Luke Greenbank Sets British 200 Back Record Of 1:55.34 At Manchester Meet
Luke Greenbank set a new British 200m backstroke record of 1:55.34 at the British Swimming Invitation Meet to slice 0.24secs from the mark held by James Goddard since 2010.
The 23-year-old, who won bronze at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, had served notice of his intentions with a PB of 1:55.69 in the morning heats at the Manchester Aquatic Centre.
That was just 0.11secs off Goddard’s national record of 1:55.58 set at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, in October 2010.
Not only did that augur well for Friday evening, but it was also an indication of an athlete capable of performing at his best come Tokyo with its morning finals.
Come the evening in Manchester and Greenbank split 27.43/56.33/1:26.03 before coming home with a 29.31 blast to write a new entry into the record books.
It cemented his place at the top of the world rankings ahead of Kosuke Hagino, the Rio 2016 400IM champion, who went 1:55.84 last week with the pair the only men to have gone inside 1:56 so far this year.
Luke Greenbank & Mel Marshall: Photo Courtesy: Mel Marshall
Greenbank said:
“I’m over the moon with that! I came into this meet wanting to build on the last one (Manchester International) and to do that in the heats gave me great confidence for the final tonight.
“I’ve had my eyes on this one for a while, but I didn’t think I’d break it in-season, I thought it’d be at trials where I could have a go at it.
“It feels absolutely amazing, and obviously it was James Goddard’s record before this and as a kid I watched him swim at an international level, so was he kind of an idol of mine, so to get that record is amazing.”
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