Big PBs at the British Champs
The F-Teamers turned out in force at the British Swimming Championships at Ponds Forge in Sheffield with some outstanding performances from our sponsored athletes. The meet acted as selection for World Championships in Fukuoka in July as well as other Team GB selection events so all swimmers were primed and ready to race.
Coming into the meet with great form, Leah Crisp continued her impressive performances with PBs in all her events. In the 200m freestyle, she placed 7th in the finals with a time of 2:00:36. In the 400m individual medley she won bronze in the finals in 4:46:40. In the 200m breaststroke, she swam a 3 second PB to clock a 2:30:59. Leah left the best to last with a 2:11:72 in the 200m individual medley and a 2 second PB finishing 3rd in the final. Leah told us she was tapered and felt confident from her training in the lead up that she would swim well. She was happy to come away with personal bests in all events and the possibility of selection onto teams for the summer of racing.
Mia Slevin did incredibly well in the 200m freestyle with a PB of 1:59:92 and placing 6th in the finals. In the 400m freestyle, Mia was off her personal best which she’d swum in the lead up to the Champs finishing 6th. After the meet Mia told us she had mixed feelings about her performance as she had hoped to swim slightly faster given her exceptional training in the lead up but she said she learnt from the meet and is focused on making the Paris 2024 team next year.
Katie had a successful meet achieving personal bests in all of her events. Despite missing out on a medal in the 50m breaststroke, Katie was happy with her performance, having PB’d in both the heat and final. In the 50m freestyle, Katie placed fifth in the B final and achieved a PB for the first time under 26 seconds. In the 100m freestyle, she placed third in the priority Paris final, achieving her first sub-57-second time and beating her previous year's time by a significant margin. Overall, Katie was pleased with her performance, and she looks forward to competing in upcoming events such as the Mare Nostrum Series, Glasgow International, Settle Coli, and Scottish Open National Championships.
Harriet West swam the 50m butterfly taking home the silver with flying 26.49 in the finals. She also took that form into the splash and dash of the 50m freestyle with a personal best and Welsh record of 25:60. In the 100m butterfly, she won the bronze with a 58.49 and Harriet was stoked to go faster from heat to final after having a break leading into the summer. Harriet plans to head back to Cardiff for training and possibly traveling to the Mare Nostrum.
Emily Ford swam the 50m butterfly, where she achieved a personal best time in the heats of 28.05, taking 0.3 off her previous PB, which was four years old. She has hoped to go under 28 seconds in the final but was slightly off with a 28.11. Emily also swam the 50m backstroke, where she finished 12th with a time of 29.68. She was slightly disappointed with her heat swim but was happy to have a second chance in the finals, where she went faster and won the Priority Paris final with a time that would have put her 12th overall and 4th in the B final. Overall, Emily was excited to compete, and she went into the meet tapered and feeling confident. This was a target meet for her, and she was happy with her results, which included a personal best time and a win in a priority final.
Maisie swam in the 100m butterfly, where she placed third with a time of 1.01.30, which is her quickest time in a while. She hopes to improve her time at nationals. In the 200m butterfly, she placed fourth with a time of 2.15.90, which is a huge step in the right direction for her as she has been struggling with this event for the past few years. Maisie was pleased with her performance overall, having tapered for the meet and aiming to swim as close to her best times as possible. She will be going on a training camp to Turkey at the end of June.
Sophie Freeman was back from college racing in the US and was unsure how she would perform having spent so long racing short course. She didn’t disappoint achieving PBs in the 50m, 100m and 200m butterfly, as well as the 100m freestyle. She almost cracked the 1 minute barrier in the 100m butterfly swimming an impressive 1:00.27 to place 10th and her 200m butterfly in 2:15.05 showed how much her underwater work had improved while racing in the States.
Amber Downham swam the 400m freestyle and was slightly off her PB, swimming a 4:32.22. Despite being disappointed with her time, Amber was happy to be racing in such a competitive field.
It was not the meet that Imogen Clark had been hoping for after swimming the second fastest time in the world this year for the 50m breaststroke with a 30.09 in the final, she was then disqualified after the race. Imogen was happy to swim so fast and is now focusing on more racing in Canet, Barcelona and Monaco in May for the Mare Nostrum tour.
We are so proud of our F-Teamers and what they have achieved at British Champs and we look forward to seeing what the summer will bring!