Swimmers enjoy big tally of medals
Tom Dean won his fourth and fifth silver medals of the Commonwealth Games and was once again joined on the podium by James Guy on another good night for University of Bath-based swimmers at Birmingham 2022 on Monday.
Dean, supported by a Bill Whiteley Sporting Scholarship, produced an excellent swim to finish runnerup to former Olympic Champion Kyle Chalmers of Australia in the 100m freestyle final at the start of the evening.
He was back in the Sandwell Aquatic Centre pool for the last race of the night, winning silver for Team England in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay alongside fellow British Swimming Performance Bath swimmer and double Olympic Champion Guy.
Training partners Kieran Bird and sports performance graduate Calum Jarvis – who says he is retiring after the Games – were in the Wales quartet that narrowly missed out on the podium in fourth.
After going under 48 seconds for the first time in Sunday’s semifinals, Dean went into the 100m freestyle final with high hopes of earning a fourth podium place of the week.
Chalmers was the favourite, having set a new Games record in qualifying, and lived up to that billing as he led from start to finish. However, Dean – coached by David Mcnulty at the Team Bath Sports Training Village – produced another excellent swim and was closing in on him in the home stretch as he touched the wall in 47.89, just sixhundredths outside his personal best from yesterday. Duncan Scott, who had beaten Dean to gold in the 200m freestyle, took third.
“I’m really happy with that,” said Dean, who has also won silver in the men’s and mixed 4x100m freestyle relays this week.
“Me, Kyle and Duncan on the podium – it’s such a great result and it was so much fun. It’s always incredible to swim in front of this crowd, I can’t stop smiling.”
Dean had more cause to smile after the last race of the evening as he anchored England to another silver medal behind Australia in the men’s 4x200m freestyle relay. Training partner Guy swam a strong first leg for a quartet that also included Jacob Whittle and Joe Litchfield.
Jarvis, who won Olympic gold in the event with Dean and Guy last summer in Tokyo, swam a fantastic first leg to put Wales firmly in medal contention and it needed another outstanding swim from Scotland’s Scott on the anchor leg to prevent Bird from clinching bronze.
Civil and architectural engineering student Johnpaul Balloqui, coached by Mark Skimming in the university’s swimming squad, received a huge ovation from the crowd as he brought the Gibraltar team home in eighth, a minute behind the medallists.
Relay silver was a third medal in as many nights for Guy, who earlier in the evening had booked his place in Tuesday’s 100m butterfly final by finishing second in his heat in 51.82. Joining him was fellow Performance Centre Bath swimmer Jacob Peters, who qualified seventh fastest in 52.23.
Freya Anderson and sports and exercise science alumna Anna Hopkin also progressed through their 100m freestyle semi-finals, clocking 54.15 and 53.96 respectively.
Guy had earlier won his 12th medal of his Commonwealth Games career on Sunday after a brilliant swim from the outside lane to win bronze in the 200m butterfly. Anderson anchored Team England to women’s 4x200m freestyle bronze alongside Freya Colbert, Millfield School student Tamryn van Selm and Abbie Wood.
That had come after six medals were won by University of Bath swimmers on Saturday, one gold and five silver.
Ben Proud reclaimed the 50m butterfly title while Dean won silver in the 200m freestyle before helping Guy to men’s 4x100m freestyle silver behind Australia. Anderson and Hopkin followed suit in the women’s relay, while Brodie Williams claimed his first international medal with a lifetime best for 100m backstroke silver.
Dean, Anderson and Ed Mildred had become the first University of Bath swimmers to win a medal on Friday after helping Team England to mixed 4x100m freestyle relay silver alongside Hopkin and Lewis Burras.