Great Britain Head Coach Steve Tigg On “Incredibly Positive” Table-Topping Campaign At European Championships
Great Britain head coach Steve Tigg described as “incredibly positive” the team’s performance at the European Championships where a final flourish saw them finish top of the medal table.
Great Britain ended the seven-day meet with eight golds, two silvers and four bronzes to lead the way ahead of Italy (6,8,6) and the Neutral Athletes B team (5,5,9).
Katie Shanahan (200 back), Keanna MacInnes (200 fly), Angharad Evans (100m breaststroke) and Filip Nowacki (200m breaststroke) won solo titles while the men’s, women’s and mixed 4×200 relay squads topped the podium.
James Guy: Picture Courtesy: British Swimming
Victory in the women’s medley relay on the final stroke as Freya Colbert out-touched Emma Menicucci guided them to a British and championship record of 3:53.50. It also featured a 1:03.75 breaststroke split by Angharad Evans, the fastest in history.
And it ensured Great Britain had an unassailable lead at the top of the table.
Sixteen-year-old Amalie Smith won 400IM silver while James Guy set a 200 free PB of 1:44.87 to become the first 30-something inside 1:45 en-route to bronze, 10 years after third at London 2016 and 11 year after winning the 2015 world title. The previous oldest was his GB teammate Duncan Scott at 27 and before that, Sun Yang.
MacInnes’ victory in the 200 fly as well as her contribution in the medley relay in 75 golden minutes during the final session proved pivotal.
Assessing the team’s performance ahead of the last session at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, Tigg said: “I think incredibly positive. We’ve got a real broad range of age and experience on our team now.
“We want to help the athletes who are going for their third or fourth Olympics to peak when they’re there and get the best out of it. The value they can add to the team from a behavioural and cultural architect point of view to the younger athletes is really important because it has been a good culture established through Chris (Spice, national performance director) and Bill (Furniss, ex-head coach) in the past, and we don’t want to lose it.
“But what we need to make sure is that with the younger athletes, we are driving their level of performance up. We wanted to come to this meet and see if we could see some new people really step up, and I think we have, particularly on the female side. “
“Though on the male side, Filip Nowacki has swum incredibly well. The men’s 4×2 came under a rigorous attack, but we still managed to win it. And you’ve got an example of someone like James Guy, who’s almost 31, going 1:40.0. There’s strength in that, and the message to the others is really, really powerful over the next two years.”
