Brits sign off from World Championships with seventh silver
Adam Peaty won his second individual silver medal and third overall as Great Britain concluded the FINA World Championships (25m) in Doha with a total of eight medals.
The sprinter was joint second with world record holder Cameron van der Burgh in the 50m breaststroke.
He then returned in the penultimate event to swim an astonishing breaststroke leg as he guided the men’s 4x100m medley relay from seventh to first as they eventually finished fifth in a new British Record of 3:22.78.
Peaty had twice lowered the British Record en-route to the 50m breaststroke final but he didn't replicate that tonight, having to work doubly hard after surfacing some way back at the start.
The 19-year-old, who has been nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, set five individual British Records at this meet.
He said: “I enjoyed it. I haven’t had time to work on my start so I wanted to get back in and smash that. This has given me extra oomph.
“I was a bit iffy coming in. I didn’t know what I wanted, I didn’t know what to expect or what sort of shape I was in.”
Georgia Davies was seventh in the 50m Backstroke as the five-day event drew to a close at the Hamad Aquatic Centre.
It meant the 11-strong team – reduced when Fran Halsall withdrew with a shoulder injury – finished with seven silvers and one bronze medal.
There were also 18 British Records with Adam Barrett equalling the 50m butterfly.
Head coach Bill Furniss was especially impressed by two elements of his side’s performance.
“With this meet (we need) to keep it in context for the entire season,” said Furniss. "Our focus was Commonwealths and European Championships but we also wanted to swim well here.
“We had a bit of bad luck: we lost Ross Murdoch coming in and then Fran which probably hit our medal target a little bit.
“But if we look at this meet in isolation – we’ve had 18 British records and what pleases me is the percentage of athletes that have moved it on from the heats in the finals. It’s around 90% so I am delighted with it.”
He did though move to calm expectations.
“Even with our results at the Commonwealths and Europeans, we are not getting carried away.
“We know we’ve got a lot of work to do, we targeted this meet really to learn more about starts, turns, finishes and we’ve learned a lot from some of the athletes.
“Some of them have improved at this meet but they are all going to take stuff away they can work on."
The British Gas GBR Swimming team comprises:
Adam Barrett - British Gas GBR National Centre, Loughborough
James Guy - Millfield
Adam Peaty – City of Derby
Ben Proud – Plymouth Leander
Chris Walker-Hebborn - British Gas GBR National Centre, Bath
Jazz Carlin – Swansea Performance Centre
Georgia Davies - British Gas GBR National Centre, Loughborough
Fran Halsall - British Gas GBR National Centre, Loughborough
Hannah Miley – Garioch
Siobhan Marie O’Connor - British Gas GBR National Centre, Bath
Sophie Taylor – London Aquatic Performance Programme
