Rio Olympians Adam Peaty, Chris Walker-Hebborn and James Guy picked up their second golds of the 2017 British Swimming Championships while the night finished with a surprise performance from Jocelyn Ulyett.
A day after successfully defending his 100m breaststroke title – the same distance over which he won Olympic gold in Rio – Peaty returned to the pool in the shorter 50m distance in Sheffield.
And it was the same result as he took victory in 26.48 seconds, just six hundredths of a second outside his world record.
Walker-Hebborn meanwhile retained his 100m backstroke title with a dominant performance to add to his 50m gold on Wednesday while Guy set a new personal best of 1:55.91 in the 200m butterfly to go under the World Championships qualification time.
Peaty said: “I came here tonight to see what I had in that 50 and I am pleased with where that is in April.
“It’s almost annoying how close I was to the world record but that’s sport and we’ll go back and see how we can improve it now.
“I really like the 50 because I can just go all at it. The 50 is going to compliment my 100 and that’s the main reason why I do it to be honest.
“The crowd have been great and they don’t know how much their support means to me. Hopefully one day I can give back to them.”
The surprise of the night however came in the final race as Ulyett dipped under the British record in the 200m breaststroke after beating Olympians Molly Renshaw and Chloe Tutton into second and third respectively.
Her time of 2:22.08 seconds also saw her become the second British swimmer at the competition, behind Peaty, to meet the automatic qualifying time for the World Championships. Renshaw was also inside the consideration time.
“That time is so surreal, I can’t believe it,” said Ulyett. “It’s unbelievable. I’ve been really struggling with confidence so this morning really boosted it and then tonight I just had nothing to lose so I just swam my own race.
“I’m so excited to have met the time. It’s absolutely crazy to have achieved that. I just can’t believe it."
Another to touch under the consideration time for the World Championships was Olympian Georgia Davies who swam an excellent race in the 100m backstroke to take victory in a new personal best 59.34 seconds.
Charlotte Atkinson began the night by winning the 50m butterfly while double Olympic silver medallist Jazz Carlin retained her 800m freestyle title although she was outside the consideration time.
“When you aren’t feeling great the 800m is a sore one but it’s obviously great to come away with the win and it’s great to race the best in Britain,” she said.
“After the highs of Rio it’s always tough to get back into the swing of it. It has been a tough few months but it’s nice to come here and race and the crowd are really getting behind the athletes.
“Rio was in my mind for so long and when that’s done it like ‘oh what’s next’ and Tokyo will come and fly by so I’m really looking forward to getting stuck back into training now.”
Sportsbeat 2017