2017 British Swimming C’ships Day 2 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.

WOMEN’S 50 BUTTERFLY – FINAL

• FINA A – 26.49
• British 1st place standard – N/A
• British consideration standard – N/A
• The Podium:
  • Charlotte Atkinson – 26.81
  • Sophie Yendell – 26.90
  • Alys Thomas – 26.94

Loughborough’s Charlotte Atkinson was able to hold off a charging 15-year-old in Sophie Yendell, with the gold coming down to the touch as is most often the case in these non-Olympic 50 events. Atkinson fired off a winning time of 26.81 to improve upon her morning swim of 27.04 and notch 1 of 4 sub-27 second times in this final. That’s the first time Atkinson has ventured into 26-point territory. For perspective now-retired Fran Halsall holds the national record in 25.20.

Yendell, at just 15 years of age, scored the silver, lowering her own 15 years age group record of 26.99 set this morning. With her AM swim, Yendell was already the youngest Brit to ever dip under the 27 second threshold and she took things even lower with a 26.90 tonight. One extra stroke made the different between her and Atkinson at the finish – Atkinson was long, Yendell took a short one to finish.

Alys Thomas maintained her 3rd place from the morning, finishing in the podium with bronze in 26.94. Of note, 5th place finisher Freya Anderson from Ellesmere lowered her own 16 years age record from 27.12 to 27.02 to border that 27 mark. Look for the teen to blast that away as the year moves on.

MEN’S 50 BREASTSTROKE

• FINA A – 27.51
• British 1st place standard – N/A
• British consideration standard – N/A
• The Podium:
  • Adam Peaty – 26.48
  • Euan Ingles – 27.65
  • Mark Campbell – 27.66

We expected Adam Peaty to comfortably take the win tonight, but the question was whether or not a world record would be broken. Peaty holds that mark at the 26.42 set in semi-finals at the 2015 World Championships and came within .2 of it with his morning swim of 26.62. Tonight, he shimmied the WR line even more closely, coming within .06 with a time of 26.48. That ranks as the world’s 2nd fastest time ever in the breaststroke splash n’ dash event.

Post-race, Peaty commented that he ‘didn’t expect to go that fast this early in the season’, so things are looking good for the 22-year-old heading into Budapest preparations at his new home in Loughborough.

Silver tonight went to Euan Ingles of Edinburgh, while Mark Campbell of Aberdeen touched in 27.66 for bronze. As a fun fact, Peaty’s opening 100m breaststroke split of 27.01 beat out every competitor’s time tonight int his 50m breast final.

WOMEN’S 800 FREESTYLE – FINAL HEAT

• FINA A – 8:38.56
• British 1st place standard – 8:20.18
• British consideration standard – 8:26.19
• The Podium:
  • Jazz Carlin – 8:30.56
  • Holly Hibbott – 8:31.78
  • Camilla Hattersley – 8:36.42

Well off her silver medal-winning time of 8:16.17 from Rio, Jazz Carlin still cranked out a win in the women’s 800m freestyle tonight, touching in a solid 8:30.56 for gold. In her first 800m freestyle race since the Olympics, Carlin took several months off of swimming entirely, so the 26-year-old is simply enjoying racing again and getting back into her groove.

Following along on Carlin’s hip the entire way was World Junior Championship bronze medalist in this event, Holly Hibbott. Hibbott charged along with Carlin from start to finish, touching the wall just over a second behind in 8:31.78. That’s only .2 off of her own personal best of 8:31.56 from Singapore and a vast improvement on her 7th place finish at this same meet in 2016. Hibbott won the Target Tokyo 200m freestyle final last night in 2:00.58.

Bronze went to Camilla Hattersley of the City of Glasgow, who rounded out tonight’s podium in 8:36.42. Hattersley finished in 2nd place last year in a mark of 8:30.99.

With no woman placing under the British consideration standard, it appears to be unlikely that GBR will have an 800m freestyle representative in Budapest.

MEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY – FINAL

• FINA A – 1:57.28
• British 1st place standard – 1:54.14
• British consideration standard – 1:55.83
• The Podium:
  • James Guy – 1:55.91
  • Cameron Brodie – 1:57.46
  • Duncan Scott – 1:57.50

Bath’s James Guy just earned his 2nd national title in 2 days, following up his 400m freestyle victory last night with a monster 200m butterfly performance today. Swimming in his first properly tapered final of this event in 4 years, Guy ripped a terrific time of 1:55.91,  destroying his previous personal best mark of 1:57.05 in this event from the Arena Pro Swim in Indianapolis.

Guy split 55.38 on the first 100, lagging just slightly behind University of Stirling’s Cameron Brodie who led up until the 50m turn, when Guy turned on the heat and aggressively breathed every stroke, even with his cap on the brink of falling off. Guy now sneaks into the world’s top 10 times in the world in this event. He’s off the consideration standard, but as Guy has already qualified in the 400m, it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility he gets discretionarily selected for this event for Budapest.

Brodie wound up with silver in 1:57.46, a solid improvement from 2016’s 4th place finish. Stirling teammate Duncan Scott also finished in podium status, grabbing the bronze in 1:57.50. For multiple event-savvy Scott, his time tonight is a personal best by just under 2 seconds. That could be a scary sign for Scott’s competitors in his remaining events this meet, of which there are several.

Fun fact, the top 3 performers this year all beat last year’s winning time of 1:58.01.

WOMEN’S 100 BACKSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 1:00.61
• British 1st place standard – 58.76
• British consideration standard – 59.58
• The Podium:
  • Georgia Davies – 59.34
  • Kathleen Dawson – 1:00.22
  • Jessica Fullalove – 1:00.52

Georgia Davies successfully defended her 100m backstroke title, popping a personal best time of 59.34 for the win. Her previous career fastest stood at the 59.35 lead-off clocked on her team’s 400m medley relay in Rio, but she managed just 59.85 for 10th in the individual race at the Olympics. Last year Davies took the title in 59.64, so she dropped exactly .3 to stand atop this year’s podium. Although off the automatic qualifying time, Davies’ outing does clear the 59.58 consideration standard, so we’ll have to see how the subjectivity plays out in determining the Budapest roster for Britain.

Davies now sits as the 4th fastest swimmer in the world in this event.

Tonight’s final was on the sluggish side overall, however, with Davies the only sub-minute swimmer. Scottish national record holder Kathleen Dawson touched in 1:00.22 for silver, in-line with her prelims top seed time of 1:002.26. She holds the Scottish NR in 59.68 from the 2016 European Championships.

Bronze tonight went to Jessica Fullalove in 1:00.52, the 5th best time of her career.

MEN’S 100 BACKSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 54.06
• British 1st place standard – 52.74
• British consideration standard – 53.60
• The Podium:
  • Chris Walker-Hebborn – 54.24
  • Luke Greenbank – 54.75
  • Xavier Mohammed – 54.93

Following up on his 50m backstroke win from last night, Chris Walker-Hebborn took the men’s 100m back title tonight in a time of 54.24. Overall, this final was on the slower side, with CWH finishing well off his title-winning time of 53.23 in this event last year and also outside of the consideration standard. One needs a time of 53.80 to crack the world’s top 10 in this event.

18-year-old Luke Greenbank, the 2015 European Games champion in this event, was just off his personal best, touching in 54.75 for silver. Greenbank was the Target Tokyo final winner at this meet last year, winning that race in 55.02.

Xavier Mohammed repeated as bronze medalist, finishing in 54.93, about half a second slower than 2016’s effort.

WOMEN’S 200 BREASTSTROKE – FINAL

• FINA A – 2:25.91
• British 1st place standard – 2:22.33
• British consideration standard – 2:24.48
• The Podium:
  • Jocelyn Ulyett – 2:22.08, *NR, *QT
  • Molly Renshaw – 2:23.04
  • Chloe Tutton – 2:24.28

Loughborough University, armed with their new coach Mel Marshall, who coached Adam Peaty to global greatness, went 1-2-5 in the women’s 200 breaststroke final. That was led by a 2:22.08 from Jocelyn Ulyett and a 2:23.04 from the British Record holder Molly Renshaw.

For Olyett, that’s a 5-second improvement on her previous lifetime best in the event of 2:27.25 done in February at the BUCS Championships. Abbie Wood, another Loughborough swimmer who finished 5th, put in a 2:26.02 – that’s a two-second drop for her at just 17 years old as well.

Neither Ulyett or Renshaw are coached directly by Marshall, but none-the-less, training in the same facility as the greatest breaststroker on earth will still influence the other groups training in Loughborough.

2016 Olympian Chloe Tutton finished 3rd in 2:24.28 – which likely won’t be enough to earn her a spot on the team for Budapest in her best event.