British Championships, Day 5 Prelims: Ben Proud Launches 50 Free Campaign As Jacob Mills, 17, Posts 21.9 Top Time
Olympic silver medallist Ben Proud gets his world trials programme underway in the 50 free prelims on the penultimate day of competition at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.
The 30-year-old made history at Paris 2024 when he became the first British man to claim a medal in the one-length event with silver behind Cam McEvoy of Australia and one place ahead of Florent Manaudou.
He goes in the final prelim in the lane alongside Lewis Burras who took silver behind Proud at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Proud made history days later at the European Championships to become the only man to hold world, Commonwealth and continental titles, a treble he completed in less than eight busy weeks that summer.
Abbie Wood and Katie Shanahan have already qualified for the World Championships in the 4IM and 200 back respectively and meet in the 200IM prelims. The session also features the women’s 100 fly and men’s 200m breaststroke and 800 free.
The meet doubles as trials for the World Championships which run in Singapore from 27 July to 3 August. Swimmers who won a medal in an individual event at Paris 2024 will be selected to the Great Britain team for this event, Proud among them with medals at the last three worlds across Budapest, Fukuoka and Doha in February last year.
To qualify for worlds, a swimmer must finish first in an Olympic event and record a time that equals or betters those in the table below. Athletes that finish second in a time equal or better than that in the table will be considered for selection to a team that will have a maximum of 30 athletes.
Women’s 100 Fly
Keanna MacInnes booked her place on the plane to Singapore earlier this week in the 200 fly. The Scot will be in lane four for Saturday’s 100 final after posting 58.16 ahead of University of Stirling teammate Lucy Grieve (58.34).
Men’s 200m Breaststroke
Greg Butler booked lane four in 2:13.14 with the 100 title already in the bag. Filip Nowacki will be alongside him in 2:13.76. It’s an event in which Great Britain has enjoyed success with Michael Jamieson winning Olympic silver in the very same pool in 2012 and James Wilby and Ross Murdoch claiming armfuls of world, European and Commonwealth medals.
Men’s 50 Free
Jacob Mills has had an eye-opening campaign in London. The 17-year-old went 48.03 in the 100 free to dip inside the Singapore QT behind winner Matt Richards. The Repton swimmer returned for the 50 where he went in the ninth of 10 prelims and posted 21.96. Proud eased through the final metres in the last heat to stop the clock in 22.06 and book lane five alongside Mills. Alex Cohoon was third through in 22.22, one place ahead of Richards (22.24) as 0.67 separated the eight qualifiers.
It was a PB by 0.42sec for Mills and his first voyage inside 22secs as he moved up to sixth GB performer all-time alongside Mark Foster.
Given Proud has been pre-selected for Singapore, does London give him the chance to learn or to tweak? “Definitely. This meet stands for quite a lot. I’m probably the only person under this roof right now who can utilise the pre-qualification. All the other guys are either not swimming this summer or they want to qualify in other events. So for me, I really wanted to come into this and make the most of the fact I’m already heading to Singapore: there’s nothing for me to gain this week. So I wanted to make it a bit of a challenge, get some racing, go head to head with some other guys. I still think that I can go quick but I’m doing more than I can to make it tougher. ”
Women’s 200IM
Wood and Shanahan will be alongside each other in the centre lanes for what promises to be a fine final. Wood – a finalist at the last two Olympics – posted 2:12.53 with Shanahan going 2:13.49. Leah Schlosshan was next through in 2:15.25.
Men’s 800 Free Slowest Heats
James Froggatt headed the slowest heats in 8:08.82 ahead of Ethan Kelly (8:14.87). The fastest heat will be contested in the evening final where Reece Grady will clinch the distance double if he prevails. There’ll be no Dan Jervis however with the three-time British champion over 800 now retired and part of the commentary team on poolside.
