Litchfield fails to make podium as Britain fall short of adding to golden haul
Max Litchfield missed out on a medal on day five of the World Championships in Budapest, the Sheffield swimmer finishing fourth in the 200 metres individual medley as Britain fell short of adding to their tally of three golds.
Litchfield qualified for the 200m final in third place, but his specialist event is the 400m individual medley and he was not too downbeat at missing out on the podium over four lengths.
Chase Kalisz of the United States took gold in one minute 55.56 seconds, ahead of Japan’s Kosuke Hagino, who clocked 1min 56.01secs.
Bronze went to Wang Shun of China in 1:56.28 and Litchfield finished in 1:56.86.
“Coming in here, to go 1:56 three times is better than I could’ve imagined,” the 22-year-old Litchfield said. “It’s disappointing to come fourth, but it’s promising for the rest of the week.”
Georgia Davies was eighth in the 50m backstroke, clocking 27.61 as Etiene Medeiros of Brazil won gold in 27.14.
Molly Renshaw qualified for the women’s 200m breaststroke final in seventh place and fellow Briton Jocelyn Ulyett is first reserve after being ranked ninth in the semi-finals.
Freya Anderson was ranked 12th and missed out on a place in the women’s 100m freestyle, while Luke Greenbank placed 13th and did not advance to the 200m backstroke final.
Today’s heats see Ben Proud, the 50m butterfly world champion, go in the 50m freestyle, while James Guy begins his 100m butterfly campaign.
Alys Thomas, Rosie Rudin and Holly Hibbott swim the 50m butterfly, 200m backstroke and 800m freestyle heats, respectively.