World Swimming Championships: Britain win 4x200m relay gold
- Published
Guy last leg earns GB relay gold
World Swimming Championships |
|---|
Venue: Kazan, Russia Dates: 2-9 August |
Coverage: Live on BBC Two, Red Button, Radio 5 live sports extra, online, tablets, mobiles and BBC Sport app |
Great Britain's men overhauled the United States in a dramatic 4x200m freestyle relay final to win gold at the World Championships in Russia.
Individual world champion James Guy swam a superb final leg after Dan Wallace, Robbie Renwick and Calum Jarvis had put Britain in contention.
The US were led off by swimming great Ryan Lochte but could not hold on.
"They've always been the best 4x200m team in the world but we really stepped our game up tonight," said Wallace.
Rebecca Adlington, two-time Olympic champion |
|---|
"The Australians and Americans put their two best swimmers at the start, whereas we saved ours and the tactic paid off. Because the Americans had a weaker back leg, James Guy could just crawl it back. We knew that if he was even close to them, he was going to do it on that last 50m." |
"It always makes you confident to have the world champion anchoring your relay but I think we set him up pretty well and it was a great race."
Britain clocked a time of seven minutes 4.33 seconds to claim the nation's first ever men's relay gold at a World Championships, with the US and Australia completing the podium.
The US had won the event, which will be part of the Olympic programme in Rio next year, at the last five World Championships.
Guy, 19, won the individual title on Tuesday and took the British quartet from third to first on the final leg of the relay.
"The way things have been going in racing and training, the work is paying off," said Guy. "The personal bests are finally dropping down."
Mark Foster, six-time world champion |
|---|
"It was completely a team performance because without Dan Wallace, Robbie Renwick and Calum Jarvis putting James in a position where he could do that, he would have been too far behind and it would have been impossible. If you look at their splits across the board, they all did their bit." |
Britain now stand third in the overall medals table behind the United States and Australia with five gold, one silver and two bronze medals after six of eight days in Kazan.
In Friday's other events, Andrew Willis finished fourth in the men's 200m breaststroke but Lizzie Simmonds failed to progress in the 200m backstroke.
Ben Proud and Fran Halsall qualified for Saturday's 50m freestyle and butterfly finals respectively.
Britain (centre) ended 10 years of domination by the US in the men's 4x200m relay
- Published29 July 2015
- Published7 August 2015
- Published9 August 2015
- Published27 March 2018
- Published19 July 2013
