17-year-old British budding star Freya Anderson took on a monster schedule while competing at the Team Bath Grand Prix Level 1 Meet over the weekend and collected several season-best efforts while doing so. The Ellesmere College Titan raced 7 events over 2 days, including the 50m free, 100m free, 200m free, 400m, free, 50m fly, 100m fly and 200m IM at the LCM meet.
*Full results found on Meet Mobile: TBAS Grand Prix 2019
First up in the 50m free, Anderson, the European Junior Champion in the event, clocked a swift mark of 25.79 to take the gold in the only time under 26 seconds of the entire field. That time is within half a second of the 25.35 she produced for the gold in Helsinki last July and places her in the 4th position among the top 18&U female 50m freestyle performers in the world thus far in 2019. Only Canada’s Kayla Sanchez (25.31), USA’s Grace Cooper (25.65) and USA’s Gretchen Walsh (25.71) remain ranked ahead of Anderson early on in this calendar year.
Anderson’s next victim was the 400m freestyle, where the Titan notched a winning mark of 4:18.39. Her personal best rests at the 4:14.79 she fired off back in 2016. Anderson also took on the 200m IM, an ‘off’ event for the teenager, where she logged a new personal best of 2:17.55 and also snagged gold in the 50m fly in 27.55. All 3 performances rank Anderson within the top 10 outings for female 18&U worldwide this year.
Day 2 of Anderson’s races broughther bread-and-butter 100m free event, where the teen clocked a swift 54.84 for the gold across all age groups. The sub-55 time was well off her 53.61 personal beset from the Senior European Championships last year, but enough to register as a very solid performance after a previous full day of racing.
Anderson has already been as fast as 54.16 at the Flanders Cup this past January, a mark which positions the Brit in the 9th slot in the senior world rankings. That time also leads all 18&U for 2019.
2018-2019 LCM WOMEN 100 FREE
MANUEL
52.04
| 2 | Cate CAMPBELL | AUS | 52.12 | 06/13 |
| 3 | Sarah SJOSTROM | SWE | 52.23 | 07/21 |
| 4 | Emma McKEON | AUS | 52.41 | 06/13 |
| 5 | Rikako IKEE | JPN | 52.79 | 11/17 |
Anderson also wrapped up her day 2 with a mark of 1:01.36 in the 100m fly and 1:59.24 in the 200m free, with the latter mark falling just .07 off of her own personal best of 1:59.24 produced at Flanders. That earlier outing keeps Anderson as the top 18&U female performer in the 200m free so far in 2019.