British Swimming Championships 2024

[Orangehair43 285]

9 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

It's weird that the selection policy doesn't have any allowance for illness or injury going into the trials - for example UK Athletics allow athletes to skip the trials if they are injured/ill provided they have been reviewed by federation medical teams. 

 

For Anderson, I suspect that British Swimming will be willing to give her time to recover and show form - the good news from her perspective is that in her events, GB don't have multiple swimmers who are likely to be under the BST. Anna Hopkin will probably take the 100m title with Freya Colbert favourite in the 200m, but there isn't an obvious second athlete who you'd think would get below the BST.  

 

The more tricky question for the selectors will be around the relays - the 2024 season's best for the top 4 athletes is outside of the GB nomination time for both the 4x100 and 4x200. If the top 4 are outside the BST, hopefully British Swimming will be pragmatic and won't make a decision about the relay quotas until Anderson is given a chance to prove her form/fitness. 

It’s quite poor not to. Short term injuries and short illness happen all the time. I mean what would happen if norovirus swept through the championships. 

Edited March 27, 2024 by Orangehair43

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Women's 200m Butterfly:

 

 

As World Champion, Laura Stephens is probably the closest to being a nailed-on certainty for selection across women's field. It is perhaps worth saying that she put in a pretty mediocre time in Edinburgh and was beaten in the final by Macinnes. Hopefully that was just a blip but nevertheless, if Stephens wants to medal when we get to Paris, she's going to need a new PB. 

 

We could see 2 athletes in the event if either MacInnes or Large can recapture form of 2023. Large swam the BST when she took the silver medal at the British Champs last year, whilst MacInnes was just 11 hundredths of a second outside of the standard finishing third at the same event. 

 

 

Women's 100m Butterfly:

 

 

Nobody has hit the BST within the last 18 months. Laura Stephens was due to swim the event in Edinburgh but withdrew beforehand. Stephens, MacInnes and Jones are pretty evenly matched in terms of their personal bests but all three would need to find at least a second to be in with a chance of hitting the BST.

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Women's 400m Individual Medley:

 

 

Freya Colbert is another swimmer who should be virtually assured of a ticket on the Eurostar. After winning the world title in Doha, she followed that up with a win at the Edinburgh meet in a time of 4:37.72 which would have been good enough for bronze in Doha. Colbert should be joined on the train by Katie Shanahan - she achieved the BST at the British Champs last year and followed it up with another sub 4:37.00 clocking at the International Trophy Sette Colli meeting in Italy in June 2023 but she was well adrift of the standard at the Edinburgh meet.

 

Amelie Blocksidge could be the wildcard in the event and she is in PB form but still needs to find over 10 seconds if she wants to hit the BST.

 

 

Women's 200m Individual Medley:

 

 

The 200m Individual Medley is perhaps the strongest event in the women's field with 5 athletes having achieved the OQT within the last 18 months although only Abbie Wood has achieved the standard so far in 2024. She will therefore start as favourite but should be pushed by Katie Shanahan. Alicia Wilson has a PB within the BST, but that dates back to 2021 and she hasn't really threatened that time since then. 

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Finishing up the tour of the women's events with the 4x100 medley relay, the qualification time set out by Aquatics GB (Wonder how much they spent on the rebrand) is 3:56.89. That's more generous than they allowed for the 2023 World Championships but is about 2 seconds faster than the team achieved in the heats in Fukuoka. With Angharad Evans in the squad, they are likely to see improvement in the breaststroke leg but using the 2024 season's bests for the top swimmer in each discipline would generate a time of 3:57.26. 

 

This relay shouldn't be all that impacted by the absence of Freya Anderson so it will be interesting to see how Aquatics GB react in the event that they do miss the target time. 

 

 

[Orangehair43 285]

4 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Finishing up the tour of the women's events with the 4x100 medley relay, the qualification time set out by Aquatics GB (Wonder how much they spent on the rebrand) is 3:56.89. That's more generous than they allowed for the 2023 World Championships but is about 2 seconds faster than the team achieved in the heats in Fukuoka. With Angharad Evans in the squad, they are likely to see improvement in the breaststroke leg but using the 2024 season's bests for the top swimmer in each discipline would generate a time of 3:57.26. 

 

This relay shouldn't be all that impacted by the absence of Freya Anderson so it will be interesting to see how Aquatics GB react in the event that they do miss the target time. 

 

 

I imagine they would simply send the quota back. 

[RussB 189]

6 hours ago, Rafa Maciel said:

Women's 400m Individual Medley:

 

 

Freya Colbert is another swimmer who should be virtually assured of a ticket on the Eurostar. After winning the world title in Doha, she followed that up with a win at the Edinburgh meet in a time of 4:37.72 which would have been good enough for bronze in Doha. Colbert should be joined on the train by Katie Shanahan - she achieved the BST at the British Champs last year and followed it up with another sub 4:37.00 clocking at the International Trophy Sette Colli meeting in Italy in June 2023 but she was well adrift of the standard at the Edinburgh meet.

 

Amelie Blocksidge could be the wildcard in the event and she is in PB form but still needs to find over 10 seconds if she wants to hit the BST.

 

 

Women's 200m Individual Medley:

 

 

The 200m Individual Medley is perhaps the strongest event in the women's field with 5 athletes having achieved the OQT within the last 18 months although only Abbie Wood has achieved the standard so far in 2024. She will therefore start as favourite but should be pushed by Katie Shanahan. Alicia Wilson has a PB within the BST, but that dates back to 2021 and she hasn't really threatened that time since then. 

Even as big a fan of Amelie that I am,

she is not getting anywhere near Katie or Freya in the 400 IM.

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Men's 1500m Freestyle:

 

 

Daniel Jervis will start the event as the favourite and has the potential to hit the BST having already achieved the standard last year. Toby Robinson has already booked his ticket to Paris in the open water event and has an outside chance of hitting the qualifying time although admittedly, it will require a new PB. 

 

 

Men's 800m Freestyle:

 

 

The 800m is a more difficult event to call because most of the field haven't competed in 2024. Of those who have, only Melbourne-Smith has improved on his 2023 best time and indeed has set multiple PBs over the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the gap to BST is probably too steep for Paris, but the 19 year old will likely be a name to watch for LA '28. 

 

Would be good to see Luke Turley get the BST but as with all the field, he would need a new PB to get the standard so chances are we won't have anyone in this event in Paris.

[Rafa Maciel 1,658]

Men's 400m Freestyle:

 

 

With GB choosing to prioritise the relays, it is perhaps not surprising that the distance events don't have the same degree of depth that the sprint events have. As it is, Kieran Bird should start the event as favourite and, if he can be in PB form, then could make the BST. Although Bird may be favourite, the event has the potential to be quite close with Bird, Melbourne-Smith and Turley all sitting on a 3:52 season's best. 

 

 

Men's 200m Freestyle:

 

 

One of the marquee events of the meet and at least 2 of our big names are going to miss out on the event. Duncan Scott has already achieved the BST this year whilst last year's world champion Matt Richards has the OQT. Scott and Richards are perhaps marginal favourites to get the individual quotas but we can't write off Tom Dean - he hasn't competed so far this year so we've no indication of his current form.

 

Ultimately, I think there is a decent chance that we end up with at least 4 swimmers achieving the BST.

Edited April 1, 2024 by Rafa Maciel

[Orangehair43 285]

I wonder if the BBC will mention on air the relay issues as the champs go ahead or it won’t be apparent till they quietly reject a few quotas. 

[RussB 189]

BBC seem to have forgotten Jimmy Guy exists which is a bit of an oversight 🤣

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/swimming/68625830