2017 BRITISH NATIONAL 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
- Live Stream
- Psych Sheets – DRAFT
There are still just over 2 weeks until the start of the 2017 British National Championships, the meet at which the British roster for the World Championships in Budapest will be determined, but a draft of the starting lists has already been posted to get swim nerds’ minds churning. Below are some initial thoughts as we perused through the ‘who’s who’ of British swimmers’ entries.
James Guy is initially listed as swimming his bread-and-butter 200m and 400m freestyle events, but is also slated at this point to swim the 100m and 200m butterfly as well. Both fly races are events the 21-year-old said he’d like to tackle more seriously as his career continues. At the Rio Olympic Games, he notched an extremely competitive 100 fly prelims mark of 51.78 to give us glimpse as to where his potential may lie in that event.
As far as the 200m fly goes, Guy’s entry time is the 1:57.05 he posted last month at the Arena Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis. That ranks as the former Millfield swimmer’s personal best, but he’ll need to continue knocking off some major time to compete against the Chad Le Clos and Masato Sakai elites of the world in the event.
Duncan Scott is a man on the move, having made major gains across several events since bursting onto the scene at the 2015 European Games. Scott turned heads making the men’s 100m freestyle final in Rio, where he notched a new British National Record of 48.01. His 100m butterfly has also improved to an internationally competitive 53.99, as has his 200m butterfly where he finally broke the 2-minute mark with a 1:59.33 in Luxembourg earlier this year.
The 19-year-old will be tackling the aforementioned events, as well as the 200m IM and 200m freestyle, both of which he has made major strides over the past year. His 200m IM time dropped under 2 minutes last year in Glasgow and Scott almost managed the same feat again untapered in Indianapolis (2:00.48). His 200m free time from last year’s Olympic Trials fully tapered was 1:47.29, but the teen clocked a swift 1:47.28 in Indy, presumably unrested, to give us a sign of a potential time drop headed his way come the meet in Sheffield.
With a maximum of only 2 swimmers per event, however, Scott and Guy will battle the likes of Stephen Milne out of Perth City, who is listed on the draft as swimming the 200m freestyle, along with the 400m and 1500m freestyle events. Jay Lelliott and Max Litchfield will also be in the 200m freestyle and 400m freestyle hunt.
World record holder Adam Peaty is initially listed in just 2 events, bypassing the 200m breaststroke (and the 200m freestyle he tried out in Indianapolis for funsies) and instead sticking to his hot races of 50m and 100m breaststroke. The man stands alone in each event, rocking the 57.13 seed time in the 100m and only sub-27-second 50m mark of 26.66, although Scottish swimmers Ross Murdoch and Craig Benson will do their best to chase him. Andrew Willis will also be in the 100m breaststroke field, as well as the 200m distance.
British national record holder Ben Proud will put his new Energy Standard training to the test. He will be sticking to his sprint roots at the meet contesting the 50m and 100m freestyle, as well as the 50m butterfly. His entry of 21.54 in the men’s 50m free is the only sub-22-second seed time.
On the women’s side of things, two-time Olympic silver medalist Jazmin Carlin is ready to fend off would-be rivals in the women’s mid-distance freestyle events. Along with her top seed in the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle races, Carlin is set to compete in the 200m freestyle where she also enters the meet with the top time. 1:57.83 is what Carlin carries into Ponds Forge, although she’ll have Sheffield’s own Eleanor Faulkner and Edinburgh’s Lucy Hope hot on her heels vying for a spot on the roster for Budapest.
Olympic silver medalist Siobhan-Marie O’Connor is signed up for 5 events on the draft entry lists, composed of the women’s 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly, along with her marquis events of the 200m IM and 100m breaststroke. O’Connor gave Hungary’s Iron Lady Katinka Hosszu quite the 200m IM race in Rio, clocking a new British national record of 2:06.88 to earn an Olympic silver medal.
The Bath swimmer certainly isn’t one to sleep on in the breaststroke race either, owning the national record in the 100m distance with the 1:06.34 she clocked last year in Glasgow. But, O’Connor will have a trio of Loughborough athletes ready to take the national title in the breaststroke event in the form of Molly Renshaw, Sarah Vasey and Imogen Clark.
Renshaw will also battle Cardiff’s Chloe Tutton in the 200m breaststroke race, where the two sit as the top two seeds in the event, separated by just .01 of a second. Tutton owns the 2nd seed in 2:22.34 with Renshaw just behind at 2:22.33.
Versatile Hannah Miley is slated to swim 6 events in Sheffield, including the 200m IM/400m IM, 100m/200m breaststroke and 400m freestyle races, if the psych sheet holds. Miley is also entered as the 6th seed in the women’s 200m butterfly event, a race in which Newcastle’s Emily Large is one to watch. The 16-year-old British Summer National Champion and European Junior Champion carries a monster entry time of 2:08.87 in her signature event.