Abbie Wood puts the world on notice at Manchester International

Abbie Wood is shaping as one Britain's biggest breakout stars at Tokyo 2020 after a fearsome return to the long-course pool at the Manchester International.

As Britain's best swimmers finally returned to 50m racing, the 21-year-old clocked 2:09.38 to crash through her 200m individual medley personal best by a full two seconds.

She is on course to challenge Rio Olympic silver medallist Siobhan-Marie O'Connor's British record of 2:06.88 and with Aimee Wilmott and Hannah Miley in the mix, should play out a ding-dong battle at April's Tokyo trials.

Wood pushed Molly Renshaw to a 200m breaststroke national record and lowered her own personal mark in the process, before beating Freya Anderson at the touch in the 200m freestyle.

"I'm over the moon, really. It's come as quite a big surprise," said Wood, who impressed for New York Breakers in the International Swimming League.

"Off the back of the ISL, I was hoping to back it up over long course but it has really come together for me now which is really positive. I had a few swims in me that I'd done and though I was hurting a bit, I'm really glad I dragged that out of myself.

"I actually think the 200m breaststroke was the highlight for me, just because it was the most unexpected swim I've ever done! I used to love the breaststroke and I thought it was supposed to be one of my more fun events because I hadn't done it in a while – so to post a time like that, I was over the moon.

"I was really happy with the 200 IM, but because that's my main event, while I wasn't expecting it at all, I was hoping that would happen.

"With the Olympics coming up, everyone was itching to do long-course racing – and I felt so fortunate to be chosen to do the meet. The meet was really good, everyone stuck to the rules and respected everything because we were so grateful to be here."

Elsewhere James Guy reeled in training partner Tom Dean in the back half to take the men's 200m freestyle in a 1:47.19, with Joe Litchfield finishing third.

Pre-selected Team GB stars Luke Greenbank and James Wilby led from start to finish to win the 100m backstroke and 200m breaststroke, while Adam Peaty came away with 26.75 seconds for the 50m breast and 58.8s for the 100m.

Sportsbeat 2021