James Guy: “Racing The 2Fly Is Fun”

2017 BRITISH SWIMMING 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
• Psych Sheets
• Live Stream
• Live Results

200m freestyle world champion James Guy tried the 200m butterfly on for size last night in Sheffield, taking the gold in a personal best of 1:55.91. Talking after the race, Guy describes how racing this event helps his bread-and-butter 200m and 400m freestyle races, although he also says that the 2fly is ‘fun’.

As originally reported:

MEN’S 200 BUTTERFLY – FINAL

• FINA A – 1:57.28
• British 1st place standard – 1:54.14
• British consideration standard – 1:55.83
• The Podium:
  • James Guy – 1:55.91
  • Cameron Brodie – 1:57.46
  • Duncan Scott – 1:57.50

Bath’s James Guy just earned his 2nd national title in 2 days, following up his 400m freestyle victory last night with a monster 200m butterfly performance today. Swimming in his first properly tapered final of this event in 4 years, Guy ripped a terrific time of 1:55.91,  destroying his previous personal best mark of 1:57.05 in this event from the Arena Pro Swim in Indianapolis.

Guy split 55.38 on the first 100, lagging just slightly behind University of Stirling’s Cameron Brodie who led up until the 50m turn, when Guy turned on the heat and aggressively breathed every stroke, even with his cap on the brink of falling off. Guy now sneaks into the world’s top 10 times in the world in this event. He’s off the consideration standard, but as Guy has already qualified in the 400m, it wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility he gets discretionarily selected for this event for Budapest.

Brodie wound up with silver in 1:57.46, a solid improvement from 2016’s 4th place finish. Stirling teammate Duncan Scott also finished in podium status, grabbing the bronze in 1:57.50. For multiple event-savvy Scott, his time tonight is a personal best by just under 2 seconds. That could be a scary sign for Scott’s competitors in his remaining events this meet, of which there are several.

Fun fact, the top 3 performers this year all beat last year’s winning time of 1:58.01.