British Championships, Day 2 Women's Finals: Abbie Wood Edges Freya Colbert To Book Singapore Spot (2025)

British Championships, Day 2 Women’s Finals: Abbie Wood Edges Freya Colbert To Book Singapore Slot

Abbie Wood withstood Freya Colbert’s charge in the final metres of the 400IM to take the title at the Aquatics GB Swimming Championships and book a trip to Singapore in the process.

Amelie Blocksidge turned 16 last week but victory in the 1500 secured a third straight title for the City of Salford swimmer, albeit outside the cut for the World Championships while Katie Shanahan set a PB in the 100 back for the second time in a day.

The meet doubles as trials for the World Championships which run from 27 July to 3 August in Singapore where selection will be based on performances at theParis Olympicsand theAquatics GB Swimming Championshipsin London.

While swimmers who won a medal in an individual event at Paris 2024 will be selected to the Great Britain team for that event in Singapore, no British women reached the podium in the French capital.

To qualify for worlds, a swimmer must finish first in an Olympic event and record a time that equals or betters those in the table below.

Athletes that finish second in a time equal or better than that in the table will be considered for selection to a team that will have a maximum of 30 athletes.

Colbert and Keanna MacInnes in the 200 fly were the sole swimmers to qualify on day one.

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Preview: Angharad Evans
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Day 1 Men’s Finals
Day 1 Women’s Finals
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Women’s 1500 Free

Amelie Blocksidge dominated throughout to claim a third straight title despite only turning 16 a week ago. The City of Salford swimmer stopped the clock in 16:23.53 to enjoy a winning margin of more than 10 seconds over Fleur Lewis who went 16:33.63 for second. Leah Crisp, who was 20th in the open water at Paris 2024, was third home in 16:40.00.

“It feels so good,” said Blocksidge. “Every year I feel a bit more nervous but I feel like I’m learning to deal with it and I feel like I’m really happy. I’ve just gone and won it and not trie4d to put too many expectations on myself in terms of the time but I just wanted to go and win it again.”Of her plans for 2025, she said: “I was hoping to make it to Singapore but I didn’t get the selection time. Fingers crossed I get picked for that but if not I can still go to the junior competitions and hopefully do well there.”

Women’s 400IM

Abbie Wood built up a two-second advantage going into the freestyle ahead of world champion Freya Colbert. Colbert reduced that to 1.17 at the final turn and ate into Wood’s lead. However, Wood – bronze medallist at the 2024 short-course worlds – withstood the oncoming Colbert to win in a PB of 4:36.66 to 4:36.83 as both women went inside the Singapore cut. Amalie Smith – just 15 – was third in 4:44.34.

Wood elevated herself to the top of the rankings with Colbert second in the standings.“Oh wow,” said Wood. “I’m sure there’s a few good people left to do it. But that’s exciting. I want to do it at worlds so it’ll just be a free hit at the end of the week so why not?”

The Loughborough swimmer has a positive feel looking ahead to the rest of 2025 with “fire in her belly” following the short-course season. “It’s been quite refreshing to have a different focus because it can get quite a lot doing the same events all the time,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed the 4IM training which is quite weird to say.I’m really excited for Singapore, I’ve never been. It’s just a free hit-out and who would’ve thought I’d have the 4 medley on the programme again. I used to really struggle with it mentally so now I’ve just cleared my head it’s a lot nicer – ish!”

Women’s 100m Backstroke

Lauren Cox – winner of 50 bronze at the 2023 worlds – went out fast and turned first, 0.15 ahead of Blythe Kinsman with Katie Shanahan third a further 0.12 adrift. Shanahan – fifth in the 200 back at Paris 2024 – came through on the second 50 to take the title in 1:00.03 ahead of Cox (1:00.49) and Holly McGill (1:00.70). It was a PB for Shanahan who only recently turned her attention to the event while she leaves the 400IM on the back burner this year.

“I enjoyed that more than the 400 IM,” said Shanahan. “I decided to take a break from that as I didn’t really swim how I wanted to last year and I really wasn’t enjoying it. The 100 back, I’ve always loved doing that. It’s an event I’ve normally done at the end of a meet or untapered. I’ve never done it tapered or rested. This morning, I felt good and was hoping to do a bit quicker. It was a stacked field but happy to come on top. The 100 back is something Ben (coach Ben Higson) and I have been talking about. If I can keep improving something I would like to continue doing it. It helps with the 200 back and I’ve put a lot into it in training.”

Para Swimming

In the Women’s MC 100m Backstroke, S14 rivals and friends Poppy Maskill and Georgia Sheffield lined up in the centre lanes, targeting a time quicker than 1:07.01 to go inside their classification’s Para Swimming World Championship selection mark, as well as that British gold medal.

Sheffield took the early lead and was nearly half-a-second up at the turn, only for supreme racer Maskill – a five-time Paralympic medallist last summer – to do the business over the final lap and win the British title in 1:05.67, with Sheffield doing a 1:06.46 for silver – Ela Letton-Jones (S12) took bronze.

“That was really hard but I’m really happy with that time, so that’s good. There wasn’t a lot [specifically going through my mind] during the race – it was a hard swim and I enjoy racing alongside Georgia,” said Maskill.