2022 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, April 5th – Sunday, April 10th
- Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships & Commonwealth Games-qualifying competition
- British Swimming 2022 Budapest Selection Policy
- Commonwealth Games Selection Policies vary by home nation
- SwimSwam Preview
- Draft Entries
- Live Results
- Livestream
The final race on the final night of competition at the 2022 British Swimming Championships nearly lit the pool on fire, as six of the top ten 200m freestyle performers ever from GBR dove in for the men’s race.
All members of the British men’s gold medal-winning 800m free relay from Tokyo were in the race, including the reigning individual Olympic champion Tom Dean and silver medalist Duncan Scott.
The pair switched their Tokyo spots tonight here in Sheffield, with Scott getting to the wall first in 1:45.54 while Dean was less than .20 behind with an impressive 1:45.73.
The 2015 world champion in this event James Guy also grabbed bronze in a 1:46.44.
Dean had already been pre-selected for Budapest in this race and had a tremendous meet here, having added the 100m free and 200m IM events to his portfolio for those World Championships.
He owns the national record in 1:44.22 in this 2free, while Scott, Guy and Richards follow him on the all-time British greats with respective PBS of 1:44.26, 1:45.14 and 1:45.77.
Scott’s massive outing here originally ranked him as #1 in the world, with Dean as #2, before Germany’s Lukas Martens stole the crown in 1:45.44 later yesterday,
On the British prowess in the men’s 200m freestyle, Scott said post-race, “We set ourselves quite high standards in the 200m Freestyle and that is quite important, that’s why we’ve got to where we have and had such success in that 4x200m in Britain.
“It’s probably one of the staples I was talking about within the British team – the 4x200m Freestyle Relay comes along and the expectation, being part of the British team, is it’s going to medal. Now the target is on our back and we’ve got to try to set the world standard. Look at the final, we’ve done well there as a group tonight. A lot of the boys, we’ve been chatting through the week about how we know we can move things on again in the summer, which is pretty pleasing.
Not mincing words, the 24-year-old most decorated Scottish Olympian of all time stated, “To be honest, I was quite disappointed with how the heats were as a 200m Freestyle in Britain as a whole, I thought we were quite lazy this morning. I don’t know if it was a couple of us feeling sorry for ourselves on last day of the meet, but I just thought the standard we need to try to hold, it wasn’t good enough.
“But some people moved it on quite a bit there tonight. It was good to see. I just hope we are able to keep moving things on the rest of this year and the next few years then into Paris.”
After having reaped gold in the 200m IM and 400m IM earlier in the meet, the latter of which he set a new personal best, Scott said, “The 200m Freestyle on the last day of a trials is always a battle because day six in Ponds Forge is quite a difficult one.
“For that, it makes it that bit better because it is such a battle. I’m really delighted with my week’s racing, it’s been pretty challenging, the first time I’ve had the 400m IM in the schedule too which adds to that intense fatigue, so I’m happy with it,” he added.
Reigning Olympic champion Dean echoed the sentiments, saying “The 200m Freestyle at the end of this week is always so special – we saw it at the last Trials and we saw it here as well.
It’s like the blue ribbon event for British Swimming at the moment, it’s so strong. We showed that with the 4x200m Free at the Games, we’ve got so much depth – and a one-two with Duncan, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of doing that!
“There was no pressure on that race at all. I knew I’d booked my ticket and confirmed my place in the top two tonight, but there was no pressure. What I really wanted to do was get that 100m Free and my 200m IM sorted, I got PBs in both of them and qualification in both of them, which is brilliant.
“I haven’t trained my 200m IM in three years, so to come and pop a 1:57.1, I wasn’t expecting that at all. It’s probably the best week I could’ve hoped for, I’m really happy with how the team has done and how I’m back to my best, it’s nice to be back in that position again.”
Don’t get to complacent watch out for USA the Longhorn buddies, the Gator, and the Bulldog can throw down nasty 200 splits at words
Literally his entire point was the need to keep working and not be complacent.
USA’s fastest rolling leg just retired and their best individual 200 FR swimmer didn’t look so hot at NCAAs. You still have to worry about AUS even without Kyle, as Winnington has looked good in-season to replace his split.
Slightly off topic but did anyone catch Duncan on FaceTime with Kyle and Zac with their Instagram Q&A? That was a fun one.
Yh it was do you think Scott would beat Chalmers in the 1free
I’d love to see that race that happen but also if chalmers ever races the 4 IM I’d be dammed if I didn’t see that in person. Imagine it chalmers brakes the 100 free world record then decides. Mmm yeah I’ll take down Phelps IM record too. He attempts to do what Michael just barely missed doing in 08’. Or Duncan Scott does it first.
Duncan Scott, let alone Kyle Chalmers, are getting nowhere near 4:03.84 lol
Chalmers or Scott won’t get anywhere close to phelps’ record. What do you mean by what Michael just barely missed doing in 08’? You talking about getting 8 golds or what? Scott not Chalmers or anybody swimming today is versatile and dominant enough to accomplish that same feat or anything greater
This was sarcasm but I was saying Michael breaking both the 100 free and 4 IM records
Would Scotland allow Scott to swim 100free? Since he didn’t swim it at trials this year? I feel like the last time he did a flat start was trials last year??? 😵
Also, I realised 400IM and 200free are in the same session at Commonwealths 😰
4×100 is also in that same session, about 1 hour 30 mins between the 200 free and 4IM and another hour between the 400IM and 4×100 relay.
I don’t think Scotland should do the men’s 4×100 relay considering there is no way Scotland beats England, Australia and Canada to get a medal even if Dunks does another 46.1 split.
Agreed, hence why I omitted it hahaha. Better to keep Dunks’ efforts elsewhere. I guess 1h 30min is still realistically doable.
The commies and the European champs are so close…Great Britain might not select a lot of athlete’s for the eueopeans’
Commonwealth games only has 6 days of swimming competition which is why everything is so packed, It really should be at least 8 days of competition especially considering there is also para events in the schedule (at least there is no Semi – finals for 200s though).
I love the bromance between those 3 lol.
I am waiting for that 4 x 200 world record
It’s coming in 2023
He hasn’t trained the 2IM in three years whoaa!!!!
1:55 from Tom incoming in the summer?
bit of a tall order i think. 1:56 is certainly possible but 1:55 is a different story i feel