Olympian Ben Proud lowered his own British Record in the 50m Freestyle to secure a qualification standard for the FINA World Championships on the penultimate day of the British Swimming Championships in Sheffield.
Proud (Plymouth Leander) got an excellent start to the race and progressed with power through the length of the pool to touch the wall in 21.32.
“It feels great to have lowered that record,” Proud said. “You never know what time you are going to swim in a 50m race so when I touched my hand on the wall and saw 21.32 I thought ‘oh that’s quite good’.
- Ben Proud - Men's 50m Freestyle British Champion“It’s impressive for this time in the season. I’m still looking to move that on as well. To be honest I’m not happy with how I swam it and I think I could have gone faster but it is what it is."
“Fast times at this time of the year don’t really mean that much so all I have to do is keep working hard and by Budapest if I can move that time on that would be great.”
Thomas Fannon (Plymouth Leander) won the silver medal and Jack Thorpe (Edinburgh University) took the bronze.
Stockport Metro’s Holly Hibbott swam an excellent final of the 400m Freestyle to take her first senior British title.
Hibbott took on Olympic silver medallist Jazz Carlin and the lead was changing hands throughout the eight lengths of the pool.
Hibbott won the gold with a storming final 50m and a new personal best time of 4:06.37 puts her in contention for the World Championships in the summer.
“I can’t believe it. I’m so happy, it was a good race,” Hibbott said. “I could see the other two girls close to me and I thought just put your head down and go as fast as you can.
- Holly Hibbott - Women's 400m Freestyle British Champion“I’ve had a really good block of training leading into this. I hoped for a PB and I knew I had it in me so I’m really happy with the result. I knew I wanted to do well this year so I’ve trained really hard and done everything I can.”
National Centre Bath swimmer Carlin won the silver with City of Sheffield’s Eleanor Faulkner winning the bronze.
British Champion Max Litchfield secured his second gold medal of the championships after coming from behind in the final of the 200m Individual Medley
Double Olympic silver medallist Duncan Scott took the race out hard with an excellent Butterfly leg but Litchfield stayed in contention and stormed through the final 50m to overtake the field.
The City of Sheffield swimmer swam to a new personal best time of 1:58.10 which is also a contention time for the World Championships.
“I’m very happy with that. It’s really promising,” Litchfield said. “I work a lot on my back end but at the end of the day you’ve got to put the start of the race together to be in with a shot. I feel like if I’m somewhere near when I touch on the Breaststroke then I’ve always got a chance in the Freestyle and luckily tonight I was able to pull it back and touch the wall first.
“I’ve raced well towards the back end of last year and this week so I’m excited. Coming here was all about trying to qualify for Budapest and now the focus is to get back into hard training and I’m massively looking forward to it.
Edinburgh University’s Mark Szaranek secured silver with University of Stirling’s Scott winning the bronze.
Georgia Davies showed her power to seal the gold medal in the 50m Backstroke after being pushed all the way by Kathleen Dawson.
Davies (Loughborough University) made the race her own with 15m to go and backed up her gold medal in the 100m Backstroke earlier in the week.
- Georgia Davies - Women's 50m backstroke British Champion“I’m really pleased with how this week has gone. One PB in the 100m and I was just off my PB in the 50m. I was hoping to go a tiny bit faster but I feel like all swimmers are quite greedy and want to be faster.”
Dawson (University of Stirling) won the silver medal with Lucy Hope (Edinburgh University) taking the bronze.
Olympic finalist Hannah Miley took the gold medal in the 200m Individual Medley after earlier in the evening racing the 400m Freestyle.
Aberdeen Performance’s Miley touched just ahead of National Centre Loughborough’s Abbie Wood and Molly Renshaw.
Olympic silver medallist Siobhan-Marie O’Connor was disqualified for a false start having previously won the race.
Emily Crane (Loughborough University) secured victory by touching the wall first in the Target Tokyo final of the 50m Backstroke ahead of Freya Rayner (City of Sunderland) and Caroline McIntosh (Aberdeen Performance).
It was City of Sheffield’s Lily Boseley that took the win in the Junior final of the 50m Backstroke after beating of the challenge of Millfield’s Emma Harvey and Team Ipswich’s Rebecca Sherwin.
Alex Wray (Loughborough University) grabbed the touch in the Target Tokyo final of the 50m Freestyle. He lead Yusuke Legard (Wycombe District) and Samuel Irvine (Loughborough University) to the wall.
Elliot Clogg (City of Sheffield) reached for the wall in first place in the Junior 50m Freestyle final after beating Scott McLay (Perth City) and Lewis Fraser (Swansea Aquatics).
The Target Tokyo final of the 400m Freestyle saw Isobel Grant (City of Sheffield) take the win ahead of Maya Westlake (City of Sheffield) and Isobel Griffiths (City of Birmingham).
East Kilbride’s Nikki Miller swam an excellently timed race in the Junior 400m Freestyle after beating City of Leicester’s Michaella Glenister and City of Leeds’ Leah Crisp to the line.
It was Joshua Thompson (Carnforth) that excelled to take the win in the Target Tokyo final of the 200m Individual Medley ahead of Callum Lawrie (University of Stirling) and Dominic Polling (Brighton).
Thomas Dean (Maidenhead) finished the Junior final of the 200m Individual Medley with a huge lead over James McFadzen (Wycombe District) and Brodie Williams (Millfield).
The Target Tokyo final of the 200m Individual Medley saw Emma Day (Loughborough University) win the race after touching ahead of Candice Hall (Loughborough University) and Emily Siebrecht (Bath University).
Amy Bell (City of Sheffield) secured victory in the last junior final of the evening by touching the wall first in the 200m Individual Medley. She beat Alicia Wilson (Guildford City) and Emily Large (Newcastle) to the win.For full results from the British Swimming Championships click here and for tickets click here.