Loughborough swimmers strike gold in Manchester
LOUGHBOROUGH swimmers were on top form as elite swimming competition returned at the Manchester International Swim Meet.
Molly Renshaw led the way on day one as she matched the British record in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke - she clocked 2:22.08 to break her five-year-old personal best and tie the best ever by a British swimmer, ahead of training partner Abbie Wood – who also swam well to beat her own best previous time.
The victory for Olympian Renshaw was a pleasing one for her – and one she had hoped was on the cards after an encouraging training period at the Loughborough National Centre.
She said: “Training has been going really and I’ve been swimming faster than I ever have in training, so it’s nice to reassure myself that I can do it in a race as well.
“Our whole group has been training really well and Abbie has been PBing in training too, so for the whole group, it’s a chance to come here and prove we can replicate the times we’ve been doing in Loughborough. Abbie did amazing, and it’s always good to have her to train with and see her doing well.
“It’s a bit strange as this is definitely not your normal kind of competition. This morning was a nice chance to blow away the cobwebs and then refocus in for tonight and try to get a time out of myself. Hopefully we’ll have spectators back on some scale soon!”
Given the unique training circumstances of the past year, those were a couple of highly impressive statistics for Renshaw and Wood – and there were some similarly encouraging performances throughout the evening finals.
Luke Greenbank looked strong in winning the Men’s 200m Backstroke, coming within half-a-second of the British record, less than a month after the Mel Marshall-trained athlete was confirmed on the plane to Tokyo for this summer’s Olympic Games.
Among the other notable results on day one Adam Peaty delivered a strong display to take the Men’s 100m Breaststroke crown, with James Wilby clocking a solid final time for silver, while in the 50m freestyle final, Joe Litchfield claimed second spot behind Matt Richards.
Georgia Davies took gold in the Women’s 50m Backstroke after a battle with Sweden’s Louise Hansson, whilst Anna Hopkin and Freya Anderson were separated by a mere three hundredths of a second in the Women’s 50m Freestyle showpiece, Hopkin ultimately getting the edge.
On day two Molly Renshaw added the 100m breaststroke title to her 200m crown relying on a powerful final 25m to edge out Sarah Vasey, while Adam Peaty also struck double gold powering away to win the Men’s 50m Breaststroke.
On day three, Abbie Wood dropped more than two seconds off her Women’s 200m Individual Medley personal best to end a brilliant weekend in style at the Manchester International Swim Meet.
The 21-year-old made her intentions clear from the opening metres of the butterfly leg, streaking clear of the field and increasing her lead from there to secure a dominant victory – her second of the meet after an exciting 200m Freestyle triumph on Saturday.
With Wood also beating her personal best in the 200m Breaststroke on day one, it all added up to a stunning few days’ work after this eagerly-anticipated return to elite long-course competition.
On her impressive results, Wood said: “I’m over the moon, really. It’s come as quite a big surprise. Off the back of International Swimming League (ISL), I was hoping to back it up over long course, but there’s always the thing in the back of your head, wondering whether it will happen! But long course has really come together for me now, which is really positive.
“I felt, because it was the end of the meet, I just had to be on a bit of a mission and go into the 200m IM with tunnel vision, I had a few swims in me that I’d done and though I was hurting a bit, I’m really glad I dragged that out of myself.
“I actually think the 200m Breaststroke was the highlight for me on Friday, just because it was the most unexpected swim I’ve ever done! I really wasn’t expecting to go anywhere near that time.
“I used to love the breaststroke and I thought it was supposed to be one of my more fun events this weekend because I hadn’t done it in a while – so to post a time like that, I was over the moon.
“Obviously I was really happy with the 200m IM, but because that’s my main event, while I wasn’t expecting it at all, I was hoping that would happen. With the breaststroke, you could tell by mine and Molly Renshaw’s faces at the end, it was a shock.
“With the Olympics coming up, everyone was itching to do longcourse racing – and I felt so fortunate to be chosen to do the meet. Everyone swimming here was so grateful to be here and that it could go ahead, with all the staff working so hard. It was really good, everyone stuck to the rules and respected everything because we were so grateful to be here.”
Luke Greenbank, named in Team GB’s Tokyo squad last month as one of four pre-selections, also rounded out an encouraging set of swims for the meet by leading the Men’s 100m Backstroke final from start to finish.
After coming within half-a-second of the 200m British record on Friday and then catching the eye in the 200m Individual Medley as well, the Mel Marshall-coached man will be pleased with his trip to the North West bubble.
He said: “It’s a bit of a surreal experience, but I’m really happy with my swims and really happy that we’re able to get some racing under our belts. Obviously it’s been a long time since we’ve had the chance to race long course, so I’ve really enjoyed it.
“A lot of work has gone into the preparation and the meet for it to go ahead, and we are all grateful for that. It’s good to see that we are on the way out and hopefully a few more competitions can start happening in the not too distant future.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to keep training, and the training I’ve been doing has been really good. I can see how I’ve moved it on since last year, and seeing that progress is really giving me a lot of confidence. Coming into this meet, I was really excited to see what I could do.
“I think with opportunities being pretty limited to get racing in, taking this opportunity is really important – and having that target of Tokyo, it’s the ultimate goal. I am really looking forward to getting out there and racing again now.”
Greenbank’s fellow Tokyo 2020 qualifier James Wilby also ended the weekend with a promising display to go clear and win the Men’s 200m Breaststroke, knocking four seconds off his time from the heats.
Max Litchfield kicked off the final session in Manchester with a strong outing in the Men’s 400m Individual Medley, clocking a solid time given the unique training circumstances, to finish well clear of second-placed Charlie Hutchison.
Anna Hopkin was second behind France’s Marie Wattel in a highquality Women’s 100m Freestyle and in a strong field in the Women’s 50m Breaststroke Imogen Clark and Sarah Vasey matched each other stroke for stroke – but it was Clark who clinched the title by four hundredths of a second.