Report by North Derbyshire Radio’s Sports Correspondent Dylan Pick
Great Britain have walked away from the 2025 Swimming World Championship in Singapore with their worst showing at the competition since the 2013 edition in Barcelona.
Team GB head back home with only two medals in their bag; a gold and a silver. They finished 12th in the medal table behind countries like South Africa, Tunisia and Romania.
The lone gold took six days to win as the Men’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay team continued their dominance in the event following back-to-back Olympic gold medals.
Going into the event the squad looked out of form from their individual events, including Matt Richards who failed to qualify for the individual 200m Freestyle and Tom Dean who was replaced by Jack McMillan but they still were able to find their best.
After two legs GB had the lead but a strong third leg from China, USA and Australia saw them fall to fourth with 200m to go, but Duncan Scott had the swim of his life putting in a split of 1:43.82 to win the gold by 1.07 seconds.
The other medal came the day after in the Men’s 50m Freestyle as Ben Proud brought home the silver medal in a time of 21.14 seconds, just 0.12 seconds behind the champion Cameron McEvoy from Australia.
North Derbyshire Swimmers A Positive For Team GB
North Derbyshire had two local stars representing the nation at the World Championship this year as Buxton’s Abbie Wood and Alfreton’s Jacob Whittle both enjoyed positive performances.
Both athletes featured on the opening day. Whittle featured in one of the day’s finals as a part of Great Britain’s 4x100m Freestyle relay team where he swam the third leg.
Following qualification in the morning as the sixth fastest team, they were able to find nearly two seconds from their heat time. However, it wasn’t enough to get on the podium as they finished fourth and 1.09 seconds away from third placed USA.
Abbie Wood also had a positive start to her campaign. She qualified for the final of the Women’s 200m Individual Medley Final that would take place on day two.
In a final that was dominated by Canada’s Summer McIntosh the Buxton native was able to improve on her Semi-Final time but would end up finishing the race in sixth place. She set a time of 2:09.92 in a very positive performance in an incredibly strong field.
Following a strong opening event, Wood was selected for the Women’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay team on day five.
In a final dominated by Australia, USA and China it would be a race for fourth between Team GB and Hungary. It was neck and neck until the final 25m where Hungary would pull ahead leaving GB to settle for fifth in a time of 7:51.87.
Wood’s last event was on the final day of competition where she competed in the Women’s 400m Individual Medley.
Unfortunately after a busy schedule, she didn’t have much left to give and failed to make the final with a time of 4:41.73 to finish tenth fastest.
A lot of positives were shown by Whittle and Wood in Singapore. The North Derbyshire pair can certainly build upon these performances and take a medal in two years time.
Where Next For Team GB?
The next World Swimming Championship will be held in Budapest in 2027. Team GB will have a lot to improve upon.
Head Coach Steven Tigg has been at the job for less than a year, coming into the position in November last year, so he will still be looking to grow in what is still a relatively cold seat.
With a relatively new Head Coach alongside bright young talent like local Jacob Whittle, 23 year old Lauren Cox and 18 year old British Champion Eva Okaro, there are good building blocks for Aquatics GB.
An initiative set up earlier this year to support school swimming should have a long term benefit for the nation in competitive swimming and give more opportunities for youngsters.
Ideally, the national team will be hoping for a return from Adam Peaty from his break from swimming to add leadership and experience as a multiple Olympic and World champion.
Whilst the 2025 showing was poor, Aquatics GB have been here before and bounced back well to perform highly in the 2015 Worlds and 2016 Olympics, so the next major events will still have high hopes for the nation.
