Men’s 4×2 Relay Squad Shortlisted For Aquatics GB Award After Adding World Crown To Olympic Title
The men’s 4×200 free relay that won world gold a year after claiming the Olympic title have been shortlisted for Athletes of the Year at the Aquatics GB Awards 2025.
Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan and Duncan Scott won gold in 6:59.84 at the World Championships in Singapore with Tom Dean and Evan Jones swimming prelims to guide the quartet into lane four for the final. All six men have been nominated for the award with the British men at the forefront of the event with two straight Olympic titles in Tokyo and Paris as well as gold at the 2023 and 2025 worlds.
Freya Colbert: Photo Courtesy: Morgan Harlow/Aquatics GB
Also nominated is Freya Colbert who lowered Joanne Jackson’s British 200 free record from 1:55.54 to 1:55.06 en-route to fourth in Singapore. Jackson’s mark had stood since the 2009 World Championships in Rome. The Dave Hemmings-trained swimmer also led off the women’s 4×2 squad that finished fifth while finishing eighth in the 400IM.
Completing the shortlist is Ollie Morgan, who lowered the British 100 back record to 52.12 as he swept the backstroke events at the national championships in London in April. Morgan then went on to finish fifth in Singapore in 52.37 while leading off the men’s medley relay that finished sixth.
Four swimmers are shortlisted for the Emerging Athlete of the Year. Filip Nowacki won the 100/200 breaststroke double at the European Junior Championships with a continental junior mark of 2:08.32 in the latter while his 59.59 PB in the 100 comfortably bettered the British age group record previously held by a certain Adam Peaty. There was also silver in the 50.
The Jersey swimmer followed that up with eight golds at the Island Games before he again completed the 100/200 double at the world juniors, going 2:07.32 in the longer race to go within 0.02 of Ross Murdoch’s British record of 2:07.30 from the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Jacob Mills twice went sub-22 in the 50 free at the British Championships to finish behind Ben Proud, now departed under a cloud for the Enhanced Games. He went on to compete at the Singapore worlds before winning double silver in the 50 and 100 free at the junior worlds.
Amalie Smith won the IM double at the European juniors before striking silver in both events at world juniors while Dean Fearn claimed world and European junior 50 fly titles.
Coach of the Year nominees in swimming are Ben Higson (University of Stirling), Ryan Livingstone (Manchester HPC) and Dave Hemmings (Loughborough).
Results will be announced during a dinner on Saturday 8 November.
Athlete of the Year Nominees
Artistic Swimming
- Ranjuo Tomblin
- Isabelle Thorpe
- Holly Hughes
Diving
- Jordan Houlden
- Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen
- Jack Laugher and Anthony Harding
Para-swimming
- Will Ellard
- Poppy Maskill
- Faye Rogers
Swimming
- Freya Colbert
- Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay team (Matt Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan and Duncan Scott, Tom Dean and Evan Jones)
- Oliver Morgan
Water Polo
- Kathy Rogers
- Lily Turner
- Sophie Jackson
Emerging Athlete of the Year Nominees
Diving
- Noah Penman
- Todd Geggus
- Siena-Rae Mills
Para-swimming
- Bruce Dee
- Astrid Carroll
- Ela Letton-Jones
Swimming
- Amalie Smith
- Jacob Mills
- Filip Nowacki
- Dean Fearn
Coach of the Year Nominees
Artistic Swimming
- Paola Basso
- Yulia Diachenko
- Karen Thorpe
Diving
- Alex Rochas
- Anna Sless
- Tom Owens
Para-swimming
- Ric Howard
- Patrick Miley
- Nick Thompson
Swimming
- Ben Higson
- Ryan Livingstone
- Dave Hemmings
Water Polo
- Theo Nousios
- Tim Dunsbee
- Nick Hume
