2026 GB Swimming Championships: Matt Richards fends off three fellow Olympic champions to assert males’s 200m freestyle

It was being referred to as one of many biggest showdowns in British swimming historical past.

The males’s 200m freestyle was the ultimate occasion of the week on the 2026 GB Swimming Championships on Sunday (19 April) – and it delivered.

Matt Richards held off fellow Olympic champions James Guy, Duncan Scott and Jack McMillan in a time of 1:44.77 to win the race and qualify one in every of two (together with runner-up Guy) Team GB spots for this 12 months’s European Championships in Paris.

It was Guy who led after 50 metres, after which Scott who took over on the midway mark and into the ultimate flip, however Richards, the reigning Olympic silver medallist on this occasion, surged over the ultimate stretch, touching the wall first in entrance of a roaring crowd at the London Aquatics Centre.

“I’m really happy with that,” a breathless Richards, 23 mentioned on the Aquatics GB livestream.

“It’s always great fun getting in and racing these boys, especially in a year like this when we’re trying to qualify for Europeans. It’s great to get in the pool and have an honest scrap at this point of the year.”

The prime 4 will make up the 4x200m freestyle group for Europeans, it was introduced on the pool deck.

All 4 had been a part of Team GB’s gold-medal successful group at Paris 2024 in that race, although McMillan solely swam within the preliminary rounds. Another Olympic champion, Tom Dean, was part of that squad. The Tokyo 2020 particular person winner within the males’s 200m free is at the moment out with harm.

Scott completed simply behind Dean in Tokyo for the silver medal within the 200m freestyle.