Manchester International Meet: Renshaw, Catchpole equal British records

Olympian Molly Renshaw wasted no time in making her mark in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke as she tied the British record on the first day of the Manchester International Swim Meet.

The Loughborough swimmer put up a stellar performance in the event, leading the race from start to finish and finishing in 2:22.08 to shave 0.25 seconds off her previous best of 2:22.33, which she set at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Her time equalled Jocelyn Ulyett’s British record from 2017.

The multi-Commonwealth and European Championships medallist now has two British records to her name. While competing at the International Swimming League in Budapest late last year, Renshaw produced a time of 1:04.73 to down Chloe Tutton’s previous mark of 1:04.79.

While speaking to British Swimming, Renshaw said: “Training has been going really and I’ve been swimming faster than I ever have in training, so it’s nice to reassure myself that I can do it in a race as well.

“This morning was a nice chance to blow away the cobwebs and then refocus in for tonight and try to get a time out of myself” she said.  “Hopefully we’ll have spectators back on some scale soon!

She added: “At the minute, we are just having to take every opportunity we get and we’re really grateful for that. I’m almost going into it feeling like a training swim so that I’m not putting too much pressure on myself and I’m not relying on that crowd to create an atmosphere.

Multi-World and European medallist Jordan Catchpole also equalled a British record, this time it was his own mark which he set in the 50m Freestyle this morning.

The S14 swimmer touched in the exact same time as he did in his heat swim this morning, finishing in 24.73. The previous best of 25.15 belonged to Jack Thomas, who set it at the Swim Wales Long Course Closed Championships in 2017.

Catchpole has a number of international medals to his name, the most recent of which came from the 2019 IPC World Championship in London where he won silver in the S14 100m Backstroke and bronze in the S14 200m Freestyle.

Elsewhere in the pool

James Guy posted a time of 52.46 in the Men’s 100m Butterfly to win by just over half a second. Second place went to Ed Mildred in 52.91, while Jacob Peters was third in 53.08.

Adam Peaty shaved 0.05 off his 100m Breaststroke time from this morning, winning the event at a canter in 58.82.

Second place went to his Loughborough teammate James Wilby, who touched the wall in 1:00.15.

The 50m Freestyle, nicknamed the splash n’ dash event, lived up to its name.

On the women’s side, Marie Wattel triumphed after posting a winning time of 24.75 – the only swimmer to go below the 25-second mark.

Not far behind her was Anna Hopkin in 25.19 and Freya Anderson, who clocked 25.22.

In the Women’s MC 50m Freestyle, a tight race saw Zara Mullooly come out on top over Louise Fiddes who touched in 29.08 and 29.09, respectively.

On the men’s side, Matthew Richards claimed the gold in 23.06.

Joe Litchfield finished in second (23.22) while Derventio’s Jacob Whittle was third (23.33)