2023 British Championships Day One Prelims Recap

2023 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• Tuesday, April 4th – Sunday, April 9th
• Prelims at 9:30 am local (4:30 am EDT)/Finals at 6:00 pm local (1:00 pm EDT)
• Ponds Forge, Sheffield
• LCM (50m)
• World Championships Qualifier
• World Championships Selection Criteria
• Draft Entries
• Live Results – link updated when available
• Livestream

The 2023 British Swimming Championships began today in Sheffield with swimmers vying for spots on the World Championships roster.

Racers are up against stiff British Swimming-mandated qualification standards which, in some cases, are faster than the existing national record.

• World Championships Selection Criteria

Up first in today’s prelims was the women’s 50m breaststroke with national record holder Imogen Clark taking the top seed.

Derventio’s Clark produced a morning effort of 30.41 as the only contestant to dip under the 31-second threshold. Her result checks in as a new season-best, beating the 30.46 she put up at the Edinburgh International Swim Meet last month.

Behind Clark this morning was Scotland’s national record holder Kara Hanlon who touched in 31.03 while Edinburgh teammate Katie Goodburn rounded out the top 3 in 31.64.

As for Clark, she remains the 4th fastest performer in the world this season.

The heats of the men’s 50m back saw Birmingham’s Oliver Morgan reap the top spot, posting 25.07 for a healthy lead over Scott Gibson and his 2nd-seeded 25.31. Bath swimmer Cameron Brooker was next to the wall in 25.44 to keep himself in the mix for tonight’s final.

Freya Anderson was this morning’s quickest women’s 200m freestyler, with the Olympic relay gold medalist registering a solid result of 1:58.06.

Loughborough’s Abbie Wood was less than a second behind in 1:58.70 while Lucy Hope of Stirling scooted into the 3rd-seeded position in 1:59.44.

Mia Slevin represented the only other swimmer to get under 2:00 (1:59.92) but European Junior champion in the 200m IM, Leah Schlosshan is lurking among the field, as is Swansea’s Medi Harris. Slevin and Schlosshan each clocked personal bests with their AM outings.

With Olympic champion and World Record holder Adam Peaty having withdrawn from these championships due to mental health reasons, the men’s 100m breaststroke saw Archie Goodburn snag the top seed.

Goodburn of Edinburgh stopped the clock in 1:00.35 to lead Commonwealth Games gold medalist James Wilby who scored a morning swim of 1:00.39.

Greg Butler was just behind in 1:00.50 in his bid for a World Championships roster spot.

Wilby is the only other swimmer besides Peaty to have ever ventured under the 59-second threshold, owning a lifetime best of 58.46 from the 2019 World Championships.

Entering this competition, Goodburn’s PB rested at the 1:00.70 notched at this meet last year while Butler’s career-quickest is 1:00.04 from that same meet.

Additional Top Seeds

• Kieran Bird landed lane 4 in the men’s 400m free in a time of 3:54.26. He owns a lifetime best of 3:46.00 from the 2020 Olympic Trials, a result which renders the 24-year-old Great Britain’s 4th fastest performer of all time.
• Stirling’s Katie Shanahan, the woman who took 200m back silver at last year’s European Championships, led the  400m IM heats with a time of 4:46.36 while Loughborough’s Freya Colbert hit 4:47.96 as the 2nd-seeded swimmer. Schlosshan followed up her 200m freestyle appearance with a go at this 4IM as well, producing 4:50.02 as the 3rd seed. The women will be chasing a time standard of 4:36.00 to qualify for Fukuoka.