2021 BRITISH SWIMMING SELECTION TRIALS
- Wednesday, April 14th – Sunday, April 18th
- Prelims at 10am local/Finals at 7pm local
- London Aquatics Centre
- British Olympic Selection Policy
- Primary Olympic Selection Meet (not only opportunity)
- Entries
- Day 1 Recap/Day 2 Recap/Day 3 Recap/Day 4 Recap
- Live Stream
- Live Results
Kathleen Dawson of the University of Stirling has broken her 2nd Scottish Record of the week at the British Swimming Olympic Trials meet this week in London.
Swimming on Saturday in the 200 back, the 23-year old Dawson posted a 2:08.14. That crakced her own Scottish Record of 2:09.44 done in March at the British Swimming Invitation Meet.
Dawson is by-far the fastest Scottish backstroker of all-time, now holding the records in the 50, 100, and 200 back in both short course and long course.
Dawson first broke the Scottish Record in this 200 back in 2014, when she was only 16-years old. She swam a 2:12.33 which broke the then-record of 2:12.66 owned by Hannah Miley.
Dawson has now gone under the record in 8 swims in her career, knocking a total of four-and-a-half seconds off the old mark. Following her have been a heap of young Scottish female breaststrokers: 4 more swimmers have followed her under Miley’s old mark in the last 3 years, including Dawson’s 20-year old teammate Cassie Wild, who was 2nd on Saturday in 2:10.94. For Wild, that missed a best time by .01 seconds, and she is the second-fastest in Scottish history in that event.
Splits Comparison:
| First Time Under Scottish Record (2014) | Old Record |
Trials Time (New Record)
|
|
| 50m | 31.93 | 30.32 | 30.23 |
| 100m | 34.96 | 32.33 | 32.73 |
| 150m | 32.68 | 32.72 | 32.76 |
| 200m | 32.76 | 34.07 | 32.42 |
| Final Time | 2:12.33 | 2:09.44 | 2:08.14 |
While Dawson’s 200 back has been slower to come around than her 50 and 100 backstrokes, her endurance really came together for a big breakthrough on Saturday. She actually negative-split her first Scottish Record in the event, though the second 50 there was kind of an outlier.
Dawson has a habit of fast final 50s in the 200 backstroke, but historically that seems to have been an intentional save-up. She’s now progressed to a fast final 50 following an aggressive first 150, and that’s made the difference for her.
The overall British Record remains the 2:06.66 done by Gemma Spofforth at the 2009 World Championships. That swim placed her 4th, though she was World Champion at that meet in the 100 back. Dawson is now the 3rd-fastest Brit of all time, behind only Spofforth and Lizzie Simmonds, who swam 2:06.79 in 2010.
This is Dawson’s second Olympic qualification mark fo the week after swimming another Scottish Record of 58.24 in the 100 back on Thursday.