Abbie Wood, Freya Anderson and Tamryn Van Selm look to have set up an intriguing Women's 200m Freestyle final as the British Swimming Championships 2022 dived into action at Ponds Forge this morning (Tuesday 5th April).
With spectators back in the stands, there was cheering from every side of the pool as the first of around 1,500 athletes competing this week began their programmes at British Swimming's flagship domestic meet, three years since the previous in this format.
Among those were the aforementioned freestyle trio, who were separated by less than three tenths of a second ahead of what should be an eye-catching contest in the evening's A final - one of four finals (A, B, Priority Paris and Junior) being swum for each event.
Over the longer 400m distance in the men's category, City of Swansea competitor Daniel Jervis - who is coached by Adam Baker - paced himself well to top the morning heats standings. The distance freestyler showed good form for the week ahead with his effort, ahead of Loughborough University's William Bell and Bath National Centre man Luke Turley.
Amber Keegan impressed in her home pool to qualify fastest for the Women's 400m Individual Medley final. The City of Sheffield swimmer built a good lead after three legs of medley swimming and held on well down the freestyle length to beat Katie Shanahan (City of Glasgow) and Lily Booker (Loughborough National Centre) to lane four for the final.
In the final event of the morning, Adam Peaty got his British Championship meet underway with a solid heats display in the Men's 100m Breaststroke. In the event that has brought him a pair of Olympic titles, the Mel Marshall-coached man did what he needed to do secure the centre berth later in the day. James Wilby looked good to finish just shy of Peaty's time for second fastest on the morning.
The first heats session of the meet began with some sprinting, across the Women's 50m Breaststroke and Men's 50m Backstroke.
Edinburgh University's Scott Gibson got the better of that latter event ahead of the afternoon swims, ensuring himself the centre lane for the A final. In the 50m Breaststroke, meanwhile, Imogen Clark set the pace as the only swimmer under 31 seconds for the heats, the Derventio athlete leading Kara Hanlon (Edinburgh University) and Sarah Vasey (Loughborough National Centre) as the top three through to the finals.
Given the number of athletes competing in Sheffield, this week's meet features morning and afternoon heats across each of the six days, with the fastest heats (on entry time) going earlier in the day. The afternoon heats get underway at 1pm, ahead of tonight's finals at 6pm. Every session is being shown via our Deep End Live coverage on the British Swimming YouTube channel.
For the full results and start lists, click here.