ASA British Swimming Championships 2015

Last week saw the some of the highest performing swimmers from all corners of Britain converge on the Aquatics Centre in London for the British Swimming Championships.

It was the first time since the Olympic trials of 2012 that the venue has been used to host a British Championship event. Swimmers were vying for places on Team GB to compete at the FINA world Championships in Kazan, Russia, as well as the European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the European Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The British team had previously had a fantastic European Championships, topping the medal table for the first time, so expectations for some world class swimming was high. It was no surprise then to see that the swimmers didn’t disappoint, with the highlight of the Championships being Adam Peaty of City of Derby beating the 100 metres Breastroke World record by a considerable margin!

Bluefins had two swimmers qualify for the championships, Adam Milne and Mitchell Coombes, both members of the clubs  Performance Squad. With Adam kicking off the boys swims with the 100 metres Backstroke event, he raced well, particularly making use of his undoubted skill in the underwater phases of his race. He was first in his heat to the 15 metre mark, pushing on to a season’s best time of 59.51, which was agonisingly close to his lifetime best of 59.11.

Mitchell was next up in the 200 metres Breastroke event. This was undoubtedly the highest level of competition that Mitchell had ever taken part in to date in his swimming career, and he handled the pressure with real professionalism and courage. This was even more applaudable considering the fact that he has not been on his best form following a period of illness! Mitchell fought all the way in this, one of the most gruelling events on the programme, to record a time of 2.33.48. The time was shy of his lifetime best of 2.29.70, but considerably faster than his performance at a recent meet, which gives a great indication that he is on his way back to full fitness.

Adams second race of the championships, the 100 metres Butterfly, was held on the last day of the meet. He again demonstrated some superb underwater speed and skill, and powered through to a lifetime best of 56.89, which hopefully will be enough to secure him a place as a qualifier for the British Summer Championships which is to be held in July.

A big congratulations should go to both the boys for qualifying for this, the toughest competition on the GB Domestic Calendar so far this year!