9th Fina World Swimming Championships – Day One

April 10, 2024

After recent European and British competitions, Great Britain’s swimming team today moved onto the world stage at this year’s 9th FINA World Swimming Championships in Manchester.

At the biggest swimming event to be held in Britain since the 1948 Olympic Games, the GB team had a chance to show the rest of the world what they will be up against come the summer.

After superb performances at both the European Championships and the Olympic trials, all eyes were on the women’s squad to see what they could produce. And they didn’t disappoint.

Hannah Miley smashed her own British record by more than three seconds in the 400m individual medley heat, and was looking to produce a world record in the evening’s final.

However, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry stole the show with a phenomenal time of 4:26.52 to claim gold. Miley came in a very commendable second in the show stopping final with a time of 4:27:27 - a new European record. Mireia Belonte of Spain took the bronze medal.

Miley told the BBC, “I could hear the crowd on the breaststroke, it was that loud, and that’s the motivation you need. I wonder how fast I could have gone without the home crowd. It’s scary to think that I have a chance of getting a medal (in Beijing). This is my first senior international medal.”

It was an amazing result for the 18 year old Scot who has to train in a 25m pool as the nearest Olympic size pool is over two hours away.

Another British short course record was set in the women’s 200m butterfly heat with Jemma Lowe recording the fastest qualifying time. But in the evening final, Lowe, who looked so impressive in the first half of the race, slowed in the final approach to finish fourth. But GB team-mate Jessica Dickons won bronze, and set a new British record of 2:05.09. She finished behind American Mary Descenza, who herself was breaking records with a new Championship record of 2:04.27, and Australia’s Felicity Galvez.

In the 4x200m freestyle relay, the British women just missed out on gold by a nail biting six hundredths of a second, with 19 year old Rebecca Adlington touching just behind the Dutch team.

Rachel Stansfield, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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9th Fina World Swimming Championships – Day One

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9th Fina World Swimming Championships – Day One

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