Great Britain‘s Abbie Wood clinched the nation’s first medal of the World Aquatics Swimming Championships with a bronze in the women’s 200m medley on day one of the competition in Budapest.
The 25-year-old won just her second World Championships medal – and first at the formerly known Short Course Championships – with a time of 2:02.75, setting a new British record in the process.
Wood was just one-tenth of a second behind silver medallist Alex Walsh of the USA, while fellow American and two-time Olympic champion Kate Douglass won the title with a world record time of 2:01.63.
Wood’s British record time was a significant improvement on the 2:05.58 that won her the European short-course title in 2023, and she could hardly comprehend smashing her own personal best by such a margin in Hungary.
“To get a two-second PB at this my point in my career, I’m honestly so shocked with myself. Kate doing a world record alongside me obviously pushed me on, but that felt really good to be back racing in a world-class field,” BBC Sport quotes Wood as saying.
Douglass’s 200m individual medley world record was one of three global bests that were broken on day one of the Championships, as Canada’s Summer McIntosh also took home the women’s 400m freestyle gold in an unrivalled time of 3:50.25.
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The 18-year-old – who also won silver in the event in Paris, alongside three Olympic golds – finished over three seconds clear of Australian runner-up Lani Pallister, who still set a new Oceanic record with 3:53.73 on the board.
The USA’s 4x100m men’s freestyle relay team – comprising Jack Alexy, Luke Hobson, Kieran Smith and Chris Guiliano – made history in the Budapest pool too, taking the title with a world record time of 3:01.66.
Italy were almost two full seconds behind in second place with 3:03.65, while Poland (3:04.46) took the bronze, and the American women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team emulated their male counterparts by breaking the world record in their respective event.
Douglass, Katharine Berkhoff, Alex Shackell and Gretchen Walsh combined for a time of 3:25.01, over three seconds clear of Australia in second spot.
Elsewhere, Tunisian 19-year-old Ahmed Jaouadi won the men’s 1500m freestyle event with 14:16.40 on the clock, and the USA’s Shaine Casas set a new course record en route to the men’s 200m medley gold.
What is on tomorrow at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships?
Day two of the 2024 World Aquatics Swimming Championships will see five finals contested in the afternoon session, as athletes go for gold in the women’s 800m freestyle, women’s 50m butterfly, men’s 100m backstroke, men’s 50m butterfly and mixed 4x50m medley relay.
