British Swimming has announced its 16-strong roster for the 2019 LEN European Short Course Championships scheduled for Glasgow this December. Among the lineup are World Championships medalists in the form of Duncan Scott, Luke Greenbank, James Guy, Freya Anderson, Georgia Davies and James Wilby.
Olympian Scott wrangled up individual bronze in the men’s 200m free this summer in Gwangju, Korea, tying Russian Martin Malyutin and finishing behind winner Sun Yang of China and runner-up Katsumi Matsumoto of Japan. Scott’s most electric performance, however, came as the anchor on the British men’s 4x100m medley relay, where he overtook American Nathan Adrian en route to clocking the 2nd fastest 100m free split of all-time (46.14) to help power GBR to gold over the USA.
For Greenbank’s part, the 21-year-old Loughborough athlete ripped a new lifetime best mark of 1:55.85 to snag bronze in the men’s 200m back, shutting out the likes of American Jacob Pebley and Japan’s Ryosuke Irie.
Of his selection to the Euro Short Course Champsiohisp team, Greenbank states, “2019 has been a brilliant year for me and I’m delighted that I’ll have the chance to hopefully finish it off in style up in Glasgow. Glasgow has been pretty kind to me over the last few years and the crowd there is always awesome, so I’m sure this will be another phenomenal championships on home soil.”
Freya Anderson and Georgia Davies are part of the female contingent headed to Glasgow, with the duo having raced on the mixed 4x100m medley relay that won World Championships bronze.
Although she missed out on this summer’s World Championships, Molly Renshaw is looking forward to racing in Glasgow for Short Course Euros. She says, “I’m really pleased to have been included in a super strong team for the European Short Course in December. The GB team is flying at the moment, as we saw at the World Championships and the atmosphere in squad is amazing, so it’ll be amazing to put that GB cap on again.
“For me, winning the World Short Course Championships three years ago was definitely a highlight, but I’ve made some really good progress in 2019 and hopefully I can make the most of the opportunity to compete in Glasgow.”
Anna Hopkin is also among the ones to watch on the Short Course Europeans roster for Great Britain, with the Arkansas Razorback busting out lifetime bests in the 50m and 100m freestyle events in Gwangju. Hopkin scorched a 100m free time of 53.21 in the heats of the 100m free while nailing a career-quickest mark of 23.34 in the 50m free semi-finals.
16-year-old Kayla Van Der Merwe is set to make her senior debut at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre, coming off some impressive performances at this summer’s elite junior meets. At the 2019 European Junior Championships, Van Der Merwe clinched 100m breaststroke gold in a new Age Record time of 1:07.12. She also collected 200m breast bronze in 2:26.06.
Weeks later at the World Junior Championships, Van Der Merwe secured 50m breast silver in 30.91, as well as 100m breaststroke in a new lifetime best of 1:07.06.
Full Great Britain Team:
- Freya Anderson, England, Ellesmere College
- Georgia Davies, Wales, Loughborough University
- Tom Dean, England, Bath National Centre
- Luke Greenbank, England, Loughborough National Centre
- James Guy, England, Bath National Centre
- Anna Hopkin, England, Bath University
- Max Litchfield, England, Loughborough National Centre
- Scott McClay, Scotland, University of Stirling
- Ross Murdoch, Scotland, University of Stirling
- Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, England, Loughborough National Centre
- Nick Pyle, England, Newcastle Swim Team
- Molly Renshaw, England, Loughborough National Centre
- Duncan Scott, Scotland, University of Stirling
- Laura Stephens, England, Plymouth Leander
- Kayla Van Der Merwe, England, Winchester City Penguins
- James Wilby, England, Loughborough National Centre
Interesting to see 7 ISL athletes competing. Will be interesting to see how well they do considering that some may be competing in the ISL finals a couple of weeks later. Great to see Van Der Merwe make her first senior roster and overall this team looks pretty decent.
Very good point. It will be curious which meet, if either, they choose as their rest meet (though I doubt many are doing full blown tapers that close to Tokyo).
I think it won’t be an issue for some of them as 4 teams won’t make it to the finals.
I’d be extremely surprised if British Swimming allowed anybody on funding to rest up at all this winter. Typically they havent been warm to resting for SCM racing and use it more as a skills test.
Does anyone know why Nick Pyle is continuously picked for the british team when he has made no major impact or improvement on a senior level when compared to people like Sarah Vasey and Imogen Clarke who were not picked for the world championships like him, but are commonwealth/ european medalists when his event is also non olympic?
Because he’s only 18, men peak later, and Britain are desperate to have a world class male 100 backstroke swimmer so that the medley relay can relay make the most of Peaty.
This year Luke Greenbank, Joe Litchfield, Brodie Williams and Craig Mcnally have all been faster at 100 back. 3 of these are 21 and Under and one only a year older than Pyle. It cant really be justified him being picked over all these people who have gone faster in that event and all those others who have achieved more in other events in my opinion.