British Trials, Day 1 Prelims: Adam Peaty Goes 58.53 For Fastest Time Since Tokyo
Adam Peaty produced his fastest 100m breaststroke since winning the Olympic title when he went 58.53 at the Aquatics Centre in London.
It was also the fastest in the world this year, 0.04 swifter than the 58.57 in which Nic Fink won the title at the 2024 World Championships in Doha.
The meet, which runs from 2-7 April, features an integrated Olympic and Paralympic programme including the likes of Peaty, Tom Dean, Maisie Summers-Newton and Alice Tai at the venue which hosted the pool competition at the 2012 Olympics.
With no semifinals, the top eight in prelims qualify straight to finals with the ninth to 16th into the B final.
Freya Colbert and Laura Stephens, who claimed the 400IM and 200 fly titles at the Doha worlds in February, will also compete this morning.
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Men’s 400m Freestyle
No swimmer had been inside the four-minute mark until the sixth and penultimate heat when Luke Turley led six inside four minutes in 3:52.56.
Kieran Bird dominated the final heat to book lane four for the final in 3:51.54 followed by Turley, Alexander Sergeant (3:53.19) and Tyler Melbourne-Smith (3:53.85).
Reece Grady (3:54.37), Harry Wynne-Jones (3:54.49) and Luke Hornsey (3:55.12) also made it through to the final with Arthur Logan claiming the eighth and final spot in 3:57.32.
Women’s 200m Butterfly
Keanna MacInnes was 0.61 outside her Scottish record of 2:08.05 as she led the qualifiers in 2:08.66.
Stephens, with a best of 2:06.62 from last year, won the final prelim in 2:10.50 to book lane five for the final with Emily Large next through in 2:10.77.
Stephens, who became the first British woman to win a world fly title with 200 gold in Doha, told Swimming World:
“It’s a nice one coming in on day one: you don’t really know what to expect on day one, you kind of have to get one or two under your belt to get into the meet.
“I feel like I’ve done that this morning.
“There’s no messing around, it is straight back for the final tonight so I need to give that everything I’ve got.”
Also through: Lucy Grieve (2:12.11), Shannon Stott (2:12.13), Ciara Schlossan (2:13.34), Lucy Fox (2:13.63) and Ekaterina Price (2:14.45).
Women’s 200m Freestyle
The field was shorn of Freya Anderson as she recovers from glandular fever with namesake Freya Colbert heading the entries.
Abbie Wood headed the prelims in 1:58.49 ahead of Lucy Hope (1:58.98), Colbert (1:59.61() and Medi Harris (1:59.98), the quartet all inside 2mins with relay spots also on the line in Tuesday’s final.
Also through: Leah Schlossan (2:00.32), Holly Hibbott (2:00.51), Jemima Hall (2:00.74) and Erin Little.
Men’s 100m Breaststroke
Out in 27.09 and back in 31.44, Peaty took 0.07 off his 58.60 in the semis in Doha before claiming bronze, which had been his swiftest since claiming the Olympic title.
It begs the question of what he will do tonight, and after a wave to the crowd from poolside, Peaty told Swimming World:
“Very, very good. Just tried to have a little bit of a masterclass in technique and strategy..
“This morning I missed the turn a little bit but I’m just getting used to that speed again and a fully-tapered version, I’ve not had that since Tokyo really where the stroke feels really strong.
“And that is actually harder to get used to than a fatigued state.
“So it felt really good: there’s a lot of promising things in there.
“I am an emotional swimmer and an emotional person: you know, that’s almost a danger for everyone else when I activate that.”
The last time the British Championships were held at the Aquatics Centre was back in 2015 when Peaty set his first world record, going 57.92.
With a nod to the intervening nine years, Peaty added:
He added:
“With all the stuff we’ve done and gone through, I think this is a moment where it’s an opportunity to go full circle, we still need to grab it.
“That swim there was probably the easiest 100 I’ve done in about five years, since 2019, even Tokyo was hard.”
Loughborough training mate Greg Butler was second-fastest through in 1:00.29 ahead of James Wilby (1:00.38), Archie Goodburn (1:00.44), Filip Nowacki (1:01.46), Rory Dickson (1:01.62) and Max Morgan (1:01.64) with Pravin Mahendrakumar claiming the eighth and final spot in 1:02.02.