Litchfield brothers shine on final day in Glasgow as Tokyo Olympics edge closer

Max and Joe Litchfield showed good form in their respective events on the final day of the British Swimming Glasgow Meet.

The pair have already secured spots on the team heading to Tokyo, with Joe Litchfield set to make his Olympic debut.

Joe has also now put his name in the hat for the 100m Backstroke event after a determined swim saw him finish a tenth inside the Olympic consideration time.

He managed a time of 53.75 to win the race with the University of Stirling’s Craig McNally (54.87) in second place and Brodie Williams of the Bath National Centre in third (54.96).

Both finished ahead of Luke Greenbank who touched in fourth place.

After his win, Joe said: “I’m so happy. A lot of us are pretty mentally tired right now, racing trials, coming out of that, holding into Europeans and then I didn’t quite get the time I wanted at Europeans.

“So Dave [Hemmings] said, ‘so you want to train hard or do a bit more of a hold and try to get it at Glasgow?’

“Obviously you want another time, we knew I had it in me. Every time I’ve swam it, the front end or the back end was there, just not quite together, but it came together better than last night and I’m buzzing with that! It’s just another event to add to the Olympic programme.”

Older brother Max competed in the 400m Individual Medley at Rio 2016 and managed a fourth place finish.

He was on top of the rankings in that event during Saturday’s finals in Glasgow and matched that with another win in the Men’s 400m Freestyle on the final day.

Max swam nearly a second faster than he did at the LEN European Championships in Budapest last month to win the final by a distance.

He put on a really strong performance from start to finish, and recorded a time of 3:47.69.

Will Bell was the closest to Litchfield, finishing in 3:52.86 for second and Stephen Milne was third (3:53.03).

Impressive swims from Hibbott and Summers-Newton

After competing in the Women’s 1500m Freestyle earlier in the session, Emily Clarke, Fleur Lewis, Lauren Wetherell and Amber Keegan all then competed in 400m Freestyle.

But it was Holly Hibbott who stretched away from the field and finished around four seconds ahead of her heats time, touching the wall in 4:12.58.

In second was Plymouth Leander’s Beatrice Varley (4:16.83) and third placed was Monique Olivier of Edinburgh (4:16.97).

In the 400m Freestyle Multi-Class event, Maisie Summers-Newton won the battle of the S6 swimmers, beating Ellie Simmonds by 3.45 seconds to earn 879 points.

The Northampton swimmer Summers-Newton clocked a time of 5:28.50, with Simmonds finishing with 852 points after a time of 5:31.95.

S9 swimmer Toni Shaw finished ahead of the field but her 798 points total placed her in third after swimming a time of 4:44.38.

Before Litchfield’s win in the men’s A final, Will Ryley of Bath University claimed a comfortable win after an impressive display and time of 3:55.56.

Wycombe District’s Josh Williams (3:58.61) finished second followed by Angus Allison (4:03.25) in third.

Prior to Joe Litchfield’s backstroke success, the Women’s 100m Backstroke event saw Georgia Davies take a clear lead and was just over the minute mark as she touched the wall in 1:00.67.

Following her was Katie Shanahan who swam a new personal best to make a huge improvement on her heats time for second place (1:02.29), beating Charlotte Evans (1:02.41) who finished in third.

In the 100m Backstroke Multi-Class event, City of Manchester’s Hannah Russell (S12) 1:10.23 finished ahead of Abby Kane from the University of Stirling (1:15.55).

There wasn’t much to separate the athletes in the men’s B final, but it was Jay Lelliott who improved on his second place finish in Saturday’s finals to finish on top in this event.

The City of Sheffield swimmer edged out the win with a 55.54 time.

Charlie Brown recorded a time of 55.83 for second and his Loughborough teammate Daniel Cross took third in 55.88.

Renshaw doubles up and Peters pushed Proud all the way

It has been a good meet for Molly Renshaw as she followed up her 100m Breaststroke win with success in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke.

Renshaw swam a 2:23.15, and her Loughborough teammate Abbie Wood looked to be challenging in the final few metres but had to settle for second place, with her time of 2:24.15.

There was a slight gap between the Loughborough pair and the remainder of the field, with Kara Hanlon coming in third (2:28.82).

In the men’s event, the British record holder Ross Murdoch was leading at the half way stage of the A final, but there was nothing between the Scottish swimmer and Loughborough’s James Wilby on the final turn.

James Wilby charged on down the final 50m to take the win in 2:10.44, with Murdoch in second (2:11.57). In third place was Gregory Butler with a 2:12.63.

Edinburgh’s Uiseann Cooke clinched first place in the B final. His time of 2:17.39 was 1.08 seconds ahead of Jacob Greenow (2:18.47) in second. James McFadzen (2:19 18) finished in third.

Olympian Ben Proud didn’t have it all his own way in the Men’s 50m Butterfly event, with Bath National Centre swimmer Jacob Peters challenging all the way.

Just 0.22 separated them but Proud held on to finish in a time of 23.65 seconds.

A strong swim from Peters saw him clock a time if 23.87, followed by Wycombe District’s Adam Barrett (24.41).

It was an all-Scottish top three in the Women’s 50m Butterfly as the University of Stirling’s Keanna Macinnes finished four tenths ahead of the rest of the field in a time of 27.27 seconds.

Lucy Grieve was next to the touch (27.65) followed by Yasmin Perry (27.75) in third place.

Clarke, Hope and Whittle claim wins

All athletes put on an excellent effort in the Women’s 1500m Freestyle, with a great battle between the eventual winner in Emily Clarke (17:05.25) and Ella Dyson (17:06.31) who took second place.

Fleur Lewis (17:07.41) was cutting down the lead of the front two with 200 metres to go, but wasn’t able to overtake them and finished in third place.

Lucy Hope claimed victory in the Women’s 200m Freestyle event, but the 100m Freestyle A final saw Anna Hopkin clinch a comfortable win in 53.56 seconds.

Hope was in second place after her time of 54.84, followed by Isabella Hindley in third (55.25).

Tamryn Van Selm edged out the win in the B final, touching in at 56.25, just 0.40 ahead of Erin Little.

Katie Goodburn was the next to finish, taking third place in 57.18.

S3 swimmer Ellie Challis set a new British record in the multi-class event after her time of 1:54.90.

S9 swimmer Toni Shaw (1:03.83), S6 swimmer Grace Harvey (1:15.68) and S7 swimmer Leah O’Connell (1:26.87) also featured.

Jacob Whittle won the last race of the meet with a strong swim in the Men’s 100m Freestyle.

He finished in a time of 48.55 with Matthew Richards (49.20) in second as the only two to go under the 50 second mark. In third was Ed Mildred with 50.16.

The multi-class event again saw S14 swimmers Tom Hamer and Louis Lawlor go head to head, similarly to the 200m Freestyle event.

The 100m event was a much tighter finish between the pair, but it was again Burnley’s Tom Hamer who came out on top with a 54.46 time.

Lawlor’s time of 54.61 saw him earn enough points to secure second place ahead of S12 swimmer Stephen Clegg.