Wood banks bronze on opening night

The opening day of the championships saw six British athletes in action, with Abbie Wood’s superb swim in the Women’s 200m Individual Medley entering the record books as she claimed the first world short course medal of her career.

It was in the same iconic Duna Arena pool four years ago that the Dave Hemmings-coached swimmer had last lowered the British record mark - and after qualifying fastest out of the heats, Wood showed her intentions to attack the clock further with a strong butterfly into backstroke edging her into the lead at the 100m turn.

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

Having won the European Short Course title in 2023, Wood was delighted with her bronze medal and British record [2:02.75] performance on the world stage, 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.”

In the respective Men’s 200m Individual Medley event, Max Litchfield narrowly missed out on progression from the heats in 9th place.

Meanwhile back on the blocks in a GB cap, Jacob Peters navigated his way into the semi-final rounds of the Men’s 50m Butterfly. Peters’ heat and semi-final efforts were within a tenth of each other as the Bath Performance Centre swimmer claimed 15th to open his account for the meet.

Elsewhere, Amelie Blocksidge made her senior international debut in the Women’s 400m Freestyle, ultimately placing 20th in the standings after lining up in the outside lane of a heat which contained a number of Olympic medallists.

“It’s really mad how I’m racing all these famous people, like Olympic champions and stuff. I’m just going to try and do my best - I’m not going to put any pressure on myself, and can learn from what they do.” She said,

“It was mostly excitement before my race as I was just looking forward to getting in there. I wasn’t really nervous because the 400m Free was just a bit of a warm up for me, so when it comes to my main event I expect I’ll be a bit more nervous.”

Tuesday morning’s heats also saw Oliver Morgan just miss out on semi-final progression in 17th with a personal best swim in the Men’s 100m Backstroke, while Eva Okaro got her first taste of the competition pool as she placed 19th overall in the Women’s 50m Butterfly.

Full results from the 2025 World Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships can be found here, with live streaming of the event available across 10th-15th December on the Eurovision Sport platform.