Dawson and Wild Hit 100 BK British Qualifying Time During Day 2 Prelims

2021 BRITISH SWIMMING SELECTION TRIALS

• Wednesday, April 14th – Sunday, April 18th
• Prelims at 10am local/Finals at 7pm local
• London Aquatics Centre
• British Olympic Selection Policy
• Primary Olympic Selection Meet (not only opportunity)
• Event Page
• Entries
• Live Stream
• Live Results
• Day 1 Recap

The 2021 British Swimming Selection Trials continue in London with the second morning preliminaries session in the books and Thursday’s finals session just hours away. During yesterday’s opening finals session, five Brits swam under the nation’s stiff qualifying standards and moved one step closer to punching their ticket to Tokyo. A reminder that Great Britain hand-picks their Olympic athletes in contrast to most nations that just require FINA’s Olympic A cut standards.

Day Two Prelims Highlights

Both swimming under the British Olympic standard (1:00.23) in the women’s 100 back were Stirling teammates Kathleen Dawson (59.16) and Cassie Wild (59.88). If selected, this will be Dawson and Wild’s first Olympic Games. At last month’s Manchester meet, Dawson became the No. 2 Brit all-time in this event at 58.65. Wild owns a lifetime best of 59.65 from last month’s domestic Manchester meet, which ranks 5th all-time in British history. Hitting fourth this morning was World medalist Swansea’s Georgia Davies at 1:01.34, who has been under a minute numerous times in the event.

Kicking off the morning was Bath NC’s James Guy in the men’s 200 fly, putting up an effort of 1:57.82. Also swimming under two minutes was Sheffield’s Jay Lelliott at 1:58.37. Guy and Elliott would need to swim faster than 1:55.45 in order to be considered for the 2021 Olympics. At the 2020 Edinburgh meet, before the pandemic hit, Guy hit 1:56.62 in the 200 fly. He owns a lifetime best of 1:55.91 all the way from the 2017 British Championships.

After hitting the British standard in the men’s 200 IM behind British record-breaker Duncan Scott, Loughborough’s Joe Litchfield will have the potential to qualify for another event in the 100 back today. Litchfield swam 54.06 to grab lane four in tonight’s championship final, just off the 53.85 minimum time for Tokyo. Loughborough teammate and pre-selected Olympian Luke Greenbank placed second at 54.36, just ahead of Bath NC’s Brodie Williams (54.42) and Loughborough training-mate Elliot Clogg (54.48).

Putting up a swift 2:23.91 AM effort in the women’s 200 breast was 2016 Olympian Molly Renshaw, who tied the national record of 2:22.08 at February’s Manchester International meet. Placing second was Abbie Wood (2:24.03) while Jocelyn Ulyett (2:26.11) rounded out the top three. All three swimmers train at Loughborough. Ulyett also co-holds the national record of 2:22.08 from her performance at the 2017 British Championships. The Olympic qualifying standard is set at 2:23.37, which only four Brits have ever swum faster than in history including the Loughborough trio and Chloe Tutton (2:22.34).

Tonight’s finals will begin at 7pm local time/11am Pacific/1pm Central/2pm Eastern, kicking off with the fastest heats of the women’s and men’s 800 free timed finals.