Tom Dean Hits 1:46.07 200 Free, Laura Stephens Puts Up 2:07.41 200 Fly In Edinburgh

2023 EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET

• Friday, March 10th – Sunday, March 12th
• Royal Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh, Scotland
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Site
• SwimSwam Preview
• Entries
• Live Results
• Livestream

The 2023 Edinburgh International Swim Meet kicked off today from the Royal Commonwealth Pool with a handful of top-tier British swimmers diving in for some tune-up racing.

Most swimmers are under heavy training with the all-important British Swimming Championships on the calendar for April. That meet represents the sole qualifying opportunity for British swimmers to add their names to the roster for this summer’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Olympic champion and World Record holder Adam Peaty was indeed in the water today, however, he opted only to swim the prelims of the 200m breaststroke. The 28-year-old posted a morning swim of 2:16.41 to claim the 4th seed before dropping out of the final.

In tonight’s medal-contending race, the Commonwealth Games silver medalist in the event James Wilby took the reins, clocking a time of 2:12.98. The time is within striking distance of the 2:11.59 he produced just last month at the Lausanne Swim Cup in Switzerland.

The women’s 100m breast saw visiting swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko of Israel get to the wall first. The 19-year-old stopped the clock in a mark of 1:07.44 to claim the gold in a very tight finish.

Just .19 behind was Scotland’s Kara Hanlon who touched in 1:07.63 while Imogen Clark rounded out the top 3 tonight in 1:07.66.

Anna Hopkin made some noise in the women’s 50m free, producing a winning effort of 24.72.

The Loughborough ace logged the sole time of the field under the 25-second threshold, with tonight’s performance checking in as the former Arkansas Razorback’s 8th fastest performance. She owns a lifetime best of 24.34 from 2019 which ranks her as the 2nd fastest British woman in history.

Teammate Laura Stephens also did damage tonight, reaping gold in the women’s 200m fly. The 23-year-old Olympian stopped the clock at a speedy 2:07.41 to produce the only time of the field under 2:10. In doing so, Stephens approached her own lifetime best in the event, a time of 2:07.04 she put up in 2021.

For perspective on Stephens’s result this evening, her 2:07.41 would have taken bronze at the 2022 European Championships and silver at the Commonwealth Games. Her time here beat out the 2:07.90 Stephens produced in Birmingham as the runner-up.

The men’s 200m free saw a stacked field take to the pool, including the reigning Olympic gold and silver medalists Tom Dean and Duncan Scott.

It was indeed Dean who cruised to the wall first, hitting a super solid swim of 1;46.07. That beat out runner-up James Guy by well over 2 seconds, as Guy posted 1:48.32 as the silver medalist.

Scott found himself off the podium with a mark of 1:49.03 for 4th while Jack McMillan earned the bronze in 1:48.59.

Scott did top the men’s 200m IM later in the session, producing a result of 2:01.01.

Additional Winners

• Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen topped the men’s 1500m freestyle podium handily, hitting a result of 15:07.93. The Loughborough swimmer has already been as quick as 15:00.34 to rank 4th in the world this season.
• Canadian speedster Kylie Masse earned the women’s 100m backstroke gold, logging the only time of the pack under the 1:00 barrier. Masse delivered a time of 59.78 to get the gold.
• Bath teammates Cameron Brooker and Jonathan Adam tied for gold in the men’s 100m backstroke, both touching in 55.15. Remarkably, the next two swimmers also tied, with Austria’s Christopher Rothbauer and Birmingham’s Oliver Morgan simultaneously registering a time of 55.18 for the co-bronze.
• Jacob Peters put up a time of 23.74 in the men’s 50m fly to beat out Austria’s Simon Bucher. Bucher settled for silver in 23.98.
• Freya Colbert clocked a time of 4:09.04 to get the 400m free win over Paige Madden. Madden of the U.S. hit 4:13.17 as tonight’s silver medalist.