Duncan Scott Tops Max Litchfield In Men’s 400 IM At BUCS LC C’ships

2020 BUCS LONG COURSE SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 14th-16th, 2020
• Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield, England
• LCM (50m) Course
• Event Channel
• Event Schedule
• Entry Lists (Draft)
• Live Stream
• Live results

Day 2 prelims of the British Universities & Colleges Sport Championships (BUCS) long course swim meet heightened the battle among the top tier teams, with the likes of past overall winner Loughborough University staking its claim on another championship trophy.

But, armed with team members to the tune of Olympic medalist Duncan Scott, two-time Olympian Craig Benson and more, the University of Stirling is once again ready to make another charge at the BUCS long course title this year.

As a reminder, full live stream of the 2020 meet will be available via the SwimSwam Facebook page. For the first time, we will be expanding our coverage to live recaps of all 3 finals sessions of the meet, which will include an embedded live stream.

• Follow SwimSwam on Facebook here to watch the live stream

Day 2 Morning Timed Finals

The aforementioned Scott was in the water this morning, with the versatile 22-year-old taking gold in the men’s 400m IM. One of just a few events in which the winners are declared in the morning, the 400m IM field also included 2016 Olympic finalist Max Litchfield as a guest racer.

Scott led the race from start to finish, ultimately hitting the wall in a time of 4:20.69 to beat out Litchfield, who finished less than a second behind in 4:21.13. For Scott, his time tonight falls just .30 outside of his lifetime best of 4:20.39, a mark he produced at the 2019 edition of these BUCS Long Course Championships.

As for Litchfield, the man his Great Britain’s 400m IM national record holder, owning a personal best of 4:09.62 from the 2017 FINA World Aquatic Championships.

Rounding out the top 3 tonight in this men’s 400m IM was Jacob Greenow of Bath, with the 21-year-old putting up a bronze medal-worthy time of 4:22.09. Greenow recently took 3rd place in this event at the Luxembourg Euro Meet, registering a must slower time there of 4:27.04. His fastest ever is represented by the 4:20.01 logged at the 2019 British Summer Championships.

But rival Loughborough balanced Scott’s strong points for Stirling with a win in the women’s edition of the 400m IM. Abbie Wood, a member of the International Swimming League (ISL) NY Breakers, posted a winning time of 4:44.52. That gave the 20-year-old an over 8-second advantage over the rest of this morning’s ‘final’ field.

Additional declared winners were revealed in the men’s and women’s 800m free races, where we saw our first BUCS record go down. Jay Lelliott of Sheffield produced a solid mark of 8:01.97 to not only crush the field by 11 seconds, but also establish the fastest time in this event at a BUCS competition in 12 years.

For the women, guest swimmer Michaella Glenister registered the quickest time overall, with the 17-year-old clocking 8:53.69 to get to the wall first. However, earning points as the winner was 22-year-old Phylida Britton of UCL. Britton got on the board with a time of 8:59.82 as the only other racer to delve into sub-9:00 territory.

Day 2 Prelims Highlights

Strong Loughborough contributor Joe Litchfield, younger brother of the aforementioned Max Litchfield, dove in twice this morning, rendering 2 top seeds in the process.

The 21-year-old first topped the men’s 200m free field in a time of 1:51.23 and then snared the 100m fly pole position in 54.60. Of note, Scott was not in either of these 2 events, opting for just the 400m IM and 200m fly here in Sheffield.

Benson landed lane 4 in the men’s 50m breast in 28.35, although teammate Ross Murdoch earned the quickest time of the morning in 27.21 as a guest swimmer. Kara Hanlon edged out the women’s field for the middle lane come tonight’s final, posting 32.01 in this morning’s heats.

French national Marie Wattel looked in control of the women’s 100m fly with the top time of 1:00.32, while Wood preceded her 400m IM victory with a top-seeded mark of 2:02.28 in the women’s 200m free.

Cassie Wild staked her claim on the women’s 50m backstroke for Stirling, scoring 28.46 this morning, while Swanswea’s Liam White did the same on the men’s side in 26.03.

BUCS Points Information:

• In each event, only the fastest individual from each institution will score points, i.e. where there is more than one finalist from the same institution only the highest-ranking will score points, the subsequent point scoring will then be determined by the rankings in the heats.
• Individual events will be scored by 1^st place being awarded 10 points, 2^nd place 9 points, continuing with a decreasing points scale for subsequently ranked placings in the order of 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 point(s).
• Relay teams will score double points and only the team in the A finals shall score points.