The number of qualifiers grew by two on day 5 of the 2023 British Swimming Championships as Abbie Wood and Katie Shanahan hit the British Swimming time standards in the 200 IM. What may have been more notable, however, is the fact that both the defending World Champion in the men’s 50 freestyle and the 2021 Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 200 IM both missed their cuts.
Ben Proud won the men’s 50 freestyle with a 21.71 to trail the qualifying standard of 21.57 as well as his British record of 21.11 from 2018.
Duncan Scott, who placed second at Tokyo 2020, and Tom Dean were the top two finishers in the men’s 200 IM, hitting a 1:56.72 and 1:56.65, respectively. Those times were marginally slower than the Worlds cut of 1:56.22.
That means that three of the most successful swimming in recent British history were within seconds of their best times (with Dean actually hitting a new best time), but they will still need to rely on the discretionary selections in order to get a spot on the team.
Scott and Dean will both have one more shot at qualifying for the World Championships team in the 200 freestyle on day 6 of the meet. They both medalled in the 200 free at Tokyo 2020 as Dean took gold with 1:44.22 and Scott took silver in a 1:44.26. The qualification cut in the men’s 200 freestyle is a 1:45.01.
While Proud, Scott, and Dean all swam slower than the cuts, the top two women in the 200 IM both swam faster than the 2:10.22 qualifying time. Katie Shanahan won the event with a new best time of 2:09.40 and Abbie Wood was second with a 2:09.46. They became the 4th and 5th* swimmers under the Worlds selection standards joining Daniel Jervis, Freya Colbert, and Laura Stephens.
Technically, those standards only apply to event winners, but it does seem likely that Wood will be selected using other discretionary clauses of the procedures, which were revised mid-meet
2023 World Championships Qualifiers – Great Britain
Women
Men
The final day of the competition, Sunday, April 8th, will feature the women’s 1500 freestyle, the men’s 50 butterfly, the women’s 100 breaststroke, the men’s 200 backstroke, the women’s 100 butterfly, and the men’s 200 freestyle.
