British Championships, Day 6 Men’s Finals: Guy & Scott In Centre Lanes As 200 Free Showdown Looms
James Guy and Duncan Scott are in the centre lanes for what’s expected to be a high-octane tussle for the remaining 200 free slot at the Singapore worlds on the final evening of the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships in London.
Guy posted 1:46.85 and Scott went 1:47.31 in prelims as four men went 1:47 while the likes of Jack McMillan – who swam the prelims of the 4×2 in Paris before the quartet went on to win an historic gold – also progressed.
Matt Richards has already been preselected for the 200 free thanks to his silver medal at the Olympics where David Popovici took the title by 0.02 ahead of the Briton.
Luke Greenbank looked like he’d returned to the sort of form that brought him Olympic and world medals as he led the way in the 200 back while Jacob Peters headed the 50 fly with Ben Proud looking to add a second event to his World Championship programme as well as the 50 free.
To qualify for the Singapore worlds – which run from 27 July to 3 August – a swimmer must finish first in an Olympic event and record a time that equals or betters those in the table below. Athletes that finish second in a time equal or better than that in the table will be considered for selection to a team that will have a maximum of 30 athletes.
Men’s 50 Fly
Ben Proud got his hand to the wall first in 23.21 to take the title ahead of Jacob Peters and Josh Gammon who shared silver in 23.44. It was a seventh title for Proud in the one-length event although he wasn’t impressed by his execution. “If I look at that race I thought it was pretty dreadful,” said the 2017 world champion. “Bad start, bad breakout, bad finish. There were some elements in there that must have been good but I kind of felt like this whole day – especially coming into this race – was just practicing that mindset again. Yesterday (the 50 free) was very much stress-driven – you have to be on it and really firing whereas 50 fly you almost want to take a step back and so my preparation was kind of geared towards that. It just comes down to getting your hand on the wall….it’s nice to have another British title.”
