James Guy swims Olympic standard, Ben Proud clocks world’s second fastest 50m free

Benjamin Proud swam the second fastest splash and dash in the world this year at the London Aquatics Centre on Saturday night clocking 21.42s, faster than USA’s Ryan Held (21.62) and just one hundredth of a second off Vlad Morozov’s world leading time.

2017 50m fly world champ Proud didn’t take a single breath as he powered his way into contention for his second Games in a row. Yusuke Legard was second in 22.10 and 16-year-old swim sensation Jacob Whittle third on 22.55.

Whittle is already in with a great shout to make the Tokyo team after he went 48.7 in the 100 freestyle, a new lifetime best.

This was Proud’s only swim this week and he was well inside the Olympic consideration time, the Plymouth flyer was all smiles afterwards. “For the Olympics this year I really want to hone in on that 50, if I’m going to do it then I have to be able to get up and go when needed,” he said afterwards.

“Going to the last Olympics it was my first one, it was all quite new so I’ve had a host of experience since then and I’m hoping to do the best I can, just get the best work I can leading into it and we’ll see what happens.”

Anderson and Hopkin make 100m free Olympic time

20-year-old Freya Anderson and 24-year-old Anna Hopkin served up a thriller in the women’s 100m freestyle, both went under the Olympic consideration time of 53.88s with just nine hundredths of a second between the two.

Anderson clocked 53.40 and Hopkin 53.49.

Anderson, who trains at the Bath National Centre, is a two-time long-course European champion. She also won a mixed medley bronze in Gwangju in 2019, and now having swum inside the Olympic consideration time on both the 100 and 200 free, looks certain to make her first Olympic team.

Anna Hopkin’s straight-arm stroke powered her through a fine swim, leading right to the final 10 metres when a strong finish from Anderson allowed her to steal past Hopkin at the board.

“I know how fast Anna is over the first 50 metres so it was the only way I could swim it really, just try and claw it back,” Anderson said afterwards. “It’s amazing to see we both got under the time and it’s amazing to see the 100 free has got so competitive.”

Asked what it’s been like in the bubble because of COVID-19 at these trials Anderson said:

“It’s definitely been different, there’s not much of an atmosphere, no crowd, but I’ve got a great support team around me which have made is seem easy and really fun.”

There was an impressive swim too from Edinburgh University’s Lucy Hope who set a new Scottish record at 54.19s.

James Guy and Jacob Peters crack 100m Butterfly time

In one of the most hotly anticipated races of the night, James Guy clocked 51.44 to go well under the Olympic qualification standard of 51.96 with Jacob Peters chasing him all the way to record a 51.65 – also inside the consideration time.

Guy, a 4x100m medley relay world champion, missed out on Olympic pre-selection as he did not win an individual medal in Gwangju.

The 2015 world champion in the 200m freestyle, won two relay silvers at Rio 2016 and proved in London this weekend that he’s dead set on that spot at a second Games.

"It's been a good few days so far,” Guy said, “I had a good 200 fly on the first day, the 100 time was ok, that's the fastest I've been for a few years so things are going quite well. Obviously not the time I was hoping for but hopefully I can progress that at the Olympics."

Asked how he’s going to prepare for the 200 freestyle final tomorrow he added this with a little laugh: "I think I'm going to go back home, put on some dinner and watch some Benidorm (TV Series!) and just chill out."

Kathleen Dawson swims new Scottish record

It was a University of Stirling 1-2 in the women’s 200m backstroke as Kathleen Dawson dominated and Cassie Wild finished strongly in second.

Dawson swam 2:08.14 to shatter her own previous Scottish record of 2:09.44, comfortably inside the 2:08.44 Olympic consideration mark set by British Swimming. Wild clocked 2:10.94 with a big push in the final 25 metres as Dawson pulled away.

Dawson added this 200m backstroke Olympic consideration time to the brilliant 100m backstroke swim that also backed up her Olympic credentials earlier in the trials.

Understandably, she was pretty pleased. “I’m delighted, it feels amazing, I knew I got the job done in the hundred, so I was just coming into this having a bit of fun, well, as much fun as you can have in a 200m back, but, it was great to come away with that time.”

Asked what her goals heading into the summer are, Dawson said: “I would love to be in the 4x100m mixed medley, I know that’s a huge medal chance so that’d be amazing.”

Wood and Wilson ace 200m Individual Medley

Abbie Wood (2:09.23) and Alicia Wilson (2:09.61) both came home well under the Olympic consideration mark of 2:11.10 in the women’s 200m IM. For Wood it was a new lifetime best by one tenth of a second, and she was pushed all the way by Wilson.

Loughborough swimmer Wood had this to say after another exciting race: “I think I was just wanting to have a fun race really, I thought the pressure was off after the 200 breaststroke (where she also cracked the Olympic mark) and I knew I was in better form than I thought I was. I just wanted to see what I could get out of me and it was a good race with Alicia.”

On Monday Wood will be in action again: “I’m having a go at the 100m breaststroke but I’m just going to race it with my teammates Sarah and Molly and just have a bit more fun and see what’ll happen, I don’t really expect too much.”

Sunday 18 April is the final day of the British swim trials, check the schedule below and stay tuned for the results :

Men's 1500 m freestyle

Women's 1500 m freestyle

Women's 100 m breaststroke

Men's 200 m backstroke

Women's 50 m freestyle

Men's 200 m freestyle

All sessions will be live streamed on the British Swimming YouTube page.