2022 British Swimming Championships Day 6 Finals Live Recap

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

After today, we’ll have just one day left of these 2022 British Swimming Championships the meet which represents the Trials for both World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

As a refresher, some names have been pre-selected to compete at the World Championships by virtue of their performances at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. They are as follows:

• Kathleen Dawson – women’s 100 back
• Tom Dean – men’s 200 free
• Luke Greenbank – men’s 200 back
• Daniel Jervis – men’s 1500 free
• Max Litchfield – men’s 400 IM
• Adam Peaty – men’s 100 breast
• Ben Proud – men’s 50 free
• Molly Renshaw – women’s 200 breast
• Duncan Scott – men’s 200 free & 200 IM
• James Wilby – men’s 100 & 200 breast
• Abbie Wood – women’s 200 IM

Additionally, James Guy, Anna Hopkin and Matt Richards will all earn a spot at Worlds due to the fact that they swam on in a relay final that won a medal in Tokyo.

WOMEN’S 1500 FREESTYLE FASTEST HEAT

• British Record – 15:47.26, Jaz Carlin 2013
• World Championships Qualifying Time – 16:01.46

Podium:

GOLD – Fleur Lewis, 16:45.51
SILVER – Amber Keegan, 16:48.33
BRONZE – Leah Crisp, 16:56.30

Although no female dipped under the World Championships-qualifying time, the 1500m freestyle tonight wound up being rather close.

Barnet Copthall’s Fleur Lewis wound up on top of the fastest heat, registering a time of 16:45.51. She overtook Amber Keegan who settled for silver in 16:48.33 while Leah Crisp snagged bronze in 16:56.30.

18-year-old Lewis had been as quick as 16:43.21 entering this meet, so her personal best from 2020 remains intact.

MEN’S 50 BUTTERFLY FINAL

• British Record – 22.75, Ben Proud 2017
• World Championships Qualifying Time – N/A

Podium:

GOLD – Ben Proud, 23.09
SILVER – Jacob Peters, 23.47
BRONZE – Adam Barrett, 23.80

Not taking any time to even breathe, national record holder Ben Proud busted out a solid time of 23.09 to reap gold in this men’s 50m butterfly.

With a slight mustache to boot, Proud threw himself off the blocks in a super quick reaction time and led from start to finish, with fellow Olympian Jacob Peters being downgraded from his morning top seed to earn silver in 23.47.

For Peters, however, that scored a nice new personal best, overtaking his earlier PB of 23.61 from the morning. Peters is now the 3rd fastest British performer all time in the event.

Rounding out the top 3 was Adam Barrett who touched in 23.80. Barrett took the 100m fly bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and looks to have picked up a consideration time for Birmingham as part of Team England.

All-Time British Men LCM 50 Butterfly Performers

1. Ben Proud, 22.75 2017
2. Adam Barrett, 23.40 2014
3. Jacob Peters, 23.47 2022
4. Mark Foster, 23.51 2003
5. Antony James, 23.74 2009

Proud has now won this title for the 6th time and now ranks as the #2 swimmer in the world this season.

WOMEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE FINAL

• British Record – 1:06.21, Molly Renshaw 2021
• World Championships Qualifying Time – 1:06.42

Podium:

GOLD – Kara Hanlon, 1:07.52
SILVER – Sarah Vasey, 1:07.60
BRONZE – Imogen Clark, 1:07.63

The women’s 100m breast came right down to the touch, with the top 3 swimmers separated by only .11.

It was Edinburgh’s Kara Hanlon who roared to the wall first, getting there in a new lifetime bet of 1:07.52. That beat out Sarah Vasey, who hit 1:07.60 while the 50m breaststroke winner here Imogen Clark nailed 1:07.63 for bronze.

The race needed see at least one person nab a time of 1:06.42 or better to clinch the British Swimming-mandated qualification time for Budapest. In the history of British Swimming, only 4 women own a best time under that threshold, with one of them being Vasey with her lifetime best of 1:06.37 from 2021.

MEN’S 200 BACKSTROKE FINAL

• British Record – 1:54.43, Luke Greenbank 2021
• World Championships Qualifying Time – 1:56.08

Podium:

GOLD – Luke Greenbank, 1:57.57
SILVER – Brodie Williams, 1:57.90
BRONZE – Jay Lelliott, 1:58.80

Olympic bronze medalist in the 200m back, Luke Greenbank, narrowly made it into the men’s 100m back final before the Loughborough man ultimately took that event title here in Sheffield.

That may have fueled him to make it a double, just edging out Brodie Williams for the 2back title tonight.

Posting a mark of 1:57.57, Greenbank made up some ground on Williams, who led partially through the race before settling for silver in 1:57.90. Williams owns a lifetime best of 1:56.26 from 2019 and needed to be even quicker than that to hit the stiff British Swimming-mandated qualification time of 1:56.08 needed for this summer’s World Championships.

Versatile Jay Lelliott rocketed himself up from the 8th seed out of the morning heats to land on the podium with the bronze, clocking 1:58.80.

Greenbank is already pre-qualified for Budapest in this 200m back event.

WOMEN’S 100 BUTTERFLY FINAL

• British Record – 57.25, Ellen Gandy 2012
• World Championships Qualifying Time – 56.99

Podium:

GOLD – Laura Stephens, 58.43
SILVER – Harriet Jones, 59.10
BRONZE – Keanna Macinnes, 59.24

The women’s 200m fly winner here Laura Stephens won this 1fly decisively, putting up a gold medal-worthy effort of 58.43.

That marked the only result under 59 seconds, with the 50m fly winner here Harriet Jones next in line in 59.10 while Keanna Macinnes rounded out the top 3 in 59.24.

For Stephens, she owns a lifetime best of 57.98 from last year, so scoring the World Championships qualifying time of 56.99 set forth by British Swimming would have taken the race of her life.

In fact, the 56.99 QT sits well ahead of even the British national record, which stands at the 57.25 Ellen Gandy produced in 2012.

MEN’S 200 FREESTYLE FINAL

• British Record – 1:44.22, Tom Dean 2021
• World Championships Qualifying Time – 1:46.16

Podium:

GOLD – Duncan Scott, 1:45.54
SILVER – Tom Dean, 1:45.73
BRONZE – James Guy, 1:46.44

As expected, this was a tightly fought race among some of the best 200m freestylers in the world. All members of the British men’s gold medal-winning 800m free relay from Tokyo were in this 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 has 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.

British Men’s Top 200m Freestyle Performers in History

In terms of the world rankings for this season, Scott now ranks #1, Dean ranks #2 and Guy ranks #10.