British swimmers round out 2024 with three world medals in Budapest

Two bronze medals from Abbie Wood and a silver winning British record effort from the Women’s 4x100m Medley Relay completed a thrilling year in the pool for Aquatics GB’s swimmers.

The World Short Course Championships in Budapest rounded out a historic 2024 that brought five Olympic medals in the pool, silverware in both pool and marathon swimming at February’s World Championships as well as multiple junior successes for the nation’s up and coming stars.

It was after six busy days of racing when GB’s Women’s 4x100m Medley quartet delivered the nation’s best result of the Championships.

They each swam outstanding legs to come in behind the world-record-setting United States to collect the nation’s third and final in Budapest.

Wood teamed up with Angarhad Evans, 18-year-old Eva Okaro and Freya Anderson to complete the feat, with Wood kicking off the race in an unusual role for her on the backstroke leg.

She clocked a personal best split to hand over to breaststroke specialist Evans in fifth place, who then managed to climb into the podium places. Okaro then maintained Britain’s position in the butterfly, before handing over to the experienced Anderson to bring the team home on the freestyle.

As she often does in the closing stages, Anderson closed in on the field and even managed to overhaul the Chinese team to touch the wall in second to give GB its first women’s world medley relay medal in 16 years.

They did it in a new British record time of 3:47.84 and for Anderson it topped off a fun but rollercoaster of a week in Hungary.

She said: “We’re buzzing, we definitely didn’t expect it. We were kind of hoping to sneak a final but to medal its exceptional, we’re really buzzing for it.

“Its definitely topped off a rollercoaster of a meet but it has been really a fun one.”

The Bath Performance Centre athlete also reflected on the new record time that had stood since 2012, adding that it’s a promising start to the new Olympic cycle.

“We got it this morning (in the heats) and then we smashed by two and a bit seconds so what more can you ask for?

“It’s the start of the next quad and it’s looking really promising (the women’s team) and hopefully we can keep building on this momentum.”

For Okaro, it was a second swim and a second record of the night as she broke the World Junior record in the Women’s 50m Freestyle final on her way to a fourth place finish.

The Repton star smashed the record after setting a 23.66 in a race where the world record once again fell – courtesy of the USA’s Gretchen Walsh.

Reflecting on both swims Okaro said: “This has been a great last day! Finishing it off with the relay, with the girls, it’s been the most I could ask for. A really fun way to end the meet, and I’m really happy.

“[The 50m Freestyle final] was amazing. It’s a really fast pool, that’s for sure, and a world junior record for me, I can’t really ask for more. This pool is great, I’ve had some really great swims in this pool, PBs all round – and obviously raing with Gretchen is insane, that’s crazy. In the callroom, it was really tense, but it was really good.

“I love racing, I love racing against the best because it allows me to push myself. I also just love the experience, getting to travel across the world and race against different people, I just love it.”

Wood’s medley double

Both of Great Britain’s other two medals in Budapest were won by Wood, who secured a double bronze in the individual medley events.

The Loughborough Performance Centre started off her haul in the 200m event, lowering the British record mark to make the podium in a time of 2:02.75.

Holding strong through the breaststroke, Wood had clear water on all but the American duo, Kate Douglass and Walsh, whose freestyle pace ultimately prevailed.

The Dave Hemmings-coached swimmer – who took the European Short Course title in 2023 – was delighted with her bronze commenting: “I’m so shocked with myself!

“To get a two-second PB at this my point in my career I’m honestly shocked with how I did.

“Kate [Douglass] doing a world record alongside me obviously pushed me on, but that felt really good to be back racing in a world class field – that always seems to bring the best times out of me.”

She followed that up with another lifetime best in the 400m Individual Medley to take home another bronze on the world stage.

Wood dug deep to hold a strong pace throughout and pushed hard to keep late challenges at bay in the closing stages of the freestyle.

“I’ve been waiting for that PB for like four years now – I think I got it in this pool back in 2020 at ISL and it’s kind of the same mentality of no pressure and just race and I think I need to go into the rest of the season in that way,” Said Wood.

“I think I’ve got a lot to take away from how I’ve been training the last three months, like I definitely think we’ll look at it as we move into long course as we can’t ignore the results I’ve got and I hope that build into confidence in my racing moving forwards.”

In the respective men’s events, Max Litchfield secured fifth spot in the 400m final.

The three-time Olympian challenged the medal positions throughout the breaststroke and a rallying closing Freestyle, however he was unfortunately pegged back to fifth. In the 200m Individual Medley, he narrowly missed out on progression from the heats in ninth.

More British records fall

There were more British records as Evans clocked in a time 1:03.35 in the Women’s 100m Breaststroke heats.

That saw her qualify as the fastest seed for the final where she just missed out on podium to finish seventh in the world.

The Cambridge-born swimmer closed the gap to within 0.25 seconds of bronze position at the final turn, before beginning to fall slightly back down the order in the closing length.

Evans also set further lifetime bests across both the Women’s 200m Breaststroke and Women’s 50m Breaststroke events as she rounded out her individual competition in Budapest.

She made the final in the 200m event, finishing in eighth place with a time of 2:18.77, narrowly missing out on the final in tenth in the 50m competition.

Amelie Blocksidge set a new British junior record on her way to placing seventh in the Women’s 1500m Freestyle.

Contesting the fastest heat, the 15-year-old got her first taste of a senior international finals session and fought well across the 60 lengths to move up to fifth in the race and seventh overall.

Her time of 15:47.28 was more than a second faster than she went a year ago, and only a second outside the senior British record.

Earlier in the week the City of Salford teenager made her senior international debut with 20^th in the 400m freestyle – after lining up in the outside lane of a heat packed full of Olympic medallists. She also pulled off another strong swim to secure 12^th spot in the 800m freestyle.

Anderson came away with a seventh place finish of her own in the 100m freestyle before topping off her individual programme with a top five spot in the Women’s 200m Freestyle final – just hours before being part of the team’s relay silver.

Elsewhere, Oliver Morgan, Evans, Joshua Gammon and Okaro joined forces for fifth in the Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay.

Morgan led the team off with a personal best in the backstroke leg as the British quartet stepped up from their performance in the heats. They finished just ahead of Spain, stopping the clock at 3:35.46.

The same quartet contested the 4x50m Mixed Medley where they fell just falling short of a finals swim after seeding ninth in the heats.

Meanwhile, Jacob Peters’ heat and semi-final efforts were within a tenth of each other as the Bath Performance Centre swimmer claimed 15th in the Men’s 50m Butterfly.

He was also part of the Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay team alongside Morgan, Archie Goodburn and Gammon – who finished 13^th.

Full results from the 2025 World Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships can be found here, whilst the event is available to be watched back on the Eurovision Sport platform.