We entered the final day of competition at the 2023 British Swimming Championships as more swimmers pursue qualification cuts for this summer’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
Kicking off the heats session was the men’s 50m fly, with Swansea’s Lewis Fraser producing a time of 23.57 to land lane 4 for tonight’s final.
That gave him the edge over the 100m fly victor here Jacob Peters, with the Bath athlete clocking 23.65 this morning. Also flanking Fraser for tonight’s final is Ben Proud, the man who took the 50m free title last night.
As for Fraser, his 23.57 result in these prelims falls just .01 outside his own Welsh record of 23.56 logged in the semi-finals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. He wound up 8th in the Birmingham final in 23.71.
Kara Hanlon of Edinburgh clocked a time of 1:07.27 to stake her claim on the women’s 100m breast event, hitting the only time of the heats under 1:08.
Behind her was Derventio’s Imogen Clark who looked comfortable with a morning AM result of 1:08.43 while West Suffolk’s Angharad Evans was also in the 1:08-zone in 1:08.81.
Hanlon entered this competition with a lifetime best of 1:06.75 from this year’s BUCS Championships, a time which rendered her the first woman ever from Scotland to get under 1:07 in this event. She’ll need to drop over a second off of that best-ever result to get within range of the stiff British Swimming time standard of 1:05.97 needed to qualify for Fukuoka.
The men’s 200m back saw Oliver Morgan claim the top seed in a mark of 1:58.78 while Olympic Games bronze medalist Luke Greenbank posted 1:59.12 as the 2nd-seeded swimmer this morning.
Loughborough teammates Charlie Brown (2:00.05) and Elliot Clogg (2:00.15) were next in line as Commonwealth Games champion Brodie Williams is in the mix with a 5th-seeded 2:00.37.
Morgan was already impressive in the men’s 100m backstroke here, registering a huge lifetime best of 53.77 in the heats to become Great Britain’s 5th fastest performer in history. The 20-year-old wound up taking the event title with a final result of 53.92.
Keanna Macinnes of Stirling was the quickest women’s 100m butterflier this morning, hitting 58.61 for the pole position. Cardiff’s Harriet Jones secured the 2nd seed in 59.07 and the 200m fly champion here Laura Stephens rounded out the top 3 heats finishers in 59.14.
Of the top 3, only Stephens has ever been under the 58-second threshold in this event, owning a career-best of 57.98 from the 2021 British Swimming Championships.
As such, it’s unlikely that any woman will achieve the stiff benchmark of 56.41 set as the qualification standard for Fukuoka. This time is faster than the current British Record of 57.25 Ellen Gandy put on the books in 2015.
Reigning Olympic champion Tom Dean wasted no time putting his hat in the ring for the men’s 200m free, logging a time of 1:46.80 for the top seed. Dean has already been as swift as 1:46.07, a time he put up at the Edinburgh International Swim Meet last month.
James Guy was also solid this morning, posting 1:47.09 while Matt Richards, the newly-minted Welsh record holder from his 50m free bronze medal from last night, registered 1:47.09.
Olympic silver medalist Duncan Scott barely sneaked into the final as the 8th seed in 1:48.52.
Dean owns the national record in the 1:44.22 he scored for Olympic gold while Scott is the 2nd fastest Brit ever with his PB of 1:44.26 when he snagged silver behind Dean in Tokyo.
Guy’s PB rests at the 1:45.14 from when he became world champion in 2015 while Richards’ career-best stands at 1:45.77 from the 2021 edition of this meet.
The aforementioned foursome is the reigning Olympic champion 4x200m free relay having notched a European Record of 6:58.58.
The men will be vying not only for individual qualification but also for relay qualification here. The men’s 4x100m medley relay has already missed the mark for Fukuoka and this 4x200m free needs to see the top 4 men collectively meet or exceed the consideration standard of 7:07.40 set by British Swimming.
