The State of British Swimming...
blacksuit42
Posts: 820 Forum Member
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Well now the swimming has finished I thought it would be pertinent to look at the state of british swimming now.
I have to say, I am HUGELY impressed with each and every one of our swimmers. yes we weren't up against some of the powerhouses of World Swimming, such as the USA, but we were against some truly outstanding swimmers, and if you were to look at the world best times this year we have swimmers up near the top in most events now.
To come away with a combined GB total of 47 medals compared with 44 in Delhi shows there has been some improvement. And when 15 compared with 9 are gold these stats are pretty good.
British Breaststroking is looking fantastic, especially the mens. Ross Murdoch had an absolute blinder of a meet to get gold in the 200, whilst Adam Peaty swam an absolutely brilliant swim in the 100 to beat Cameron van de Burgh. Our Backstrokers are looking strong, with Chris Walker Hebborn looking in imperious form, and Liam Tancock starting to come back to his old form, Lauren Quigley is definitely one to look out for in the future, she's improved loads over the last year or two and should definitely be challenging for medals come Rio in 2016. Our Fly Swimmers are looking pretty good as well, Ben Proud gold in the 50, Adam Barrett winning bronze for us in the 100, and for the women, Fran Halsall winning the 50 by a country mile, Siobhan Marie O'Conner just being touched out to silver in the 100 and Aimee Willmott Silver in the womens 200. Our freestylers are looking great, Fran is back on form, and looking like she's enjoying swimming once again. And we are strong in the IM events, Hannah Miley is just a machine, not sure how she does it, although at the rate that Aimee Willmott is improving we could see a change in the women's 400m IM hierachy pretty soon. I haven't mentioned every swimmer as there are just too many to mention, but every swimmer, whatever colour medal they won has swum fantastically
It is really encouraging to see our swimmers swimming fast. I know that sounds stupid BUT, if you think back to 2012, more often than not GB swimmers were struggling in the morning sessions, and posting pretty slow times, making life difficult for themselves. This meet at the Commonwealths has seen a huge change there, which is something that I am personally very very excited about! James Gibson's sprint programme has to be another of the really exciting things I've seen, every one of his swimmers has swum absolutely brilliantly, particularly Fran Halsall as previously mentioned, and it's been great to see so many British Records falling in the last few days.
Standout swimmers of the meet for me have to be Siobhan Marie O'Connor, Jazz Carlin Aimee Willmott and Fran for the Women, and Ross Murdoch, Adam Peaty and Dan Wallace for the Men.
I have to say, I am HUGELY impressed with each and every one of our swimmers. yes we weren't up against some of the powerhouses of World Swimming, such as the USA, but we were against some truly outstanding swimmers, and if you were to look at the world best times this year we have swimmers up near the top in most events now.
To come away with a combined GB total of 47 medals compared with 44 in Delhi shows there has been some improvement. And when 15 compared with 9 are gold these stats are pretty good.
British Breaststroking is looking fantastic, especially the mens. Ross Murdoch had an absolute blinder of a meet to get gold in the 200, whilst Adam Peaty swam an absolutely brilliant swim in the 100 to beat Cameron van de Burgh. Our Backstrokers are looking strong, with Chris Walker Hebborn looking in imperious form, and Liam Tancock starting to come back to his old form, Lauren Quigley is definitely one to look out for in the future, she's improved loads over the last year or two and should definitely be challenging for medals come Rio in 2016. Our Fly Swimmers are looking pretty good as well, Ben Proud gold in the 50, Adam Barrett winning bronze for us in the 100, and for the women, Fran Halsall winning the 50 by a country mile, Siobhan Marie O'Conner just being touched out to silver in the 100 and Aimee Willmott Silver in the womens 200. Our freestylers are looking great, Fran is back on form, and looking like she's enjoying swimming once again. And we are strong in the IM events, Hannah Miley is just a machine, not sure how she does it, although at the rate that Aimee Willmott is improving we could see a change in the women's 400m IM hierachy pretty soon. I haven't mentioned every swimmer as there are just too many to mention, but every swimmer, whatever colour medal they won has swum fantastically
It is really encouraging to see our swimmers swimming fast. I know that sounds stupid BUT, if you think back to 2012, more often than not GB swimmers were struggling in the morning sessions, and posting pretty slow times, making life difficult for themselves. This meet at the Commonwealths has seen a huge change there, which is something that I am personally very very excited about! James Gibson's sprint programme has to be another of the really exciting things I've seen, every one of his swimmers has swum absolutely brilliantly, particularly Fran Halsall as previously mentioned, and it's been great to see so many British Records falling in the last few days.
Standout swimmers of the meet for me have to be Siobhan Marie O'Connor, Jazz Carlin Aimee Willmott and Fran for the Women, and Ross Murdoch, Adam Peaty and Dan Wallace for the Men.
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Comments
First and foremost athletes are up against themselves and their country's history, so the sheer number of PBs and national records show how good they were. That didn't happen at the last two Olympics - I seem to remember that in Beijing Rebecca Adlington's two golds covered up about 35 other make weights.
Yeah I know... that bit was to shut the inevitable "it's only the commonwealth games, no USA China blah blah" comments.
This is a complete list of the British Records broken this meet... it's absolutely fantastic!
Sophie Taylor – 50m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 24th July – 30.56
James Guy – 400m Freestyle – Glasgow, 24th July – 3:44.58
Ross Murdoch – 200m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 24th July – 2:07.30
English National Team – Women’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay – Glasgow, 24th July – 3:35.72
Dan Wallace – 400m IM – Glasgow, 25th July – 4:11.04
Ben Proud – 50m Butterfly- Glasgow, 25th July – 22.93
Adam Peaty – 100m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 25th July – 59.16
Francesca Halsall – 50m Butterfly- Glasgow, 26th July – 25.64
Francesca Halsall – 50m Freestyle – Glasgow, 26th July – 23.96
Francesca Halsall – 50m Butterfly- Glasgow, 26th July – 25.36
Adam Peaty – 100m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 26th July – 58.94
Adam Peaty – 50m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 27th July – 27.00
Adam Peaty – 50m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 27th July – 26.99
Francesca Halsall – 50m Butterfly- Glasgow, 27th July – 25.20
Ben Proud – 50m Freestyle – Glasgow, 28th July – 21.76
Georgia Davies – 50m Backstroke – Glasgow, 28th July – 27.61
Sophie Taylor – 100m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 28th July – 1:06.35
Adam Peaty – 50m Breaststroke – Glasgow, 28th July – 26.78
Georgia Davies – 50m Backstroke – Glasgow, 29th July – 27.56
English National Team – Women’s 4 x 100 medley relay – Glasgow, 29th July – 3:57.03