Dominant Wilby impresses at National Winter Championships

James Wilby continued his dominance of the breaststroke events at the Swim England National Winter Championships with a highly-impressive performance in the 200m heats.

Wilby, who won both the 50m and 100m gold medals, won his heat by almost nine seconds and was fastest qualifier by almost three seconds.

The 25-year-old Loughborough University swimmer clocked 2:06.45 to finish 2.72 seconds ahead of his team-mate Edward Baxter, who was second fastest in a time of 2:09.17

Plymouth Leander’s Adam Chillingworth claimed the third quickest time in 2:09.92, followed by City of Oxford’s T Mackay-Champion (2:11.33) and Hatfield’s Nathan Hughes (2:12.11).

Also qualifying were Bath University’s Thomas Dean (2:13.52), Ealing’s John Britton (2:14.37), City of Oxford’s Connor Bryan (2:14.41), Barnet’s Yaron Gerber (2:14.90) and City of Oxford’s David Murphy (2:15.12).

Matts leads the way in Women’s 200m Breaststroke

In the Women’s 200m Breaststroke, Stockport Metro’s Katie Matts was more than a second ahead of the rest of the field as she qualified quickest.

Matts, 20, finished in 2:21.50, with High Performance Centre Ontario’s Kierra Smith her closest challenger in a time of 2:22.74.

Loughborough University’s Molly Renshaw was third fastest in a time of 2:23.25, followed by Mount Kelly’s Niamh Robinson (2:24.97) and Bath University’s Georgia Coates (2:25.77).

Bournemouth’s Kayla Van Der Merwe (2:26.66), City of Birmingham’s Charlotte Rigg (2:26.99), Loughborough University’s Megan Morrison (2:27.17), City of Leeds’ Rebecca Clynes (2:27.36) and City of Peterborough’s Amelia Monaghan (2:28.30) completed the A Final line-up.