Ben Proud begins Tokyo journey and powers through to semi-finals

The final heats session of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games saw more superb performances from Team GB swimmers.

It was the turn of the sprint and distance specialists in the Japanese capital as Ben Proud opened up the session with a 21.93 in the Men’s 50m Freestyle to qualify for the semi-finals in 13th position.

The James Gibson-coached swimmer has a best time of 21.11 which he set at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow.

Speaking after his swim, he said: “That heat swim was okay – I made it through which is all you have to do but at the same time it’s all about tomorrow morning.

“Now is the real job but I’ll go and get rested, prep for the morning and do my best to make it through.

“It’s been a hell of a journey the past five years so I just want to get this competition done, complete it, do as well as I can and then we’ll see from there.”

Medley relays deliver mixed results

There was joy and disappointment for Team GB in the mixed medley relays as the women’s side missed out on a final spot by just one place.

The team of Cassie Wild, Sarah Vasey, Harriet Jones, and Freya Anderson put up a strong fight in what was a very competitive field to post a time of 3:58.12.

They finished in fifth place in their heat and ninth overall, coming within 0.80 of a second of an Olympic final spot in this event.

The men’s side was also in a very fast heat and managed to hold off their competitors and come out on top with a time of 3:31.47.

It was a dogfight between Great Britain and the Russian Olympic Committee team, but Duncan Scott got his hand on the wall first to secure their final – which they enter in second place behind Italy.

Other members of the team were James Guy, Luke Greenbank and James Wilby – who each played their part in carrying the team to a win in the prelims.

Jervis in ‘best shape of his life’

Daniel Jervis had a fantastic performance in the Men’s 1500m Freestyle after he finished second in his heat with a time of

“Yeah it was really good, I’m really happy – I am in the best shape of my life physically and over the last 18 months I’ve really worked on my mental state in the pool.

“Normally I come to these kinds of competitions and I crumble under the pressure but this is this Olympic Games, this is the biggest one, I have had a lot of pressure – it’s 100% the pressure I put on myself, everything else is just good support.

“But I’ve really done what I’ve worked on. On Sunday now I can go into that race knowing that I’ve done it, the heats are the hardest part for me, the final will just take care of itself.

“To be honest, I just want to go out there and have fun. I’m at the Olympic Games, this is my dream and all I want to do is go out there and have fun and have a really good time.

“Team GB are doing so well and I’m so proud to represent them and to represent Wales and my community as well in Resolven.

“I just want to show everyone else back home who is a normal person like me that if they work hard, they can do anything.”