By Rob Cole
Alys Thomas warmed up for her assault on the European title when she picked up a bronze medal at the Sette Colli Meet in Rome.
The Commonwealth Games gold medallist will be among the favourites going into the European Championships in Glasgow following her record breaking swim in the 200 butterfly at Gold Coast. Her winning time in April was a sensational 2.05.45, while she came home third last weekend in a more modest 2.08.26.
The 27-year-old Thomas is heading a six-strong Welsh contingent in the British squad into the Euros next month (3-9 August) and will be hoping to strike gold again after swimming into the top 10 of all-time with her Games record down under in April to grab the world lead.
The Sette Colli Meet was the last competition for the British swimmers before heading to Glasgow and it gave them a chance to assess their standings against many of Europe’s finest.
Thomas had to settle for the bronze behind the behind the Hungarian duo of Boglarka Kapas and Liliana Zilagyi.
Kapas was only fourth at the half-way mark, but came home in 1:04.8 (after going out in 1:02.7) to take over the lead and win in a personal best time of 2:07.54, lifting her from 22nd to eight in the world rankings.
Zilagyi also picked up a PB in 2:08.01, while early leader Thomas fell to third in the final 50 metres.
The 2014 Commonwealth champion Georgia Davies picked up Britain’s first medal at the event in the 50 metres backstroke, finishing in third place. Reigning world champion Etiene Medeiros, of Brazil, dropped her season-best time by more than a tenth of a second to win in 27.87 sec.
Denmark’s Mie Nielsen and Davies both went sub-28 sec in the minor placings, but both failed to improve on their best times of the year to date. Fourth placed Silvia Scalia broke the Italian Record with 28.01 sec.
In the 200 metre backstroke, Kat Greenslade followed home British team mate Jess Fullalove to take the bronze medal. Italy’s Margherita Panziera followed up her national record in the 100 back the day before with another in the 200, knocking nearly a second off her previous lifetime best in 2:07.16 and improving the competition record.
That time moved her up to sixth place on the current world rankings and put her among the favourites to take the gold in Glasgow. Fullalove, who finished fifth over 100 metres, used a strong back half to take silver in 2.11.16 with Greenslade third in 2.12.23.
There were also two medals for the British team in the 200 metres breaststroke, with Molly Renshaw finishing second and Wales’ Chloe Tutton taking third.
Russia’s reigning world champion, Yuliya Efimova, established full control of the final on the second length and stormed away with the win in 2:20.72, breaking Leisel Jones‘ 10-year-old meet record by more than a second with the fastest time in the world this year.
Renshaw used a 37.65 sec final 50 to pass Tutton to strike silver in a time of 2:25.66, with Tutton taking bronze in 2.25.97. The two of them currently rank sixth and seventh in the world this year having both swum sub-2:23. Tutton won the B Final in the 100 metres in a modest 1.08.53, having clocked 1.09.63 in her heat.
Head Coach Bill Furniss said at the end of the three day meet: “We’re pleased with the competitiveness of the team – we raced hard and fulfilled our objectives for the meet. We can now focus on Glasgow knowing we’re in a good place.”
Next stop for the 45-strong British team will be the Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow for the 2018 European Championships.
There is still time to secure your seats in Glasgow to cheer on the team and witness history made as the continents best swimmers will go in search of European titles.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Dan Jervis finished fourth in the men’s 1500 metres in 15.13.82 and clocked 3.53.39 in his heat in the 400 metres. The other Glasgow-bound Welsh simmer, Calum Jarvis, was seventh in his 200 metres freestyle heat in 1.51.02.
Swim Wales also sent some swimmers to the event and Ioan Evans was seventh in his heat in the 400 metres freestyle in 4.06.48, Matthew Richards was fourth in his heat in the 200 freestyle in 1.54.59 and Dan Jones finished eighth in his 200 freestyle heat in 1.55.77.