Tyler Melbourne-Smith Tops 400 Free Rankings In Time Swifter Than European Gold
Tyler Melbourne-Smith went top of the 400 free rankings with a performance at the Swim England National Winter Championships that would have captured gold at the short-course Europeans.
The Loughborough University swimmer enjoyed a winning margin of almost 7.5secs in 3:36.09 which sent him top of the 2025 rankings where he displaced Sam Short who posted 3:36.12 at the Australian S/C Championships in October.
Melbourne-Smith’s time was 0.24 swifter than Jack McMillan’s 3:36.33 en-route to gold at the European Short Course Championships which finished last weekend in Lublin, Poland.
He’s now the 10th swiftest European all-time with his swim among the top 30 performances in history. Only Duncan Scott has gone quicker among British men with his national record of 3:34.46 at the World Cup in Singapore in October 2024.
Cameron Brooker set a British record in the 200 back when he posted 1:48.36 to take 0.17 from the previous standard of 1:48.53 set by Luke Greenbank on his way to silver at the 2023 European s/c Championships. Greenbank was the other man inside 1:49 in 1:48.91.
Eva Okaro: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow, Aquatics GB
Eva Okaro enjoyed a clear 100 free victory at Ponds Forge as she continued the momentum that guided her to within one place of the podium in Lublin.
Okaro, in her first year with the Texas Longhorns, split 25.04/26.70 to post 51.74, the third-fastest time of her career.
The 19-year-old dipped inside 52secs for the first time at the continental s/c championships in Lublin, Poland, when she topped prelims in 51.90 followed by 51.48 for second behind Italian Sara Curtis in the semis and 51.63 in the final, where she finished fourth.
Her semis time in Poland was the sixth by a British woman with Okaro ranked third behind Fran Halsall and her 2009 national record of 51.19 and Freya Anderson, who has posted 51.43 on four occasions.
Harriet Rogers (53.27) and Kate Clifton (53.91) joined Okaro on the podium.
Max Morgan was the only man to break 58secs in the 100m breaststroke with the 17-year-old going 57.84. Morgan finished third in the 100 at the World Junior Championships in August where Filip Nowacki won the title as Great Britain enjoyed a 1-3.
Amalie Smith has had a medal-laden year, winning the IM double at the European juniors which she followed up with double silver at the world juniors. She won the 200IM title in Sheffield in 2:07.83.
Imogen Clark won the 100m breaststroke in 1:05.99 and Josh Gammon won the 50 fly in 22.19 ahead of Jacob Peters who clocked 22.42.