February’s World Aquatics Championships always promised to wet the appetite of British fans ahead of this summers Olympic Games, and the festival of sport in Doha has lived up to its billing. 16 days of thrilling competition in the Qatari capital has produced performances and stories aplenty, just a few short months out from the games in Paris.
Trio of World Medals for Spendolini-Sirieix
British diving finds itself in excellent shape after what was a record breaking world championship programme, where a tally of seven British diving medals were amassed in Qatar. Platform diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix has been no stranger to international podiums in recent years, but her medal haul in Doha is surely a highlight of her already successful diving career. The 19 year old won two bronze and one gold medal in the space of five action packed days at the world championships.
Spendolini-Sirieix alongside Tom Daley, Dan Goodfellow and Scarlett Mew Jensen won mixed team gold on the opening night of the championships. Points accumulated across six separate dives crowned GB the winners, with consistent and stylish diving from the whole quartet proving to be the winning formula. It was the perfect start to the diving programme for Spendolini-Sirieix ahead of her events ahead.
Just a few nights later she lined up in the 10m platform final, after coming through gruelling qualification rounds in comprehensive fashion. The Briton showed great skill and composure across her programme of dives to claim her first individual world medal, a bronze, behind dynamic Chinese duo Hongchan Quan and Yuxi Chen. Spendolini-Sirieix completed her hat trick of medals in the 10m synchro event a day later alongside long time teammate Lois Toulson. They climbed into the podium places with their final dive and ultimately claimed bronze behind the pairs from China and North Korea.
World medals to go alongside her 10m platform commonwealth title from Birmingham represent another significant milestone for Spendolini-Sirieix. Having finished seventh in the 10m platform on her Olympic debut in Tokyo, her next aim is to win a first Olympic medal this summer in Paris.
Stephens Claims First World Title
Laura Stephens produced a measured and gutsy swim to win 200m Butterfly gold at the World Championships in Doha, the first global medal of her career. In doing so, the 24 year old becomes Great Britain’s first female world swimming champion since Rebecca Adlington’s 800m freestyle gold in 2011.
Stephens, who hails from London led the final from start to finish, establishing an early lead down the first length before finding the necessary strength to hold off the chasing pack in the closing stages. Stephens accomplishment underlines her remarkable progression over the last 12 months, having achieved a seventh placed finish in the same event at last years World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. She also contested the world final in the 2019 edition, where she finished eighth.
It was an encapsulating race as the Briton stamped her authority on the rest of the world early on, before Denmark’s Helena Bach, began to reel her in. Stephens displayed exceptional strength of stroke in the final few metres as she narrowly touched out the charging Dane by less than a tenth of a second. The enormity of the occasion didn’t appear to affect Stephens in the slightest as she claimed gold ahead of Bach who had to settle for silver and Lana Pudar of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who took bronze. This victory made sporting history, as Great Britain’s first ever medal in a world 200m butterfly event.
This performance acts as the perfect springboard ahead of a hectic season for Stephens, offering plenty of encouragement for competitions moving forward, most notably the Olympics in Paris in July. In an interview with British Swimming, Stephens spoke of her excitement ahead of the Games:
“It’s a great way to start off the long-course season and hopefully I can just get faster and faster. This definitely gives me a lot of confidence towards Paris.”
Paris will be the second Olympic campaign for Stephens after she made her debut in 2021 in Tokyo, where she lined up in her specialist event, the 200m butterfly. It was after this Olympic experience that Stephens joined the British Performance Centre in Loughborough after previously being based with Plymouth Leander Swim Club.
The events biggest hitters Summer Mcintosh of Canada, USAs Regan Smith and Australia’s Elizabeth Dekkers are likely to return for the Paris Olympics, having sat out of the World Championships in preparation. No doubt though, that the Briton has laid down a serious marker in their absence.
Laura Stephens has made enormous strides since her 2022 Commonwealth silver in Birmingham, but now the freshly crowned World Champion has her eyes firmly set on the Olympic podium later this year.
Colbert Wins Magnificent Medley Gold
Freya Colbert brought the curtain down on the World Aquatics Championships in spectacular fashion by winning 400m individual medley gold on the final day of competition in Doha. It is a first global title for the 19 year old, to go alongside the silver she won as part of the British team in the 4x200m freestyle relay earlier in the meet.
After a thirteen year wait for a female swimming World Champion from Great Britain, we were treated to two in just a few days, with Colbert following up Laura Stephens gold earlier in the week. The pair of champions can now look ahead to the upcoming British Championships, and beyond that, the Olympic Games with real excitement after their successful campaigns in Qatar.
Colbert utilised her strength in the freestyle leg of the race to snatch the gold medal in an impeccably judged swim. The Grantham born athlete was able to remain in contention throughout the race, in an event that is known to fluctuate depending on athletes differing area of strength. She lay in sixth after the butterfly leg, but stormed back on the backstroke, reeling in the majority of the field to turn second at the midway point. After maintaining her strong position after the breaststroke, Colbert showed her considerable prowess in the freestyle to pull clear of eventual runner up, Anastasia Gorbenko of Israel, in the closing metres to win gold. Sara Franceschi of Italy took the bronze.
Colbert will hope to carry her current form and confidence forward towards Paris, as she heads to her first Olympic Games as the reigning world medley champion.
More British Success
There was even more delight in Doha for British athletes, especially for artistic swimming duo Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe. The long term best friends secured silver in the technical duet competition, before following that up with bronze in the free duet. Their medal winning campaign is the perfect preparation ahead of the Olympic Games later in the year.
It was also a sensational silver medal for diver Grace Reid in the 1m Springboard event. The Scottish athlete performed a mightily impressive programme of dives on her way to a first world medal of her career. In the 3m synchronised final, Yasmin Harper and Scarlett Mew Jensen won the bronze medal, playing their part in a triumphant championships for British Diving.
At the end this unique multi sport event, Great Britain finished fifth in the overall medal table, highlighting the exciting potential of our athletes as they attempt to make waves in Paris this summer.
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