Renshaw and Peaty on form on night two in Glasgow

17 Apr 2019

National Centre Loughborough swimmers Adam Peaty and Molly Renshaw produced a pair of impressive swims at the Tollcross Internation Swimming Centre on the second day of action.

After taking gold in the 100m on Tuesday evening, Peaty returned to the pool with the bit between his teeth, delivering a strong swim to take the Men’s 50m Breaststroke title. In front of a home crowd Ross Murdoch and Craig Benson both went one better than they achieved in the 100m, the University of Stirling duo taking silver and bronze respectively.

Whilst still a truly world class time, Peaty had hoped to go quicker, commenting:

“For me it was just about getting out there and swimming, but I’m a little bit disappointed to be honest, as disappointed as you can be with a 26 point! I put expectations on myself, but this time of year the speed just doesn’t come that easy. My motivation is sky high, and doing swims like that I want more out of myself. I know there’s definitely a 25 in there somewhere but maybe that comes with an even faster 100m - who knows.”

Both Murdoch and Benson will return for their specialist event, the Men’s 200m Breaststroke, which takes place on Friday – expect Commonwealth Games champion James Wilby to be in the mix in that one too.

Sticking with that event, the Women’s 200m Breaststroke brought the curtain down on another action packed evening, Molly Renshaw giving the crowd one final cheer as she took gold inside the consideration time for the World Championships in South Korea in July. It was an impressive performance by the Dave Hemmings coached athlete, as she led from start to finish to achieve her goal at this championships.

Speaking post-race Renshaw said:

“That’s what I wanted, to get it ticked off early. I would have liked to have gone faster as I’m training well and I’m really consistent and I’m so much stronger in the gym and pool, so I thought it would be faster, but this time of year I’ve got to be happy. That’s definitely given me a confidence boost.”

Stockport Metro’s Katie Matts took her second silver in two days, whilst Jocelyn Ulyett returned to something like the form she showed when winning here two years ago, the Loughborough University swimmer taking bronze.

In one of the hardest events of the championships, the Men’s 200m Butterfly, it really was a war of attrition, as the key names attacked the race from the get go. Reaching the halfway mark in 54.7, National Centre Bath’s James Guy had a commanding lead, but despite tiring down the closing length he still struck gold. Chasing him down was Duncan Scott and he eventually got within half a second, with fastest qualifier Jacob Peters bagging bronze.

Of his performance Guy said:

“It felt like it was hard to go through the gears tonight, but usually the first race is the toughest one. It was a solid swim and a nice little win there as well. We know we can medal in the relay events across the world and be good at that but I want to be the old James Guy and be a fighting and an attacking swimmer and try and get the top three medal places in the Worlds and Europeans again.”

Both the Men’s and Women’s 100m Backstroke took place on Wednesday evening, with Luke Greenbank taking the men’s race and hot favourite Georgia Davies the women’s. For Greenbank, it was a breakthrough swim, as he delivered the kind of potential he showed as a junior with a lifetime best performance of 53.92, his first time inside 54 seconds. Leading all the way, the Mel Marshall coached athlete couldn’t quite secure the consideration time, but he’ll hope he can in the 200m on Sunday. In the race for the minor medals Joe Litchfield edged out Nick Pyle, with Brodie Williams coming home in fourth.

Luke Greenbank

For Welsh star Georgia Davies it was a night of mixed emotions, as she was pleased to take yet another British title but disappointed not to go inside the consideration time for Gwangju. Like Greenbank she led all the way, the result never looking in doubt, with Bath’s Jessica Fullalove taking second and Kathleen Dawson third as she continues her return from injury.

The Isle of Man’s Charlotte Atkinson took gold in the Women’s 50m Butterfly with a strong swim, which sets her up nicely for the longer event later in the week. Afterwards she commented:

“I feel really happy with that; it’s started on a positive note so I’m excited to see what the next swim will bring.”

The first event of the night saw Leah Crisp take gold, the Leeds swimmer taking the Women’s 800m Freestyle title thanks to a five second personal best. The first surprise winner of the week, Crisp saw off seasoned competition in the form of open water swimmer Danielle Huskisson, with Emily Clarke rounding out the podium.

The live stream resumes at 10am tomorrow morning in the Deep End Live studio, with the finals kicking off at 6.30pm. Head to the British Swimming Facebook and YouTube channels to ensure you don’t miss out.

If you’re up in Glasgow, a limited number of tickets are still available on the door at the venue.

For full results from today’s action please click here