Great Britain's top swimmers showed glimpses of what's to come in this evening's shootout for podium places, with a series of solid displays in the opening heats session of the championships.
Olympic champion Freya Anderson led the way in the Women’s 200m Freestyle heats, with a host of international medal-winning athletes joining the Bath Performance Centre woman in the provisional top-eight.
Anderson put a body length between her and the rest of the competition in her heat before winding down through the last 50 metres to take what looked to be an easy win. It was also a similar trend for Loughborough Performance Centre’s Abbie Wood – the 24-year-old touching just behind Anderson to provisionally take lane five for tonight’s A final.
Each event up to and including 400m distance will feature Junior, Priority Paris, B and A finals.
The Men’s 100m Breaststroke was arguably the closest event of the morning, with Edinburgh University’s Archie Goodburn putting in a scintillating performance to get the edge over Loughborough Performance Centre duo James Wilby and Greg Butler.
Goodburn looked good value for his performance – looking pleasantly surprised with his performance ahead of a tense showdown this evening, with the trio separated by just over a tenth of a second.
Imogen Clark swam a season’s best time to send her through to tonight’s final as the provisional fastest seed in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke.
The Derventio Excel athlete, who took bronze in the same event at last year’s European Aquatics Championships, led from the off in her seeded heat- powering ahead with every stroke to touch comfortably ahead of the rest of the field. The Edinburgh University pairing of Kara Hanlon and Katie Goodburn finished just behind the 23-year-old in second and third respectively.
The strong swimming continued in the Men’s 50m Backstroke, as University of Birmingham’s Oliver Morgan continued his impressive recent form to get himself a provisional lane four spot.
The 2003-born athlete was engaged in a close battle with Edinburgh University’s Scott Gibson, but did just enough to get in front of a tightly packed field – the top eight separated by just half a second. All athletes will be thinking they have a lot more to give once the finals begin at 6pm.
The Men’s 400m Freestyle provisional finalists were split by just a few seconds across the eight lengths of the Ponds Forge pool – as European gold medallist Kieran Bird got the better of his distance counterparts to put him in prime position for the gold medal later.
It was a similar story for the final women’s event of the morning, as the heats set up a nail-biting encounter between Loughborough Performance Centre’s Freya Colbert and University of Stirling’s Katie Shanahan.
The pair put in solid performances in their respective heats – with just over a second separating the pair as Shanahan took the edge ahead of the A final. City of Leeds’ Leah Schlosshan isn’t without a shout for the top positions though, as the European junior champion in the 200 metre event held her own to take third spot ahead of what will be a spectacle on the first night of racing.
The afternoon heats session begins at 1pm, with the finals underway at 6pm.
For the full results, as well as how to watch the rest of the action, check out our "What's On?" page.