings, Sweden’s Michelle Coleman, and Netherlands’ Thomas Verhoeven.