By Hannah Blackwell
Medi Harris’s breakthrough summer now has a golden glow after Great Britain were crowned champions in the women’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay at the European Aquatics Championships.
The Welsh swimmer had already taken silver in the 4 x 200m freestyle team in Rome to add to her Commonwealth Games bronze medal for Wales in the women’s 100m backstroke in Birmingham.
Now, she has won three medals in two weeks and has the prospect of individual glory after making it through to the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke, having already finished fifth in the 50m backstroke final.
It was Anna Hopkin, Freya Anderson, Lucy Hope and Harris who teamed up to retain the European title. The one change from the successful team of 2021 saw Harris replace Abbie Wood.
Great Britain were in third after Hope’s opening leg and Hopkin then made up one place after a solid swim.
Harris then closed the gap on the third leg as she chased down the race leader before handing over to Anderson to bring it home.
Watch as Medi Harris helps GB win relay gold at the European Aquatics Championships 🏅🏊♀️
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) August 14, 2022
Anderson began the charge right from the off and her superb anchor leg saw the team finish in a time of 3:36.47 and win gold from out in lane eight.
It was also a third medal for Anderson, who now has a bronze, silver and gold medal so far at the championships.
Harris’s busy week continued in the heats of the women’s 100m backstroke.
The European and Commonwealth medalist looked controlled throughout her two laps to easily win her heat – only Kira Toussaint of the Netherlands went quicker across the entire event.
Wales’ Olympic gold medalist Matt Richards has also claimed a medal in Munich.
Richards took bronze for the men’s 4 x 100m freestyle relay quartet alongside Jacob Whittle, Tom Dean and Ed Mildred.
The team of three teenagers and 22-year-old Dean had all gone in the morning’s heats, but they backed it up in the final, with Whittle leading things off from the start and handing over to Richards, who delivered a pacey second leg to leave Britain narrowly fourth at halfway.
Nothing this girl doesn’t deserve after a lot of hard work and stellar season 👏👏👏💙 @MediHarris
SwimWales @britishswimming @ThisGirlCanUK https://t.co/m0WuqlyHxX
— Fergus Feeney (@fergus_feeney) August 14, 2022
From there, delivered his usual impactful 100m in a relay, although this was as the third man, pushing the team up to second as anchorman Mildred dived in.
Under pressure from teams either side, Mildred showed fine composure over his two laps, holding firm even as the Hungarians went past to ensure he touched third and made sure of the bronze.
Richards said: “We are trying not to cling on, we are trying to push on, we are trying to keep going.
“It has been a long season, it’s a long meet as well, a lot of races – I know personally I’ve got about four events to go.
“That’s a really good start. It took us a while to get into it, especially the lads, we’ve all come in a bit tired after the Commonwealth Games, but that was to be expected. We are building through the meet and that’s all we can ask for.”