O'Connor wins third World Championship silver
Siobhan-Marie OConnor claimed her third silver medal of the meet when she finished second in the 200m Individual Medley in a new British Record at the FINA World Short-Course Championships in Doha.
Hannah Miley was fourth in the same race while Chris Walker-Hebborn was seventh in the 50m Backstroke.
There were further British Records for Adam Peaty in the 50m Breaststroke and Georgia Davies in the 50m Backstroke.
O’Connor had already claimed silver medals in the 100m Individual Medley – twice lowering her own British Record in the process – to follow her trip to the rostrum in the mixed 4x50m Medley Relay in which she swam the butterfly leg.
The 19-year-old qualified for tonight’s race in fifth but she was second from start to finish, touching in 2:05.87 to slice 0.03secs off Sophie Allen’s British Record from Glasgow in December 2013. The race saw Katinka Hosszu set a new World Record.
O’Connor said: “It’s been really good. Coming here I didn’t really know what to expect because I love short course and long course but I am probably better at long course.
“It has been a really good meet on the back of a really good trip: we went to Thailand for a camp just before this and we got a good block of training in.
“We’ve had a good meet as GB: we had an amazing summer as a team so to come here to carry on a solid year is great. It's small team but it’s a close team.”
Walker-Hebborn was seventh in the 50m Backstroke with a new personal best in a race in which Florent Manaudou set a new World Record.
Peaty propelled himself into the semi-finals at the head of the field by taking down another British Record in the 50m breaststroke. The 19-year-old cut 0.63 off the previous mark this morning and subsequently lowered that to 25.75, also a Championship Record.
Peaty said: “I had a really bad breakout. Hopefully I can do better tomorrow. I never thought I would be this fast at this meet: I thought I might make a final.”
Davies took 0.07secs off the British Record in the 50m Backstroke, set by her housemate Fran Halsall in Tokyo in October to lower it to 26.36. She qualified fifth fastest for tomorrow's final.
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
