Uni swimmers win another 14 medals
Swimmers who train at the University of Bath finished a hectic summer of international competition with a phenomenal 45 medals between them after winning another 14 at the 2022 European Championships in Rome.
Freya Anderson led the way with two gold, three silver and a bronze while there were further podium places for fellow British Swimming Performance Centre Bath swimmers Tom Dean, Ed Mildred, Jacob Peters, Kieran Bird and Holly Hibbott.
University of Bath Swimming Club’s Ben Proud also made history by becoming the first man to win World, Commonwealth and European 50m freestyle gold in the same season.
Sporting scholar Dean ended his own stellar summer with 13 medals in total after adding one of each colour to the three bronze he won at the World Championships in Budapest plus the record-breaking one gold and six silver secured at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“I was speaking to my coach [David Mcnulty] earlier, he said he’s done 22 days of competition this summer, 44 sessions, which is emotionally draining,” said Dean. “I’m into over 35 races personally in three months now. It’s unheard of, never been done before and probably won’t happen again.
“The focus here was to enjoy racing outdoors, enjoy racing in Rome, have a great time in the relays and put together combinations we haven’t done before, so from that perspective the meet has been an absolute success.
“You can never have enough racing experience, so maybe doing 22 days of solid racing two years out [from the Paris Olympics] will really help us down the line. I’ve been able to plan my schedule throughout the week a lot better and I’ll take a lot of learnings from that – it’s all stepping stones towards the big one.”
The Europeans started just a week after the Commonwealth swimming meet had finished but Anderson showed no signs of fatigue as she anchored a women’s 4x200m freestyle relay quartet featuring Freya Colbert, Lucy Hope and Medi Harris to silver in 7:54.73 on the opening night. Bath team-mate Hibbott also received a medal after swimming in the morning’s heats.
Anderson, coached by David Mcnulty at the Team Bath Sports Training Village, then produced a gutsy swim the following night to take bronze in the 100m freestyle – only missing out on silver by one-hundredth of a second as she touched the wall in 53.63.
A first gold came on the third night as Anderson produced a storming last leg in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay to bring the British quartet of Hope, University of Bath alumna Anna Hopkin and Harris home first in 3:36.47. Anderson claimed her fourth medal in as many days in the individual 200m freestyle, once again digging deep to advance from fourth at the halfway stage to take another superb silver in 1:56.52.
Day five saw her team up with training partner Dean and two former Bath-based swimmers, Hopkin and Matt Richards, to win silver in the mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, Anderson producing a flat-out racing finish to make up half a body-length on the three leading countries to finish runner-up to France in 3:23.30. Mildred also received a medal for his role in the morning’s heats.
Anderson, Dean and Richards then teamed up with Colbert on the sixth night to defend GB’S mixed 4x200m freestyle relay title in superb style, the British quartet leading throughout before Anderson used her superior endurance to fend off a French challenge and emphatically pull away down the final 50 metres. Fellow Bath swimmer Bird also won gold following his fine heats performance.
University of Bath Swimming Club sprint star Proud completed his historic clean sweep of international 50m freestyle titles this summer after touching the wall in 21.58, adding European gold to his World and Commonwealth crowns.