We rolled into day four of the 2023 British Swimming Championships with racers lining themselves up for potential World Championships qualification during the heats session.
We’re set to see yet another duel between Loughborough’s Freya Colbert and Stirling’s Katie Shanahan as the pair claimed the top 2 seeds in the women’s 200m backstroke.
Colbert landed lane 4 with a morning swim of 2:11.31 while Shanahan captured the next-fastest time in 2:11.58. They set themselves apart from the field and will each vie to notch the 2:07.29 time standard for Fukuoka set by British Swimming.
Colbert already etched her name onto the consideration roster in the women’s 400m IM which she won on the first day in a new lifetime best of 4:35.50. Shanahan was the silver medalist in that day one battle, posting 4:36.74 as the only other swimmer under 4:46.
Before this morning’s m200m back event, Colbert owned a lifetime best of 2:11.55 from last month while Shanahan ranks as Great Britain’s 4th fastest woman ever with the 2:08.08 she posted at this year’s BUCS Championships.
Last night’s 50m freestyle victor on the women’s side, Anna Hopkin, topped this morning’s 100m free prelim. The Loughborough ace clocked a time of 54.29 to lead the field, a mark just off her season-best of 54.10 produced at the Edinburgh International Swim Meet last month.
Hopkin will be flanked by Freya Anderson and Lucy Hope who earned the 2nd and 3rd seeds, respectively. Anderson punched a result of 54.63 while Hope was also under the 55-second threshold in 54.90.
Abbie Wood (55.99) and Medi Harris (55.80) also made it into the top 8 for tonight’s final.
Bath’s Jacob Peters dove in for his first event of the competition, hitting a morning swim of 51.68 to lead the men’s 100m fly field.
Splitting 23.81/27.87, Peters staked his claim on the event in one of only two sub-52-second results of the morning. His outing is already within striking distance of his lifetime best, a time which stands at the 51.50 registered for 11th place at last year’s World Championships.
Swansea’s Lewis Fraser put up a new Welsh Record en route to securing the 2nd seed this morning. Fraser logged a result of 51.99, blowing away his previous personal best in the process.
Entering this competition, Fraser’s career-quickest rested at the 52.81 he posted for 10th place at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He just hacked nearly a second off that swim en route to overtaking the previous Welsh standard of 52.37 Thomas Laxton put on the books nearly 8 years ago.
While Peters already ranks as the 3rd fastest performer in British history, Fraser now enters the rankings in slot #7.
27-year-old James Guy is very much in the mix, cruising to a morning mark of 52.34 while Manchester’s Jamie Ingram is seeking a medal with his 3rd-seeded 52.44.
Peters, Guy and Ingram all represented England in the 1fly final in Birmingham last year where Guy snagged silver in 51.40, Peters finished 6th in 52.16 and Ingram placed 8th in 52.33.
James Wilby will try to double up on his 100m breaststroke victory from earlier in the meet with the 200m breast event.
Wilby hit a morning mark of 2:12.70 to hold a healthy advantage over the next-closest swimmer George Smith who earned the 2nd seed in 2:14.22.
