Welsh wonder Alys Thomas got her bid for Women’s 200m Butterfly glory off to the perfect start on the third morning of the 2019 British Swimming Championships, comfortably advancing to tonight’s final.
With all eyes on the Welsh Commonwealth Games champion, Thomas made light work of winning the final heat, to book her place in lane four for tonight’s final. Bronze medallist in this very pool at last summer’s European Championships, Thomas will be hoping to book her spot on the team for the World Championships in Gwangju in July.
Speaking after advancing, Alys said:
“It was pretty good, pretty steady. I’m happy with that for a heat swim, I just hope I can move it on for the final. I’m pretty excited for the final now; I know the girls will be there with me so I just hope it’ll be a good race, as I’m looking forward to it.”
The Men’s 100m Freestyle also went to script, with favourite
Duncan Scott advancing half a second quicker than his nearest rival, as he,
like Thomas, looks to book a place on the plane to South Korea in his favourite
event. Duncan’s namesake and University of Stirling training partner Scott
McClay was next to qualify with a strong swim, whilst Jack Thorpe and David Cumberlidge also looked good taking the next two spots.
National Centre Loughborough’s Max Litchfield headed Men’s 400m Individual Medley qualifying on Thursday morning, both he and brother Jack taking two of the top three lanes in the final, only separated by Carnegie’s Mark Szranek. With the Dave Hemming coached brothers drawn in the final heat, Szranek eased to victory in his heat, his first race back on native shores since Glasgow 2018.
Afterwards the Scot said:
“The swim was fine, my first one of the meet, so hopefully I get a middle lane for the final so I can go for it tonight and have a good race. This is my first meet back here since the Europeans; I like this pool, I like racing here. I’m glad to be home!”
Discussing his swim, where he was drawn in the lane next to his younger brother, Max commented:
“It was a good heat swim, really solid, nice, strong and fluid through there and through the strokes. I’ve got plenty more in the bag for tonight, but to have gone in there and to feel nice and strong and smooth is really positive. I’m looking forward to tonight now.
“It’s always awesome to swim next to Joe. We train with each other every day and to be there racing against him and for him to have a good heat swim as well is great. I think we’re swimming next to each other again tonight so it’s really nice to go head to head with him.”
The Women’s 50m Freestyle got the third day of swimming underway, Anna Hopkin heading the qualifiers as she looks to improve on fourth in the Women’s 50m Butterfly last night, whilst Freya Anderson was back in the pool fresh from taking the Women’s 200m Freestyle title and will line up in lane five in the final.
The final event of the morning session was the Men’s 1500m Freestyle, where Max Murphy was the quickest of the four heats. Murphy will have to wait for the final fastest heat, which takes place this evening, to see whether he’s done enough to get on the podium. All eyes will be on Dan Jervis this evening, after he took the Men’s 400m Freestyle title on the opening night.
The live stream resumes at 6pm this evening in the Deep End Live studio, with the finals kicking off at 6.30pm. Head to the British Swimming Facebook and YouTube channels to ensure you don’t miss out.
If you’re up in Glasgow, a limited number of tickets are still available on the door at the venue.
For full results from today’s action please click here