Swim England Competitive Swimming Hub
Luke Greenbank and Molly Renshaw surge into World Championships finals
July 25, 2019Luke Greenbank and Molly Renshaw are both well poised to challenge for medals at the FINA World Championships in Gwangju, comfortably qualifying for their respective finals.
Greenbank finished second in his Men’s 200m Backstroke semi-final with a time of 1:56.60 to reach his first ever final at the Championships.
The NC Loughborough swimmer went 0.23 seconds quicker than he did in the heats and will be in contention for a medal if he can get near his personal best time of 1:55.89 in Friday’s final.
Greenbank had the third fastest time overall in the semi-finals, only 0.35 seconds behind American Ryan Murphy.
Renshaw rises again
Molly Renshaw will hope to challenge for a medal in the Women’s 200m Breaststroke, after finishing third in her semi-final.
The Loughborough University swimmer went more than two seconds quicker than her heat time, clocking 2:23.16 to qualify fourth fastest for Friday’s final.
Renshaw is a multiple medallist at Commonwealth and European level, but is searching for her first ever world medal.
Tough fly final for Brits
Laura Stephens finished eighth in the Women’s 200m Butterfly final, capping off an impressive World Championships debut.
The 20-year-old Plymouth Leander swimmer couldn’t replicate the pace she set in the semi-finals, but touched the wall in 2:09.35 to give her plenty of optimism on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Her Great Britain teammate Alys Thomas was fifth in 2:07.48, only 0.44 seconds outside of the podium positions.
Anderson flies into final
Freya Anderson set a new personal best time of 53.31 seconds to book her place in the final of the Women’s 100m Freestyle.
The Ellesmere College Titans swimmer shaved 0.30 off her previous lifetime best, which was set at the 2018 European Championships.
That just guaranteed Anderson a final spot, as she qualified joint seventh fastest.
Anna Hopkin produced another superb swim to finish 13th in the world.
Hopkin had swum the second fastest time for a British female in history to reach the semis and she went under 54 seconds for only the second time in her career.
Her time of 53.65s was only enough to finish sixth in her semi-final, though.
She will return for the 50m Freestyle on Saturday.
Wilby misses out
James Wilby improved on his heat time, but was unable to secure a place in the Men’s 200m Breaststroke final.
After a comfortable heat, Wilby went more than a second quicker in the semi-final, touching the wall in 2:08.52.
But that was only good enough for 12th place overall, only 0.24 seconds away from a place in the final.
His British teammate Ross Murdoch was just 0.01 quicker, finishing 11th.
