Molly Renshaw set herself up for a shot at the Women’s 100m and 200m Breaststroke double after qualifying fastest for the longer distance final in another enthralling heats session at the British Swimming Glasgow Meet.
Renshaw, who trains under David Hemmings at the Loughborough National Centre, is looking to carry the momentum of victory in the 200m Breaststroke at the European Championships into her second Olympic Games next month – and she produced a promising heats swim to secure lane four, with training partner Abbie Wood also continuing her successful weekend by qualifying second. Renshaw had earlier triumphed in the 100m final.
Ross Murdoch – who went under the Olympic consideration mark in London in April – was the fastest overall in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke heats, finishing ahead of James Wilby, while there was an outstanding performance from Scott Quin, as the Rio Paralympian went more than a second under the SB14 world record time, set in 2019 by Russia’s Artem Pavlenko.
A busy Saturday was rounded out with a statement performance from young Jacob Whittle, as the Derventio Excel athlete clocked the fastest time across four heats in the Men’s 100m Freestyle, narrowly breaking his own age-group record of 48.76 in the process.
Whittle was joined in the top three qualifiers by Tom Dean and Matthew Richards, and that should be an enthralling way to bring the curtain down on the open meet on Sunday lunchtime.
Anna Hopkin, meanwhile, will start as favourite in the Women’s 100m Freestyle, going close to the Tokyo consideration standard that she surpassed during the Selection Trials to lead the way in the heats. Lucy Hope, fresh from 200m Freestyle victory in the morning, was next fastest, ahead of Freya Anderson.
Holly Hibbott and Luke Turley secured themselves the centre lanes for the 400m Freestyle finals. Bath National Centre athlete Hibbott will look to build on this effort to go under the consideration time in her favoured freestyle distance, while Turley pulled clear in his heat to qualify fastest for the men’s event, ahead of Max Litchfield and Keiran Bird in the subsequent heat.
The multi-classification final could also be another entertaining one for the women after Maisie Summers-Newton, Ellie Simmonds and Toni Shaw all swam well.
Joe Litchfield will be pushing for the Tokyo consideration mark in the Men’s 100m Backstroke final on Sunday morning after a pacey heats swim saw him top of the qualifying pile. The versatile Loughborough National Centre athlete took it out fast and finished well too. In the Women’s 100m Backstroke, Georgia Davies will head into the final as favourite after qualifying comfortably fastest.
Saturday’s open heats began with some sprinting in the Men’s and Women’s 50m Butterfly. Ben Proud, who is focused on the 50m Freestyle as he targets Olympic success, led the qualifying in the fly, with Adam Barrett of Wycombe District narrowly behind him after a strong heat swim. Lyndon Longhorne, meanwhile, lowered another of his S4 British records in the first heat.
Keanna MacInnes continued an encouraging meet by securing herself lane four for Sunday’s final in the women’s event, with Grace Harvey (S6) and Leah O’Connell (S7) both clocking promising times ahead of the finals.
The second batch of junior heat-declared-winner races took place in the afternoon session. The winners of each event are below.
JUNIOR HEATS
Girls’ 400m Individual Medley – Leah Schlosshan (City of Leeds)
Boys’ 200m Individual Medley – Evan Jones (Millfield)
Girls’ 100m Breaststroke – Sienna Robinson (City of Sheffield)
Boys’ 100m Breaststroke – Sam Van Der Stroom (Mount Kelly)
Girls’ 200m Butterfly – Ashleigh Baillie (City of Sheffield)
Boys’ 100m Freestyle – Stanislas Chausson (Millfield)
Girls’ 200m Freestyle – Lucy Hedley (Newcastle)
Boys’ 800m Freestyle – Thomas Trebilcock (Plymouth Leander)