A clear winner in this category with Mark Foster easily coming out on top, despite being pressed hard by James Hickman and a late surge form Darren Mew. Foster himself had an eventful 2000, a 6th place in the Olympic final of the 50m freestyle may have been personally disappointing, but was one of the best performances of British team. Needless to say, if Foster was upset with his Sydney swims, he didn’t show it in the European short course Championships, winning gold in the 50m butterfly and silver in the 50m freestyle. With recent short course world records over 50 fly and free, we can only hope that this good form can be converted to the long course pool later in the year in Fukuoka, where we can hope to see Mark Foster on the podium at the world championships.

If the men’s category was straightforward then the female category was anything but. No fewer than 18 swimmers received votes, and the race was neck and neck right up until the last few days of voting. Just sneaking in first across the line was Heidi Earp of Nova Centurion. Heidi, previously an international at the world short course championships , really burst to the forefront with her swims at the Olympic trials, where she became the first British woman to record a time under 1:10.00 for the 100m breastroke to erase one of the oldest records in the book. like so many of our swimmers she perhaps didn’t fulfil her potential at the Sydney games, but burst back into the domestic lime light at least with more British records. With the experience of the Olympics behind her, we can hope for a much improved performance in Fukuoka.

Below are the top six in each category as voted by you.

men:

women: