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 Original Selection Criteria
- Revised Selection Criteria
- Draft Entries
- Day 1 Finals Recap / Day 2 Finals Recap / Day 3 Finals Recap / Day 4 Finals Recap / Day 5 Finals Recap / Day 6 Finals Recap
- Live Results
- Livestream
Amelie Blocksidge celebrated her 14th birthday on Sunday with a national title in the 1500-meter freestyle at the British Championships, lowering her lifetime best by 11 seconds with a winning mark of 16:19.67.
The City of Salford Swimming Club standout reached the wall first more than six aheads of runner-up finisher Fleur Lewis (16:25.78). Neither dipped under the British consideration time of 16:01.46, but they were under World Aquatics’ A cut of 16:29.57. The Paris 2024 Olympic qualifying time is a 16:09.09.
Blocksidge wasted no time establishing a new age group record, becoming the fastest 14-year-old British girl ever by over 20 seconds. The previous standard of 16:41.34 had stood for 14 years, set by Danielle Hall-Jackson in 2009.
“I’m really happy — it’s the best birthday present you can get, isn’t it?” Blocksidge said. “I’m over the moon. I could hear quite a lot of the support from the crowd, I’ve got lots of my family in the crowd and my granny and grandad watching me from Australia too. That support helps me a lot, knowing I’ve got people behind me, cheering me on.”
For context, Blocksidge would rank third in the U.S. girls’ 13-14 national age group (NAG) behind Becca Mann‘s record of 16:11.98. She’s about four seconds faster than Katie Ledecky (16:24.46 from 2011) and four seconds slower than Summer McIntosh (16:15.19 from 2021) were at the same age.
Blocksidge entered this event as the No. 2 seed with a previous-best time of 16:31.16 from last month’s Swedish Grand Prix, which remains a British age group record for 13-year-old girls. She nearly negative split Sunday’s race, posting an 8:10.23 at the midway point before coming home in 8:09.44.
The victory caps off a huge week for Blocksidge highlighted by 13-year-old age group records in the 800 free (8:38.33 for second place) and 400 free (4:14.74 for fifth place).
WOMEN’S 1500 FREESTYLE
- British Record: 15:47.26 – Jazz Carlin (2013)
- World Championships Qualification Standard: 15:56.86
- Amelie Blocksidge – 16:19.67
- Fleur Lewis – 16:25.78
- Michaella Glenister – 16:44.51
Fleur Lewis was the top seed heading into this event with a 16:28.47 and she managed to shave a few seconds off that time to claim the silver medal. Michaella Glenister came in 19 seconds later with a 16:44.51 and Leah Crisp dipped under 17 minutes with a 16:59.41 for fourth.
This is one of those cases where you absolutely give her a discretionary spots to Worlds to give her a chance to get a big meet experience without the pressure of high expectations ahead of Paris 2024, assuming she continues to progress. But British Swimming will probably ship her off to European Juniors or such instead to make their metrics look better.
Her splits are so consistent. Easily her best swim of the meet.
Not saying this will happen but if she makes the Olympic team next year she will be the same age (give or take a few weeks) as Ledecky was in 2012, and we all know what happened back in London in the 800.
True. But Ledecky’s time in London may not even medal in Paris.