2017 British Swimming C’ships Day 1 Finals Live Recap

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

*Note on Finals Session: The schedule of events will feature three finals – a senior final targeted at the World Championships, a Target Tokyo Final for potential swimmers at the World Junior Championships and Commonwealth Youth Games and a Junior Final for those looking to qualify for the European Junior Championships and European Youth Olympic Festival. For the purposes of this article’s context, we will be reporting on the ‘senior final’ of each event.

MEN’S 50 BACKSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 25.29
• British 1st place standard – N/A
• British consideration standard – N/A
• The Podium:
  • Chris Walker-Hebborn – 25.19
  • Joe Elwood – 25.70
  • Craig McNally – 25.80

It was Chris Walker-Hebborn‘s race from start to finish, as the veteran race scorched this 50m backstroke field by over half a second. 25.19 is what it took CWH to get the job done and score a solid warm-up race before his main 100m back event later in the meet. For CWH, tonight’s outing checks in within the Bath athlete’s top 10 personal performances, but falls outside the world’s top 10 on the year, which is led by Evgeny Rylov’s 24.52 from Russian Nationals.

Silver tonight went to Joe Elwood of Loughborough, followed by Criag McNally of City of Glasgow. The men were separated by just .10, with Elwood punching the wall in 25.70 followed by McNally’s mark of 25.80, his new personal best. University of Stirling’s Charlie Boldison was also sub-26, finishing 4th in 25.81.

WOMEN’S 50 BREASTSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 31.22
• British 1st place standard – N/A
• British consideration standard – N/A
• The Podium:
  • Imogen Clark – 30.21, *NR
  • Sarah Vasey – 30.30
  • Corrie Scott – 31.00

17-year-old Imogen Clark scorched a monster time of 30.21 to lead a Loughborough 1-2 finish in the women’s 50m breaststroke, one that established a new British National Record. Already notching a morning time of 30.71 to score a new British age record, Clark hacked a huge half of a second off of that mark to get the gold ahead of teammate Sarah Vasey. Vasey finished in 30.30, with Scottish national record holder Corrie Scott just behind in 31.00.

Both top 2 finishers cleared the previous British National Record mark of 30.56 held by Sophie Taylor since the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Although not an Olympic event, having your name in the record book with no doubt fuel Clark (and Vasey, for that matter) to nail a British qualifying mark in the 100m event later in the meet.

The women now sit as top 2 in the world, which is just the way you want to kick-off your World Championships Trials meet.

WOMEN’S 200 FREESTYLE – FINAL

• FINA A – 1:58.68
• British 1st place standard – 1:55.25
• British consideration standard – 1:57.21
• The Podium:
  • Eleanor Faulkner – 1:57.88
  • Kathryn Greenslade – 1:59.39
  • Jazz Carlin – 1:59.59

This morning’s leading swimmer, Eleanor (Ellie) Faulkner, was 2nd at the 100m in 57.14, but took over tonight’s final from that point forward, smashing a personal best of 1:57.88. Heading into this meet, Faulkner’s career fastest was the 1:58.05 that garnered her a 2nd place finish last year, so she’s dipped into 1:57 territory for the first time ever to claim the gold.

Runner-up tonight went to Edinburgh’s Kathryn Greenslade, touching in 1:59.39 with double Olympic silver medalist Jazz Carlin clinching bronze in 1:59.59. All women swam times slower than the British consideration standard, however, so we’ll need to see how that plays out in terms of if a 4x200m freestyle relay will even indeed be fielded.

On the whole, this event has been an Achilles heel of sorts for the British women, who failed to see a finalist at the World Championships or Rio Olympic Games. In Kazan, Siobhan-Marie O’Connor was the fastest finisher in 1:57.30 for 10th overall, while Georgia Coates finished 27th in 1:59.33 to represent GBR’s highest finisher in Rio.

Although 24-year-old Faulkner’s improvement from just last year is encouraging, with the nation’s top performer at a Worlds Trials meet falling well out of the world’s top 10, more work needs to be done in this event.

MEN’S 400 FREESTYLE – FINAL

• FINA A – 3:48.15
• British 1st place standard – 3:43.84
• British consideration standard – 3:47.16
• The Podium:
  • James Guy – 3:44.74
  • Stephen Milne – 3:46.16
  • Max Litchfield – 3:46.20

The race was James Guy‘s alone, as the 200m freestyle World Champion led this 400m distance from wire-to-wire by about a body length. Hitting a 200m split of 1:49.87, at one point Guy looked to be rivaling his own national record of 3:43.75, but the 21-year-old fell off slightly to ultimately score a solid mark of 3:44.74. That effort is off his 3:43.84 winning time of last year at this same meet, but that was an Olympic year and Guy has only been back in the water consistently since January 2017. Indeed Guy’s race result tonight is just .08 off of his 3:44.68 from Rio, which earned him 6th place overall, so he’s got to be happy with that considering. He is now positioned at #5 in the world rankings this season.

Stephen Milne scored silver for the 2nd year in a row, surpassing last year’s effort with a solid 3:46.16 this time around. Milne’s personal best is the 3:46.00 he raced in Rio for 13th overall, therefore, he was only .16 over that.

Bronze tonight went to Sheffield’s Max Litchfield in 3:46.20. For Litchfield, tonight’s outing marked a monster personal best, as the man hadn’t been under 3:48 up until this point. His previous best sat at 3:48.59 from back in 2015.

As far as consideration goes for World Championships, even Guy was outside the automatic qualifying time of 3:43.84, but the Bath athlete is well within the 3:47.16 consideration mark, as is Milne. Both should be safe to make the squad in the event via coaches discretion.

WOMEN’S 400 IM – FINAL

• FINA A – 4:43.06
• British 1st place standard – 4:34.08
• British consideration standard – 4:37.67
• The Podium:
  • Hannah Miley – 4:34.12
  • Aimee Willmott – 4:36.82
  • Abbie Wood – 4:37.25

The ever-present racer that is Hannah Miley earned her 3rd consecutive 400m IM title, this time in a solid 4:34.12, just .04 off of the automatic qualifying time. Miley was led by World Junior Champion Rosie Rudin through the fly and backstroke legs, but Miley fired off an electrifying 1:17.41 breaststroke split to overtake the lead and maintain at least 1 1/2 body lengths over silver place finisher Aimee Willmott.

With Miley’s quick effort and the fact she was the 4th place finisher in Rio, the Aberdeen Performance athlete should be named to the World Championships roster in this event no problem. Miley now sits as the 2nd fastest swimmer in the world rankings in this event, only behind Japan’s Yui Ohhashi who crushed a 4:31.42 at Japan Nationals last weekend.

Willmott and Abbie Wood finished in the same positions as the 2016 edition of this meet, although Wood’s time tonight is a huge personal best. Entering this competition, Wood’s quickest was the 4:40.38 she nailed in Indianapolis at last month’s Arena Pro Swim, so tonight represents the firs time the 18-year-old European Games 400m IM gold medalist earned a mark under the 4:40 barrier.

Rudin wound up 4th in 4:38.74, the first time she’s been under 4:39 and quicker than her 4:39.01 gold medal performance in Singapore.

MEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 1:00.35
• British 1st place standard – 59.01
• British consideration standard – 1:00.15

There was little doubt about the outcome of this race, and Adam Peaty affirmed the expectations with a 57.79 in the men’s 100 breaststroke final. He was the only swimmer to break 1 minute in the race, with runner-up Ross Murdoch touching second in exactly 1:00.00.

That swim by Peaty is the 4th-fastest in the history of the event, behind only his three swims from the 2016 Rio Olympic Gmaes (57.13, 57.55, 57.62). He now holds the 8 fastest times in history, and 10 of the best 12 ever.

Murdoch’s runer-up time was good enough to warrant consideration after the meet has shaken out.

James Wilby took 3rd in 1:00.05, which matched to the hundredth his time from last year’s British Championships as a personal best. Craig Benson was 4th in 1:00.20, and Charlie Attwood took 5th in 1:00.50.

The top 4 finished in the same order as 2016, with the top 5 all repeating their 1:00-or-better times. Andrew Willis, the oldest swimmer in thefinal (born 1990), was the lone man to crack – he took 6th on Tuesday in 1:01.49, which is about a second slower than he was a year ago in Glasgow.