Scott Leads Guy, McMillan & Richards Home As Britain 4×200 Crew Test Race & Pace Skills Under Duress At AP International
There was no Tom Dean at the AP Race International in London but as the meet wrapped up after three days of action, three quarters of the Great Britain Olympic-champion 4x200m free quartet and the new man, all led by Duncan Scott on 1:46.70, tested their 200m race and pace skills under duress in the last cycle of work before the great gathering and taper for the Paris Olympic Games.
Scott was followed to the wall at the London Aquatics Centre by 2015 World champion James Guy, on 1:47.17, Scott’s Stirling training partner Jack McMillan, the fifth man home at trials for a ticket to the Paris relay, on 1:47.58, the top-four race completed 2023 World champion and Trials winner Matt Richards on 1:48.11.
Olympic marathon champion Florian Wellbrock and his Germany teammate Oliver Klemet were engaged in the same exercise, just a different distance: in the 800m free, Wellbrock, who will not race the 16-lenth race in Paris, stopped the clock on 7:52.49, Klemet on 7:54.49.
Their teammate Isabel Gose took the women’s 800m in a far-out-front 8:23.35, while Angelina Kohler completed a trio of victories for the German visitors with a 57.14 in the 100 ‘fly ahead of Britain’s Keanna MacInnes, 58.38, and Lucy Grieve, 58.80.
Corbeau & Kamminga Deliver The Sharpest Race 0.08 Apart
Their neighbours the Dutch had a good day too: Casper Corbeau and Arno Kamminga dominated with a 1-2 neck-for-neck punch in respective times of 2:08.72 to 2:08.80, Loughborough’s Greg Butler third in 2:13.21.
In the 100m free, Britain Olympic mixed medley relay champion Anna Hopkin clocked 53.49 ahead of a 54.64 from Paris 4×100 teammate Eva Okaro, the 17-year-old who will make her Olympic debut at the same time as becoming the first black female swimmer to represent Britain in the Olympic pool.
Their Olympic teammate Abbie Wood took the 200IM in 2:10.42 ahead of the Czech Republic’s Barbora Seemanova, on 2:11.25, with Freya Colbert, 400IM World champion for Britain in Doha last February, third in 2:12.27.
There were also wins for Oliver Morgan, on 53.91 in the 100m back, the Czech Republic’s Daniel Gracik, on 23.23 over 50 ‘fly, Holly McGill, on 2:11.42 in the 200m back and Estonia’s Eneli Jefimova, 0.01sec shy of her national record atop the 50m breaststroke in 30.09, with Angharad Evans on 30.55 a day after crushing the British 100m record with a 1:05.54.