Medley boys bag brilliant bronze to round off World Championships campaign in style

Great Britain rounded off their World Championships campaign in style by securing a brilliant bronze following a wonderful all-round team performance in Hungary.

The Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay team of Luke Greenbank, James Wilby, James Guy and Tom Dean sealed third place by half a second to win Britain’s fifth medal of the championships in the Duna Arena, Budapest.

Greeenbank, Wilby, Jacob Peters and Lewis Burras had helped Britain to qualify for fifth fastest in the heats in a time of 3:33.56.

Guy and Dean came in for the final and the team clocked 3:31.31 to finish 3.80 seconds adrift of the Italian team, who won gold in 3:27.51 to equal the European record set by the British team at the rearranged Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Greenbank made a solid start and clocked an impressive 53.81 to leave Britain in fourth spot as Wilby took over for the breaststroke 100m.

He stormed down the second 50m of his leg and had taken third spot as Guy dived in.

Guy touched in 51.23 to keep Britain in the medal hunt and Dean charged home in 47.45 to secure the podium place and his third bronze medal of the championships.

Both Peters and Burras also received bronze medals for their role in the heats.

Australia were the silver medallists, 3.52 ahead of the delighted British quartet.

Dean said: “It’s my first time with these boys in the medley relay, I’ve never done a medley before so it’s really special to be a part of it.

“You think back to 2019, they had such a special race when they the World Champs and Duncan did that incredible freestyle leg – so to be part of a team with such history is amazing.

“When I saw everyone celebrating, I knew we were on the podium, so that was quite special.”

Guy added: “The main goal for this meet was just to try to see what we’ve got.

“This year has been quite a weird year, having a World Championships thrown in, but to get a bronze on the world stage at the start of a big year is very, very good.

“Compared to the likes of the USA, who are massive, we’re a very small nation – but our strength is there and we’ve showed we’ve got a bit of stamina towards the end of the race.

“I could definitely feel it [fatigue] a bit towards the end of the race there, hitting the waves, but no excuses, it was a job done and obviously we’ve got the Commonwealth Games in four weeks’ time. I’m 26 now, it doesn’t get any easier.”

Wilby said: “We’ve all had that busy schedule, and so you can have a little bit of fatigue sometimes, but it’s just putting in the race, tactically just right to put the next leg, in this case Jimmy, in the best position he can be to hand off to Deano and then hopefully get on that podium.”

Greenbank added: “I’m used to swimming in this relay now.

“It’s me going out there and doing the best I can do for the team, that’s the mindset you’ve got to have – it’s not about being a 200m swimmer or whatever, it’s about going in there and really putting your all in.”

Earlier in the day, the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay team missed out on a finals place after being disqualified.

The team of Medi Harris, Molly Renshaw, Laura Stephens and Lucy Hope had clocked a time that would have earned them a place in the final.

They had finished in 4:01.07 in their heat but were unfortunately denied a place in the evening’s final.

Anna takes seventh spot

Anna Hopkin finished seventh in the 50m Freestyle.

The 26-year-old was slightly slower than her semi-final time of 24.60 which was a season’s best and had seen her qualify fifth fastest.

However, Hopkin could only touch home in 24.71 and was 0.73 behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjoestroem, who was the only athlete in the field to dip under the 24-second mark as she took gold in 23.98.

Daniel gives it his all

Daniel Jervis gave it his all in the 1500m Freestyle and finished in seventh place narrowly outside of his lifetime best

He knocked more than eight seconds off his heats time of 14:56.89 having qualified for the final eighth fastest.

His time of 14:48.86 was only 2.35 behind his personal best and the third quickest of his career.