James Guy bounced back from disappointment in the 400m freestyle to win bronze in the 200m event at the European Aquatics Championships, and he says there is more to come in Rio.
Great Britain enjoyed another successful evening at the London Aquatics Centre with Chloe Tutton also grabbing a bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke.
Reigning world champion Guy, who failed to qualify for the 400m final earlier in the week, hauled in his rivals to take bronze in 1:46.42, beaten only by Sebastiaan Verschueren of the Netherlands and Serbia’s Velimir Stjepanovic.
Guy, sporting a beard, is in the middle of a heavy training block and is looking forward to tapering off his training in time for the Rio Olympic Games, saying there is more to come when rested.
“For me that was a great swim, a season’s best so I’m over the moon with that one,” said the 20-year-old.
“It was a stacked field and it’s getting close to Rio now so hopefully I can take things from there and take them on to the summer.
“When you rest down you get that more twitch and easy speed so a 1:46 now, un-rested and un-shaven, then with more hard work, bring on the taper baby.
“To race [Michael] Phelps in the Olympics would be an honour but whoever’s there it’s going to be a real scrap to the finish line so it’s going to be tough.
Tutton, 19, also fought back in her final to claim bronze in 1:07.50, with Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte winning gold and Iceland’s Hrafnhildu Luthersdottir taking silver.
Fellow Brit Molly Renshaw came in seventh, clocking 1:07.93, and Tutton could not believe the result.
“I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me at the start of the year I’d be a European bronze medallist,” she said.
“That race was amazing, I didn’t expect to do a best time, un-rested, I’m just over the moon, especially with the bronze.
“I kind of knew that I would come back stronger than most of them so I just knew that I had to be patient and stick it through.
“Fingers crossed there’s more space for improvement, I’ll only ever try to do my best.”
The night’s other final with British representation, the 200m medley, finished with Max Litchfield and Dan Wallace in seventh and eighth respectively, with times of 2:00.71 and 2:00.92.
There was more British success in the night’s semi-finals with Ross Murdoch winning his race and qualifying fastest for tomorrow’s 200m breaststroke final.
The Scot clocked 2:09.72, beating Germany’s Marco Koch into second place, but his teammate Craig Benson was just edged out of the final after registering the ninth-fastest time with 2:11.93.
Britain will have two swimmers in the 200m medley final though as Siobhan Marie O’Connor and Hannah Miley qualified second and third fastest from the semi-finals.
Miley won her race in 2:12.37 with O’Connor coming second in her heat in 2:10.17, just behind Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu.
In the 100m backstroke semi-finals Britain’s Kathleen Dawson impressed, finishing second in her race with a time of 59.83 to qualify second fastest for the final, and she will be joined by Georgia Davies, who clocked 1:00.58 to progress in seventh.
The evening’s final races saw Chris Walker-Hebborn just miss out on the 50m backstroke final, his semi-final time of 25.36 only good enough for 12th place.
Sportsbeat 2016