Shortman and Thorpe overcome adversity to set another personal best

Great Britain’s artistic swimming duet, Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe, overcome adversity following the rescheduled technical duet final to achieve another personal best.

The pair continued to improve as they earned a seventh place finish on day four of the European Aquatics Championships in Budapest.

They produced what was described as a ‘beautiful, sharp and very well synchronised swim’ to achieve a score of 84.9244.

The breakdown of that score saw the judges award 25.6000 for execution, 26.0000 for artistic impression and 33.3244 for the elements.

The event was due to take place on the opening day of the competition but issues with the underwater speakers forced the final to be abandoned.

Their previous appearance at the European Championships in 2018 saw them finish tenth with a score of 80.2820.

Karen Thorpe, manager of artistic swimming for Swim England and British Swimming, said: “The girls did a good swim after the technical issues on Tuesday.

“They are back at the pool already training hard for the free duet final tomorrow morning and will take stock after this competition to prepare themselves for the Olympic qualification in June.

“The girls have received a lot of positive comments and praise from everybody supporting and watching them back at home. They would like to say thank you for the support and how much it is appreciated.”

Shortman and Thorpe also swam a new personal best in the free duet preliminary round, making this their second as a duo and Shortman’s third following her solo free final PB.

They will compete in the free duet final on the morning of day five, with the team free final in the afternoon featuring Millicent Costello, Isobel Davies, Daisy Gunn, Cerys Hughes, Cerys Larsen, Daniella Lloyd, Robyn Swatman and Laura Turberville.

The reserves for that event are Isobel Blinkhorn and Aimee Lawrence.