Britain’s World Swimming Championship heartbreak continued on the penultimate night as Fran Halsall finished an agonising fourth in the 50m butterfly final.
Having broken her own British record in the heats, clocking 25.69seconds, Halsall went into the final looking to secure GB’s first swimming medal of the week in Barcelona.
It wasn’t to be however because, despite posting an impressive time of 25.70, she was pipped to bronze by Holland’s Ranomi Kromowidjojo, who swam 25.53.
Jeanette Ottesen Gray claimed gold while Lu Ying secured silver but for Halsall it was an all-too familiar feeling having finished fourth in the 50m and 100m freestyle at the 2011 worlds.
“It was right on my best,” said Halsall. “It was one hundredth of a second off what I did in my heat as a personal best and it is a horrible place to come obviously.
“But looking at it in terms of what I did and how I swam my race and how I wanted to swim it I was bang on.
“I was a little bit slower through 15m than I would have wanted to have been but I held my race all the way and that was all I had and you have to accept that sometimes.”
Halsall went on to put that particular disappointment behind her later in the evening by qualifying for the 50m freestyle final on the final evening.
The 23-year-old went in the first semi-final and touched home in 24.61 for third and fourth overall in the splash and dash sprint.
Familiar foes Kromowidjojo and Ottesen Gray lie in wait, as does new world 100m freestyle champion Cate Campbell and Halsall admits the frustration of missing out on a medal earlier drove her on.
“I suppose being a bit annoyed can help sometimes,” she added. “I was obviously frustrated because fourth is rubbish and lane eight got a medal.
“That is sport, it is ups and downs, ups and downs and you’ve just got to get on with it and roll with the punches.”
Elsewhere, double Olympic gold and bronze medallist Rebecca Adlington saw her 800m world record broken by USA’s Katie Ledecky as she posted 8:13.86minutes to win gold.
It beat the time of 8:14.10 set by the Briton in winning the 2008 Beijing Olympics title.
© Sportsbeat 2013