Golden delight for town swimmers in Abu Dhabi
LOUGHBOROUGH- BASED swimmers have struck gold at the World Short Course Championships in Abu Dhabi.
Loughborough swimmer Felix Auböck became only the second-ever Austrian to claim a world short course title with a stunning 400m freestyle performance at the FINA World Championships in Abu Dhabi.
The University postgraduate student broke a National Record to hit the wall in a time of 3:35.90 to secure a dream start at the Championships for Loughborough.
Auböck – coached by Andi Manley – held off a late charge from Danas Rapsys (3:36.23) and Antonio Djakovic (3:36.83) to claim the victory and mark his first-ever elite international title.
And Louise Hansson capped a stunning 2021 FINA Short Course World Championships by winning a second gold in the Women’s 100m Backstroke.
The Swedish star - coached by Ian Hulme – stormed home in 55.20 to add to her world record gold in Women’s 200m Medley Relay event in Abu Dhabi.
Hansson looked in fine form throughout and held of the stern challenge of Canada’s Kylie Masse (55.22) and USA’s Katharine Berkoff (55.40).
European champions Molly Renshaw, Abbie Wood and Euro medallist Max Litchfield were due to be in action for the GB team but it transpired only Renshaw would be in action.
There was disappointment for Max Litchfield who had to withdraw after day one after testing positive for Covid 19 and is currently in isolation.
While Wood had to withdraw due to glandular fever.
She posted on social media: “Really gutted to say that I’ve had to pull out of the world short course championships due to glandular fever,
“My body’s just forcing me to chill for a bit after a hectic year. Sad to not be going out there with the team but I know they’ll smash it.”
Renshaw did compete and broke the British record in the
Women’s 100m breaststroke final, finishing fifth, a time of 1:04.37 knocking 0.06 seconds off the time she set in Sunday’s semis.
She said: “That’s a little bit of an improvement on last night, so I’m really happy with that. The 100m has never really been my main strength, so to see quite a drop there, I’m quite happy,”
Renshaw also made it through to the final of the women’s 200m breaststroke which was due to take place as the Echo went to press on Tuesday.