Gold and silver for Bath swimmer Jay Lelliott at World University Games

06 July 2015

University of Bath swimmer Jay Lelliott produced a stunning swim to win 400m freestyle gold for Britain at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea.

The Sports Performance student, who trains with coach Mark Skimming in the London 2012 Legacy Pool at the Sports Training Village, won a thrilling battle with Australia’s Jack McLoughlin by four-hundredths of a second.

The pair exchanged the lead several times during Monday’s final but it was Lelliott who managed to touch the wall first in 3:48.84.

It was his second medal of the Games, coming a day after Lelliott – supported by a Santander Sports Scholarship – had smashed the English record while winning 800m freestyle silver.

His time of 7:50.97 was just seven-tenths of a second behind Ukraine’s Sergi Frolov, who was finally able to edge clear in the last 50m.

Jay Lelliott won 400m gold at the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju

Lelliott went nearly five seconds quicker than he had in Saturday’s heats, though, and his medal was Britain’s first of the Games.

He will be looking to complete a hat-trick when he competes in the 1,500m freestyle on Wednesday.

Training partner Thomas Tsiopanis, representing Cyprus, has one more attempt to reach a final in Gwangju after going out in the heat stages in three other competitions.

He was fifth in his 100m breaststroke heat in 1:06.36 and third in the 200m individual medley in 2:07.74.

The Sports Performance student then won his 200m breaststroke heat on Monday but his time of 2:21.22 was not enough to secure a semi-final place.

Tsiopanis now has a break before competing in the 400m IM heats on Friday.

Chemical Engineering student Angus Pedersen helped Britain get off to a flying start in the mixed team badminton competition.

Pedersen, coached by Pete Bush, beat Daniel Sebunya 21-5 21-16 as Britain wrapped up a 5-0 victory over Uganda in Group H on Monday.

They face a much tougher test on Tuesday, though – host nation South Korea, who boast several Olympic and World champions.

Team Bath MCTA Tennis player Alex Walker saw her women’s doubles campaign with Daneika Borthwick come to an end in the second round on Monday.

Facing the Russian pair of Veronika Kudermetova and Ksenia Lykina, the Brits battled from losing the first set 6-2 to win the second by the same scoreline.

That forced a match tie-break which the Russians won 10-2 to progress to the third round.

Walker, studying for a Masters in Business at the University of Bath, has another shot at success in the mixed doubles with Darren Walsh.

Shooter Kristian Callaghan, an Integrated Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Masters student, started his week by placing 17th in the 50m pistol qualification round with a score of 539-05x.

However, his main competition is the 25m rapid-fire pistol, the event in which he won bronze at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games – that gets under way on Tuesday.

The World University Games – the second-biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympic Games – run until Tuesday, July 14.

There are nine students, athletes and coaches from the University of Bath attending the Games – click here for more information.

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