By Sam Blacker on SwimSwam
2025 AQUATICS GB SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Tuesday, April 15th – Sunday, April 20th Prelims at 9:30am local (4:30am ET)/Finals at 7pm local (2pm ET) London Aquatics Centre LCM (50m) Meet Central Aquatics GB World Championships Selection Criteria SwimSwam Preview Draft Entries Live Results Livestream Live Recaps Prelims: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 Finals: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
Day 3 at the British Championships saw some fireworks as National Record holder and Olympic finalist Oliver Morgan demolished his British record in the 100m backstroke to go 52.12. That time puts him at #2 in the world this year, just behind Kliment Kolesnikov‘s 52.04 from the Russian Swimming Championships. His time would have placed second behind Thomas Ceccon‘s 52.00 in Paris, pushing Ryan Murphy off the podium.
He was out like a shot, hitting the 50m mark in 25.24, only half a second off his 50m PB, before powering away from NCAA runner-up Jonny Marshall down the stretch. He now ranks joint-13th all-time, level with 2016 US Olympian David Plummer, and is surely a threat to the podium this summer.
Morgan has had some strong in-season times so far this year, breaking 53 seconds twice before today. The first of those was at the British Universities Championships (BUCS) where he was 0.01 off his British record to go 52.71, before winning the event at the Edinburgh International Meet in a time of 52.97.
Split British Champs 2025 British Champs 2024 (Previous British Record) BUCS 2025 Edinburgh International 2025 1st 50 25.24 25.47 25.64 25.69 2nd 50 26.88 27.23 27.07 27.28 Overall 52.12 52.70 52.71 52.96
He took time off both 50’s compared to his previous mark, breaking 27 seconds on the back half for the first time ever. He showed off his improved closing speed back in February with a 27.07 second 50, but took himself into new territory tonight. His first 50 speed could see him creep towards Liam Tancock‘s British Record of 24.04 in the 50 tomorrow.
Worryingly for his international competition, Morgan’s finish had some room for improvement as he ended up with a slight glide in. Having dropped half a second at Worlds in 2023 and added a tenth in Paris last year, the Birmingham-based swimmer will almost certainly be on the top of his game in Singapore.
After breaking 53 seconds for the first time at these championships last year, Morgan has now broken that barrier on eight occasions to cement himself as one of Britain’s best-ever sprint backstrokers alongside the aforementioned Tancock and Chris Walker-Hebborn.
The Rise of a Hometown Hero
In his final year of study at The University of Birmingham, this caps a heady rise for the Ludlow-raised swimmer. He began his time there with PBs of 27.6/56.9/2:04.3 and was the BUCS champion in the 100 in his first year, running down Olympian Andreas Vazaois in a fantastic race (here, 50:17 race start) to out-touch him 55.20 to 55.22.
Now he had a taste for beating Olympians, he did so again in the 50m backstroke skins at the Edinburgh international the next month, outsprinting Joe Litchfield in the third and final round. He took that momentum to Sheffield , where he made a pair of ‘A’ finals at the 2022 British championship. He finished 6th in the 50 in 25.54 and 7th in the 100 in 55.13 – and this was the last time he has been beaten at a National Championships.
Morgan swept the three backstroke events in 2023, using his trademark closing speed and long reach to win the 100 and 200 backstrokes by a combined 0.03 seconds. Having won the 100 in 53.92 over second-placed Cam Brooker‘s 53.94, he then won the longer event over international medalists Luke Greenbank and Brodie Williams with a 29.64 final 50. That gave him a three second PB on the day, as he went 1:57.17 having never broken two minutes before.
Swimming at his first world Championships in Fukuoka, he qualified for the semi-finals in both the 100 and 200. He finished a heartbreaking ninth in both, closest in the 100 where he was just 0.05 behind eventual bronze medalist Hunter Armstrong, but dropped his 100 down to 53.25 to make him the second-fastest Brit in history behind Liam Tancock.
That only added fuel to the fire for the 2023/24 season. Having been just off his PB with a 53.31 BUCS record in February he went into the Olympic trials with one goal in mind, saying he would be disappointed not the break Tancock’s supersuited mark of 52.73. He nearly did so in the heats with his first foray under the 53-second barrier to go 52.87, before clipping the mark in the final in a time of 52.70 to give him his first British Record.
The 200 was an almost carbon copy of the previous year, with Morgan coming from over a body length back to take first in another PB of 1:56.27, capped by a wicked final 50 split of 29.26. The clear #1 British backstroker, Morgan went into the Paris Games with the realistic goal of an Olympic final.
In a pool widely seen to be on the slow side, Morgan moved confidently through the rounds in times of 53.44-52.85-52.84, qualifying seventh into the 100m backstroke final before finishing eighth, swimming next to eventual bronze medalist Ryan Murphy. From only swimming six hours a week at Ludlow swimming club, where he is still well involved running clinics and helping fundraise, to rubbing shoulders with some of the top swimmers on the planet (a group he can count himself among), it has been a meteoric rise for the 21-year-old.
His in-season times this year showed an athlete on the cusp of something big and he more than backed that up in the finals tonight. He has swum a best time in every national final he has swum in since the 2022 British Championships, a streak stretching nine races over four editions so far. With positive signs for both his front- and back-end speed, he could do something special in the 50 and 200 later in the week.
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Looking Forward – A Medal Contender in Singapore?
Morgan had previously held the top spot in the global rankings this year, before being overtaken by Hubert Kos and a trio of Russian athletes, and now jumps back up to #2. Only two tenths now separates four men at the top, and none of the Paris Olympic podium are among them. All four would have placed second last summer with their times from this year.
After it took a rapid 52.95 to make the final in Paris in this event, the first time a sub-53 has been required for the top-eight, a similar time is unlikely to do so in Singapore this summer. Adding Hunter Armstrong and Apostolos Christou to the seven already mentioned, there are nine men with a personal best of 52.2 or better who we would expect to final; at least one of those will miss out.
Top 10 Active Swimmers by PB (max 2 per nation)
Thomas Ceccon – 51.60 (2022) Kliment Kolesnikov – 51.82 (2023) Ryan Murphy – 51.85 (2016) Xu Jiayu – 51.86 (2017) Hunter Armstrong – 51.98 (2022) Miron Lifintsev – 52.08 (2024) Apostolos Christou – 52.09 (2022) Oliver Morgan – 52.12(2025) Hubert Kos – 52.24 (2025) Yohann Ndoye-Brouard – 52.50 (2022)The last British medalist in this event was Liam Tancock who took bronze back in 2007 in a time of 53.61, behind the American pair of Aaron Peirsol and Ryan Lochte. With his outstanding swimming speed, unflappable coolness and much-improved underwaters (watch that race against Vazaois), it would not be a surprise to see him reprise the role of the man whose record he took last year.
Strength in depth for GB
Having said this morning that his plan for this evening was “to go faster”, he certainly showed that could execute that plan. He said after the race:
“I’m pretty happy with that, it’s kind of all come together. Training has been wicked , in season swims have been pretty fun so it’s nice to put it all together when it counts. I was trying to stay as controlled as possible (on that first 25), but the adrenaline does take you through”
Behind Morgan in second tonight was Jonny Marshall with a time of 53.21, just off his best time from this time last year of 53.03. He was a devastating 0.01 outside the 53.20 needed to qualify for Singapore, although he may well be a discretionary pick to back Morgan up on the relays, notwithstanding his making the team in the 50 or 200.
He was out with Morgan, splitting 25.69 on the first 50 but could not live with the Birmingham swimmer’s closing speed. Marshall was the runner-up at the recent NCAA championships, finishing 0.02 behind Hubert Kos in 43.22. He said this morning that he’d only come back over from the US the other week and is still feeling his way back in the big pool, so may grow into his swims this week.
Luke Greenbank was sixth in 53.76, as GB put six men under the World Aquatics ‘A’ cut of 53.94. Four of those went best times in tonight’s final, with the Bath trio of Matthew Ward, Cameron Brooker and Jack Skerry taking third through fifth in 53.52, 53.63 and 53.73 respectively.
Just two years ago this event was won by Morgan in a time of 53.77, which would have been seventh behind Greenbank today. With Jonathon Adam holding a PB of 53.45 from the inaugural European U23 championships in 2023 where he took gold, there are seven British swimmers with World semi-final level times. A renaissance of sorts, led by a man who may soon become the face of British Swimming.
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