by Tobias Hunt
SWANSEA Aquatics duo Daniel Jervis and Alys Thomas both met the Olympic consideration times by winning their events at the British Swimming Tokyo 2021 Trials.
Jervis, 24 from Resolven won the Men’s 1500m freestyle title in a time of 14:51.49, four seconds inside the British qualifying time for Tokyo. His Swim in London means he’s now the fourth fastest in that event in the World this season.
He narrowly missed out on the 800m freestyle consideration time earlier on in the week, however he performed admirably in his favoured 1500m distance.
On achieving the consideration time for Tokyo, Jervis said, “You only have to know me for five seconds to know that this is my dream. Ever since I was a young boy, I’ve only ever wanted to be an Olympian, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.
“I’m really happy with the time, but honestly, I don’t really care about that. All I care about is I’ve got the consideration time for the Olympic Games.
“I’ve found this week one of the hardest competitions I’ve ever done, not so much the swimming, everyone has swum fantastically, but being stuck in my room for a week, it’s been really tough not being able to see many people.
“That’s the situation, and if we didn’t have that we wouldn’t be able to compete, so I’m very grateful for everyone who has put this competition on.”
Alys Thomas took the Women’s 200m butterfly title in a time of 2:08.09, which was 0.23 seconds inside of the consideration time. The Swansea swimmer finished ahead of University of Sterling’s Keanna Maccines in second and Plymouth’s Laura Stephens in third.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and two-time European medallist has her sights on her first Olympic Games at the age of 30.
After the race an emotional Thomas said, “The last couple of years have been so up and down and overwhelming at some points.
“I’m just so glad I actually did it. I believed in myself and got the time that I wanted. It means the world to me and to my family back home.”