As Mark Szaranek’s Cali Condors progress alongside LA Current, Ulyett and Lelliot round out their International Swimming League (ISL) campaign under Toronto Titans colours with a set of superb swims.
The ‘Condors’ will go into next week’s final as favourites after remaining undefeated as a team for the duration of their time in the Margaret Island bubble, and Mark Szaranek stepped his performances up a gear to help punch that Grand Final ticket as he produced a second place swim in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley.
At the sharp end of the race throughout, the University of Stirling based swimmer briefly held the lead at the breaststroke to freestyle turn, and whilst unable to hold off Leonardo Santos over the final 100m, Szaranek will no doubt be pleased to have knocked over two and a half seconds off his ISL season’s best, with the final now looming.
The Toronto Titans were considered underdog’s coming into this semi-final and whilst unable to cause an upset in the overall team rankings, Jocelyn Ulyett, who's coached by Ian Hulme at Loughborough University put in another bright showing for her team in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke - the British short course record holder in the event once again battling into the podium positions to claim her third top three of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Jay Lelliot also ended his debut ISL season with a brace of fourth place finishes for the Canadian based franchise. With four days rest from racing ahead of this semi-final, the City of Sheffield athlete produced a personal best in Men’s 200m Backstroke on Sunday evening, before again proving to be in the form of his life as he lowered his lifetime mark in the 200m Butterfly for the second time in a week.
British representation for Iron across the two days included Ross Murdoch and Isabella Hindley, with the former competing across all the breaststroke distances and claiming a pair of fifths in the 50m event as well as his favoured 200m.
With the Cali Condors and LA Current now confirmed for the final four, this coming weekend sees a repeat of the line-up that competed in the showpiece ending to the 2019 campaign, as alongside London Roar they will attempt to take the title away from reigning ISL champions Energy Standard.
Both sessions of the final will be available to watch live on BBC Sport online and the red button at 1-3pm, Saturday 21st and 5-7pm, Sunday 22nd November. Full results and competition info can be found on https://isl.global/.