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Photo Courtesy: Mine Kasapoglu \/ ISL<\/p><\/div>\n

Now it\u2019s the turn of the British athletes to book a slot on Team GB for Tokyo on which Adam Peaty, James Wilby, Duncan Scott<\/strong> and Luke Greenbank<\/strong> have been named with the quartet all individual medallists at the 2019 World Championships<\/strong> in Gwangju<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The event is going ahead as the British Swimming Selection Trials<\/strong> with a vastly-reduced programme.<\/a><\/p>\n

It was reduced in length by one day to run from Wednesday 14 to Sunday 18 April with the junior-specific element removed and numbers limited.<\/p>\n

The 800 and 1500 free will be heat-declared winners.<\/p>\n

Put simply, should swimmers come in the top two of races and equal or better the qualification times – linked to here<\/a> – then they will be considered for nomination to Team GB.<\/p>\n

Should swimmers not qualify in London, then there will be further opportunities at next month’s European Championships<\/strong> in Budapest or at designated meets in May\/June.<\/p>\n

There will also be selections made at the “complete discretion” of the head coach Bill Furniss<\/strong> and national performance director Chris Spice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The spotlight on day one will fall on the fourth event of the session where Olympic champion Peaty takes to the water almost six years to the day since he broke his first 100br world record.<\/p>\n

It was in lane four of the very same pool that he became the first \u2013 and still the only \u2013 man to break the 58sec barrier when he went 57.92 on 17 April 2015.<\/p>\n

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Freya Anderson: Photo Courtesy: MIKE LEWIS \/ ISL<\/p><\/div>\n
Wilby is the joint fifth-fastest man in history in 58.46 \u2013 alongside London 2012 champion Cameron van der Burgh<\/strong> \u2013 as he swam to silver behind Peaty in Gwangju.<\/p>\n
Freya Anderson<\/strong> heads the entries for the 200fr ahead of Abbie Wood<\/strong> who has continued her ISL form in the long-course pool at the two British Swimming Meets in Manchester in February and March.<\/p>\n
Dan Jervis<\/strong> and Tom Dean<\/strong> meet in the 400 free, Alys Thomas<\/strong> heads up the 100 fly with 0.65 separating the swiftest four entries while Scott will have his first outing of the meet in the 200IM.<\/p>\n
Another race midway through the session that takes the eye is the women\u2019s 400IM featuring Aimee Willmott<\/strong> and Hannah Miley<\/strong>, a duo who have been among Britain\u2019s most loyal, consistent athletes for over a decade.<\/p>\n
Between them they have reached four Olympic finals and visited world and European podiums.<\/p>\n
Willmott won the 2018 Commonwealth 400IM title, one place ahead of Miley who topped the rostrum at the previous two Games.<\/p>\n
Miley is 31 and Willmott 28 and neither are on funding but the pair head the entry lists for the eight-length event ahead of Michaella Glenister<\/strong>, the 2019 world junior bronze medallist who – like Willmott \u2013 trains at the University of Stirling<\/strong> but is at the start of her senior career.<\/p>\n

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Photo Courtesy: Connor Trimble<\/p><\/div>\n
For Miley it would be a fourth Olympics, the Scot having reached the 400IM final at each previous appearance with fourth at Rio 2016 0.15 behind bronze-medal winner Mireia Belmonte the nearest she has been to the podium.<\/p>\n
Willmott made her Olympic debut at London 2012 where she finished 11^{th<\/sup> before seventh place four years later in Rio.<\/p>\n}
Willmott went 4:39.11 at the British Swimming Invitational Meet<\/strong> in Manchester<\/strong> in March although little is known of Miley in 2021 with 4:36.68 the cut for Tokyo.<\/p>\n
The final will be contested during the first evening session.<\/p>\n
It has been a year of uncertainty, acceptance and adjustment for Willmott who had planned to retire last year after Tokyo only for the Games to be postponed.<\/p>\n
When the number of coronavirus cases began to rise steeply once more prompting a nationwide lockdown across Britain in the New Year, Willmott had a feeling of dread that the Games would again be postponed or even cancelled.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease don\u2019t happen again,\u201d she thought even though the unthinkable had already transpired once and could again.<\/p>\n

Willmott’s Plans Thrown Into Disarray<\/h3>\n $\"aimee_willmott_commonwealth_games_england_board\"$
Aimee Willmott: Photo Courtesy: Swim England<\/p><\/div>\n
Willmott had it all planned out.<\/p>\n
A tilt at Tokyo and then retirement before moving into a new phase of life with full-time employment beckoning and beyond that a family with partner Harry Booker.<\/p>\n
That all changed on 24 March 2020 when the Olympics were postponed as covid-19 wreaked havoc across the world.<\/p>\n
Willmott was rocked although there was a lovely surprise in the form of a marriage proposal days later by Booker.<\/p>\n
She was also named \u00a0athlete representative on the board of\u00a0Commonwealth Games England<\/strong> on a four-year term.<\/p>\n
Willmott weighed things up: in all likelihood if she were to get a job, the two-time European medallist would be home-based so she decided to continue although there were still doubts and questions about what would happen over the coming months.<\/p>\n
The three-time Commonwealth medallist also chose to spend time helping others by using her own experiences and platform to address the effect of periods on performance.<\/a><\/p>\n
Willmott spoke over Zoom to girls and young women at clubs across Britain and Ireland as well as Swim England Talent and Swim Ireland.<\/p>\n
Willmott told Swimming World:<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce I\u2019d made the decision to carry on it was strange at first: I was thinking I shouldn\u2019t really be here now, I should be at the next step whatever that might look like but I\u2019m still doing what I was doing before.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo ISL (International Swimming League) was really good for me to just get away and race and have some down time but off the back of that I struggled – right what is next? Is it the Olympics?<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden at that point we were going backwards as a country so I was like – have I carried on for it all to happen all over again? I was just praying that it didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So too did it call for a change in mindset: athletes know what they are working towards, each competition a stepping stone to the biggest stage of all, the Olympics.<\/p>\n
Willmott had to re-educate herself and rather than focus on the long-term outcome, instead concentrate on the short term, explaining:<\/p>\n
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Photo Courtesy: British Swimming<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever really done that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gone week by week and think right I\u2019ll just train the best I can and then do the same next week and then try it again next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the age that I\u2019m at, it was strange to be wrapping things up and then open that box again and delve back into all my tricks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been difficult in terms of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to not look at the news and what\u2019s happening and what isn\u2019t happening, what might happen, what it might look like and just think well all I can do is train so it\u2019s all I\u2019m going to try and do than really worry about what it looks like.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s been a very different 12 months in terms of my thought processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve just tried to approach it like what can I do in training this week? What is next week? The week after?<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than look too far ahead because I am a bit of a worrier and I do over-think things so the worst thing that I could ever do in this situation is to think of all the what-ifs and the worst-case scenario.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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