Abbie Wood Finishes Edinburgh International with 200 IM Meet Record
Abbie Wood capped the final day of the Edinburgh International Sunday with a meet record in the women’s 200 individual medley, besting a loaded field.
The English swimmer clocked in at 2:10.06 in the last event of the day to get the win. It downs the meet record of 2:10.12 set in 2015 by Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, one of four existing records from that year’s meet as the Edinburgh International reaches its 25th year.
She had a deep field to beat. Second place went to Freya Colbert, who went 2:12.02. Katie Shanahan was third in 2:13.50, followed by Irish Olympian Ellen Walshe.
While all of that quartet had been active earlier in the session, only Shanahan had a win to show for it. She went 2:09.52 in the 200 backstroke, beating the field by 1.4 seconds. Holly McGill was the runner-up.
Colbert was on the end of a back-to-back, having been the runner-up in the women’s 100 free. She went 55.26 there to miss out on gold by .01, beaten by Dutchwoman Milou Van Wijk. They were among six swimmers under 56 seconds, with Evie Davis taking third in 55.71, followed by Medi Harris and Lucy Hope. (Harris was also third in the 200 back.) The third-fastest time in the race, though, was supplied by the Netherlands’ Tessa Giele in winning the B final in 55.35.
Walshe was the runner-up in the 50 butterfly, bested by 16-year-old Emmy Hallkvist. The young Swede went 26.83 to rout the meet’s junior record of 27.43, set in 2018 by Sophie Yendell. Walshe went 26.91.
Kara Hanlon won the 200 breast, the 27-year-old going 2:27.00. She bested Lilly Booker (2:27.92) and Angharad Evans (2:28.12). Michaella Glenister opened the session by winning the women’s 1,500 free.
Duncan Scott delivered a couple of impressive swims to highlight the men’s program. The 27-year-old won the 100 free in 48.61 seconds, eight tenths ahead of Stirling University teammate Jack McMillan of Ireland. Scott’s time was .12 seconds shy of the meet record he had set in 2020. Sean Niewold of the Netherlands also got under 50 seconds in 49.90.
Scott also medaled in the 100 fly with a time of 53.35 seconds that was good for third. The win went to Joe Litchfield in 52.65, with Dane Casper Puggard in between in 52.92.
Max Litchfield won the 400 free in 3:51.01, more than a second up on University of Bath teammates Kieran Bird and Luke Turley. James Welby won the 50 breast in 28.00, edging out the Netherlands’ Bram Zwetsloot. Brodie Williams was the only 200 backstroker under two minutes in 1:59.68. His runner-up, Swim Ireland’s John Shortt, went 2:00.39 to keep it close. In the process, the 17-year-old took down his countryman Conor Ferguson’s junior meet record of 2:00.84 from 2017.
