2024 Edinburgh International Day 2 Heats: Showdown Brewing In Women's 50 Breast (original) (raw)
2024 EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL SWIM MEET
- Friday, March 8th – Sunday, March 10th
- Royal Commonwealth Pool, Edinburgh, Scotland
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Draft Entries
- Day 1 Prelims Recap/Day 2 Finals Recap
- Results
- Livestream
Day two of the 2024 Edinburgh International Swim Meet unfolded this morning, with Duncan Scott, Abbie Wood and Max Litchfield among the competitors during the heats.
For 29-year-old Litchfield, the Loughborough swimmer topped the men’s 400m IM opening round, posting a time of 4:25.72.
Litchfield took silver in this event at this year’s World Championships, his first outing representing the British flag at an international competition since the Tokyo Olympics. In Doha, Litchfield logged a time of 4:10.40 to earn runner-up status behind gold medalist Lewis Clareburt of New Zealand who topped the podium in 4:09.72.
Stirling’s Scott dove in for two events in the heats, the men’s 100m breaststroke and the 50m freestyle.
In the former off event, Scott clocked a time of 1:02.85 to earn the 6th seed. Landing lane 4 for the event was James Wilby, nabbing a morning outing of 1:01.20.
Jesse Puts of the Netherlands earned the pole position in Scott’s other event of the 50m free. Puts posted 22.15 to set himself apart from the field. The next-closest competitor was 28-year-old David Cumberlidge of Edinburgh who touched in 22.65.
Puts’ teammate Sean Niewold hit 22.66 as the 3rd seed while Scott landed in the 4th slot in 22.68.
A battle is brewing in the women’s 50m breast, as Imogen Clark and last night’s 100m breaststroke winner Angharad Evans tied for the top time in 31.05. Scotland’s Kara Hanlon was next in 31.09, the only other sub-32-second result of the field.
Clark is the reigning British national record holder in this 50m breast, owning a lifetime best of 30.02 from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Evans ranks as GBR’s 8th-best performer of all time, courtesy of her PB of 30.85 notched last month at BUCS.
Evans wowed the crowd en route to winning last night’s 100m breast, putting up a huge lifetime best of 1:06.25. That mark was just .04 outside of the British national record.
Additional Notes
- Irish national record holder Danielle Hill led the women’s 50m backstroke in a time of 27.88. That beat the field by a second this morning and came within .19 of her best-ever 27.69.
- The Netherlands’ Tessa Giele turned in a time of 58.89 as the top women’s 100m butterflier. Ireland’s Ellen Walshe claimed the 2nd seed in 29.56 while Ciara Schlosshan hit 59.88 to also flank Giele in tonight’s final. Last night’s 200m fly gold medalist Keanna MacInnes is also in the mix as the 4th seed in 1:00.28.
- Newly minted world champion Freya Colbert raced in the women’s 400m IM, posting 4:51.02 to land lane 4. Walshe pulled a double, also racing in this event where she secured the 2nd seed in 4:51.99.
- Birmingham’s standout Oliver Morgan was too quick to catch in the heats of the men’s 50m back. The 21-year-old clocked 25.24 to hold a healthy advantage over Scott Gibson who grabbed the 2nd slot in 25.58 this morning.
- The women’s 200m free saw Abbie Wood nab the top seed in 1:58.42, the sole outing of the field under the 2:00 barrier.
In This Story
Duncan Scott
James Wilby
Jesse Puts
Lewis Clareburt
Max Litchfield
About Retta Race
Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.