Kimberley Woods takes World Cup bronze while Jazz Carlin also finishes third in the World Championships to take Britain to a record medal haul. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
European champion Kimberley Woods admitted she was relieved to come away with C1 bronze on day two of the Canoe Slalom World Cup 4 in La Seu d’Urgell, Spain.
The 20-year-old qualified seventh after the morning’s semi-final and was greeted at the start line by the onset of a storm.
However, she managed to stay calm and produced a consistent run to seal the bronze.
“The rain came right before my run and I thought ‘typical’, but you can’t control that,” said Woods.
“I’m relieved to win bronze because I went through the finish line knowing it wasn’t a medal run because Jas did a 1.15 in the semi final and lots of people were going faster than that.”
Elsewhere there was no birthday present for David Florence who missed out on a medal in the men’s C1 as he came in seventh.
Rachel Atherton believes overall victory was just reward for her consistency after wrapping up the UCI mountain bike World Cup downhill title with another triumph in Windham, USA.
Atherton took her fifth consecutive World Cup win, and the 25th of her career, to seal the overall title with one round to go after beating the field by almost ten seconds.
Manon Carpenter and Tahnee Seagrave came second and third respectively to complete an all-British top three but it was 27-year-old Atherton who was the star of the show.
“This is the most World Cups I’ve won in one year – I’ve won four before, so five is pretty cool,” she said.
“The World Cup overall means a lot – you have to be so consistent all year. World Champs you can just let it go, it doesn’t matter if you crash.
“The overall, week after week the nerves, the worry, it’s pretty intense. So I am happy to have it back.”
In the men’s event, won by American Aaron Gwin, Gee Atherton was the highest-placed Brit as he finished fourth while Josh Bryceland came seventh to lie fifth in the overall standings with one round to go.
Jazz Carlin produced a battling performance to seal 800m freestyle bronze and take Great Britain to a record medal tally at the World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
Carlin finished fourth in the 400m freestyle earlier in the week but wasn’t to be denied again as the European champion added a world medal to her collection for the first time.
It was Britain’s ninth medal of the competition – beating the record hauls from 1975 and 2013 – and Carlin admits she was delighted to make it onto the podium.
“This week really has been an emotional rollercoaster,” Carlin told British Swimming.
“Obviously I would have liked to finish higher and gone a bit quicker but I’m absolutely over the moon to come away with a bronze medal at the end of the week.”
There were two more finals for Great Britain on the penultimate day of action in Russia with Ben Proud missing out on a podium in the 50m freestyle and Fran Halsall also missing out in the 50m butterfly.
Nick Thompson says his World Championship victory is the perfect platform as he looks to seal qualification for his first Olympic Games.
The Laser sailor is currently preparing for the second Olympic Test Event at the Aquece Rio International Regatta next week.
Thompson had four world podium finishes to his name before last month’s performance in Canada which finally say him take top spot.
And with a year to go before Rio 2016 Thompson says the win can be a catalyst for making it to the shores of Brazil.
“Winning the World Championship last month was really a kind of relief for me,” he said. “Having come so close before, to finally do it was really a huge relief and almost a ‘monkey off the back’ moment.
“It had been a while since I’d actually won a big event. I’ve kept medalling at events, but never quite won them so to actually do it was huge and that is a huge confidence boost as we get closer to the Games.”
© Sportsbeat 2015