British Championships, Day 6 Prelims: Titans Geared Up For Battle In 200 Free
Olympic and world champions are ready to do battle for the one individual slot available in the men’s 200 free on the final day of the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.
Duncan Scott and James Guy share 14 Olympic medals but two into one doesn’t go so they must cross swords to see who’ll join Matt Richards at the World Championships with the Welshman preselected for the event following silver behind David Popovici at Paris 2024.
Others will stake their claim including Jack McMillan, who swam the 4×2 prelims in Paris before the quartet clinched an historic gold, while 17-year-old Jacob Mills has been on superb form this week with silvers in the 50 and 100 free. There’ll be no Tom Dean with the Tokyo champion opting to focus on the 100 free following an extended break after the 2024 Games. Dean will be in Singapore with the 4×1 and 4×2 relay teams.
Ben Proud returns the morning after 50 free gold in 21.67 to go in the 50 foy in which he won the 2017 world title while Olympic and world medallist Luke Greenbank meets Ollie Morgan in the 200 back with the former going again after he was DQd in Paris.
Angharad Evans goes in the 100m breaststroke in which she set the British record of 1:05.54 in the very same pool in May last year while Eva Okaro is in the water once more in the 100 free after two golds and a bronze.
To qualify for the Singapore worlds – which run from 27 July to 3 August – a swimmer must finish first in an Olympic event and record a time that equals or betters those in the table below. Athletes that finish second in a time equal or better than that in the table will be considered for selection to a team that will have a maximum of 30 athletes.
Men’s 50 Fly
Jacob Peters and Lewis Fraser filled the top two slots in 23.27 and 23.54 respectively followed by Josh Gammon (23.73) with Proud through in fourth 23.89. The 30-year-old won the world title in 2017 and told Swimming World: “I’m not used to this right now! I think the biggest thing for me this weekend was getting some quality training done. I found in Edinburgh (Edinburgh International Meet) two-back-to-back races over two days was actually quite taxing on the body and that’s purely because of the work I’m doing so for me this is a good opportunity to get that sort of heavier racing done. It’s starting to get things rolling gearing towards hopefully doing two events out in Singapore.”
Men’s 200m Backstroke
Luke Greenbank looked long and smooth as he booked lane four in 1:57.92. Ollie Morgan – who set a British record of 52.12 in the 100 back – and Jonny Marshall both clocked 1:59.33 with Matthew Ward the fourth man inside 2mins in 1:59.63. There’ll be two Greenbanks in the final with the younger sibling Sam through in sixth,
Greenbank has collected four world medals including silver and bronze in the 200 back at Budapest 2022 and Gwangju 2019 respectively but he didn’t make the team for the Fukuoka worlds in 2023 and then last year was DQd in the prelims in Paris.
Looking at his prelim in London, Greenbank told Swimming World: “For a morning swim, 1:57, season’s best. I think there’s plenty more to come in the final but for me it’s just about making that time and getting on the team here. That’s all I want to do, I’m not going to get too distracted: Ollie’s on fine form, Jonny swam really well there, those Bath boys are all amazing. So I think it’s about coming top two and making that team – not to say that I’m not going to go for the win but just managing my expectations. I know that after this meet if I get on that worlds team I’ve got a lot more I can get out of myself over the next few months. So tonight all about making that time really.”
